Annex B

Career Plan

Name:
Current Position:
Employer:
Date:

Part 1: Knowing Yourself

The first step in planning your career is evaluating and understanding your aspirations;
strengths; interests; drivers and other influences. Please indicate which aspects of the
planning process you have evaluated:
 My Key Strengths
 My Technical Skills
 My Work Values
 My key fields of interest

Briefly record these here if you wish (optional)

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

For an objective assessment, seek guidance from others as well. A discussion regarding your
career aspirations, strengths and development needs during a performance review is
regarded as a minimum. Informal discussions throughout the year with various people are
encouraged.

Who have you discussed your career with?

 Manager
 Professional Leader
 Professional/clinical Supervisor
 Educator
 Tutor (at tertiary institution)
 Mentor
 Career Development professional
 Other (please state) ___________________

Through your self assessment you may have identified particular skills or areas of knowledge
you wish to develop. What are these?

Development Opportunities:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________

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Part 2: Explore Possibilities
Research the development possibilities and career pathways that are open and attractive to
you. Consider your self assessment outcomes and future health workforce needs.

Pathway Option 1:
___________________________________________________________________

Prerequisites and requirements to achieve this option:

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________

Pathway Option 2:
___________________________________________________________________

Prerequisites and requirements to achieve this option:

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________

Pathway Option 3:
___________________________________________________________________

Prerequisites and requirements to achieve this option:

___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________

Part 3: Making Choices

Consider the suitability of each option and decide (with the assistance of the person you
report to) which one is the best match to your aspirations and workforce needs. Before
making the decision, consider also:
What are the perceived barriers/obstacles and how can they be overcome
Outside of work commitments
The level of involvement required
Which of my options responds best to my employer and workforce needs?

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___________________________________________________________________________
_______________

Based on the choices you have made, and the development opportunities you have
identified now write your goal(s). Aim to make each goal as specific as you can.

Goal 1
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________Required to achieve goal 1:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________

Goal 2
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________Required to achieve goal 2:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________

Goal 3
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
______________________________Required to achieve goal 3:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
_______________

Part 4: Make it Happen

In order to achieve your goals you need to have an agreed course of action. You and your
manager need to have a clear understanding of what steps you will be taking, the
commitment needed by both you and your manager and relevant timeframes.

You are now ready to detail who has to do what to make things happen.

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 Agreed course of action/action plan

start date completion date Skill, experience, How will this be gained? Provider (e.g. workplace
knowledge to be (e.g. on the job experience, educator, university,
gained formal/informal seminars/courses, coach/mentor etc
coaching/mentoring etc)

Assessing the effectiveness of the action plan

Specify how to assess the extent to which the agreed course of action has achieved the
stated goals

Portability
This career plan belongs to the employee/trainee. It provides the basis for ongoing
career discussions within current and future employment and professional
relationships. Any transfer of information to future employers or others requires the
employee/trainee’s consent.

Review Dates
Progress on the agreed course of action will be reviewed on ……….

This career plan will be reviewed on …..

Manager/Supervisor sign-off.
Name:
Title:
Date:

Employee/trainee sign off

Name:
Title:
Date:

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 Career planning: Guiding Principles

One of the conditions of future HWNZ funding will be a requirement for

Career plans career plans. 2011 is the implementation year. The responsibility for
required during 2011 ensuring that career plans are in place will lie with the organisation that
HWNZ provides funding to. See below for details of when career plans
are required, what is required, and who is responsible for doing what.

Good career planning involves looking at both individual aspirations and

needs and health sector workforce needs, and matching the two. Good
Career planning career planning processes will:
supports individuals
and meets Support individual health professionals in their careers.
workforce needs Provide the basis for DHBs and other employers to recruit, retain
and grow the staff that they need to meet service needs.
Deliver the workforce that the health sector requires in the future.
Ensure training investment is matched to the needs of the health
system.

Good practice suggests that employers should have sound career

These guiding planning processes and that employees (whether in HWNZ funded
principles can be training or not) should have career plans in place. Whilst HWNZ is
applied generally requiring career plans as a pre-condition of funding, it has designed
these guiding principles to assist health sector employers and
employees in career planning generally.

There is a range of career planning models and their design features

The four step career vary. However, most if not all are based on four steps or some variation
planning process of them. These four steps can be summarised as:

Knowing yourself.
Exploring possibilities.
Making choices.
Making it happen.

Conversations between the employee and manager and/or other

responsible person might occur at each stage of the process and:

In the first two stages may be quite brief – the employee will be
mostly responsible for doing the work on “knowing yourself” and
“exploring possibilities”.
May need to be more intensive when considering and making
choices and developing a plan to make things happen.

Career discussions may occur between the employee and one or more
of the manager, a professional supervisor, a professional leader, an
educator, a career development specialist, or people experienced in a
particular field. It is likely that many career discussions will take place
as part of a performance review process or will follow shortly after
such a process.

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 These four steps, and what needs to happen at each step, are set out
below.
1. Knowing Yourself
Employee develops a clear view of
their strengths, aspirations, values,
resources and needs. Things to work
through include:
Which aspects of their work they
enjoy and which they don’t
Identifying skills, interests,
values, motivators
and personality type
The extent to which their current
or future role meets their
aspirations and needs
Any other specific preferences or
pressures they may be facing
Feedback from current and past
managers, professional leaders,
career advisors, mentors,
colleagues etc
Identifying development needs
4. Make it Happen
Making it happen involves the
employee and the manager
agreeing a course of action. Things
to work through include:
Recording a plan of action
Action steps that may require
further training, gaining useful
experience or developing a
specific technical skill
Implementing the plan
Periodically reviewing progress
Periodically reviewing the plan
itself
2. Explore Possibilities
Employee researches options
available, the career pathways to
achieve these options. Things to
work through include:
Finding out what the relevant
prerequisites and required steps
are for each option
Speaking with people who have
been working in various fields
Considering workforce
information
Identifying areas of growth and
workforce shortages
What job experiences or training
will be beneficial in pursuing each
option and are those experiences
or options realistically available
Identifying more than one option
3. Make Choices
Making choices involves considering
the suitable options and matching
employee aspirations with workforce
needs. Things to work through
include:
Considering competition for and
availability of named options
Identifying any obstacles or
barriers and how they can be
overcome
Considering what is involved in
pursuing each option and if the
option is realistic for the
employee
Considering the needs of the
organisation and business plans
and strategies
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 A good comprehensive career plan might record relevant information
from “Knowing yourself” and “Exploring possibilities” and will:

What is in a good Specify goals and an agreed (between the employee and the
career plan manager or supervisor) course of action covering some or all of:
o Skills the individual needs to develop.
o Qualifications needed.
o Other learning opportunities to meet agreed goals.
o Possible “stepping stone” jobs.
o Experiences that may be useful.
o Strategies for overcoming any obstacles.
o Networks/information/support needed to achieve goals.
Specify who will do what to implement the career plan.
Specify how to assess the extent to which the agreed course of
action has achieved the stated goals.
Specify when and/or in what circumstances progress in
implementing the plan, and the plan itself, will be reviewed.

The training plan that supports a career plan may encompass some or
all of “on the job” experiences, formal education, informal education and
mentoring/coaching/support.

An example of what a career plan based on the four steps might look
like is attached at Annex B.

Tailoring career The level of attention required at each of the four steps in the career
plans for specific planning process will vary, depending on the stage of the career and
circumstances personal circumstances, the particular profession or group, previous and
other processes, and other factors.

Stage of career and/or life e.g.:

Many employees at an early stage of their careers may be faced with
a wide range of options and may benefit from an intensive
examination of themselves and those options. Their career plan
might reflect the need to keep options open and focus on getting
exposure to a range of experiences and doing broad based training.
Some employees are dissatisfied in or unsuited to their current roles.
They might benefit from a comprehensive enquiry into “Knowing
yourself” and/or “Exploring possibilities”.
Many employees at a late stage in their careers may have already
made clear choices about options some years ago and be clear on
their career needs:
o If they are happy in their current roles and doing a good job,
they can still benefit from maintaining and updating skills and
from reviewing where they are at and what their options are.
The career planning process for them is likely to be a fine
tuning exercise.
o If they are looking to extend into non clinical roles (such as
leadership or mentoring), then they might benefit from a
identifying those options and/or a comprehensive career
planning process.
Most employees will face periods in their lives where family
responsibilities or aspirations (e.g. having children, care of ageing
parents) need to be considered. Career planning needs to take

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 account of this.

Particular profession/group e.g:

Some professionals, especially in the early stages of their career,
need to consider a wide range of options for specialisation, role and
working environment.
Other professionals face fewer or even very limited options.
However, there are still options – different teams to work in, a
different focus, team leader or management roles, teaching or
academic roles, etc - so both they and the health sector will still
benefit from considering those options.

Impact of previous and other processes e.g.:

In some professions, such as RMOs in vocational training, their
career path for the immediate future might be largely determined by
the requirements of the vocational training programme.
Employees who worked through the career planning process in
recent years may not need to repeat the whole process – a short
“review” of how the plan is going and an updated action plan may be
all that is required.

Career planning is not just about mapping a path to enable employees

to higher qualifications and/or a more senior position. Other outcomes
can include:

Lateral or sideways moves.

Becoming more specialised.
Moving into another function e.g. from clinical practice to
education. Enriching the current role.
Doing the current role better and better.

Future proofing, HWNZ has expectations about:

keeping it real, and
portability Future proofing: many employees select an option but later change
their mind. It is advantageous, especially for employees who are
considering specialising, for a career plan to keep options open. For
example:
o PGY1s currently do a range of runs to get experiences in
various specialties.
o PGY2s may have a clear view on what specialties they wish
to follow, but there may still be value in retaining a bit of
diversity in their runs.
o It is quite valid, for example, for a PGY1 to have a career
plan that is explicit that the choice at this point is “I don’t
know, and I’d like experiences in a range of options” or “I am
inclined towards these three or four options, and I’d like more
experience in those options”.
Keeping it real:
o In the early stages of a career, it may make sense for an
employee to keep options open and look at a range of
training and experience options for future proofing reasons
(see above).
o After the early stages, care needs to be taken to ensure that
employees are not doing a series of random funded courses
(because they “sound interesting”). HWNZ has no interest in

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 funding anyone taking this approach - selection for funded
courses should be based on value to the health sector and a
properly considered career plan.
Portability: some employees (e.g. RMOs) work for more than one
DHB during or after their training. To prevent duplication:
o DHBs and others responsible for ensuring career planning
will need to collaborate on career planning. When they are
established, regional training hubs will support this
collaboration.
o The career planning (or some other) process should include
securing the trainee’s agreement to the transfer of relevant
information between employers and others, subject to
safeguards re confidentiality.

On process, responsibilities are as follows:

HWNZ:
HWNZ provides o Is responsible for providing workforce planning information
information, DHBs and communicating current and future national workforce
etc establish/operate needs (HWNZ is working on improving workforce
good processes information).
o Will provide details of where other relevant information and
career planning guidelines/tools etc can be accessed.
o Will, if necessary and practicable, develop additional career
planning guidelines/tools etc.
The organisations that HWNZ provide funding to are responsible for
ensuring that good career planning processes are in place and are
applied.

On actually doing the career planning:

Managers/others
The organisations that HWNZ provide funding to (and their managers,
organise/support,
educational supervisors, career planning professionals, coaches,
employees/trainees
mentors, those they contract with, etc) are responsible for:
do much of the work
o Creating a career development culture.
o Organising a good career planning process.
o Communicating relevant information such as what the career
pathways are, and current and future workforce needs.
o Highlighting information sources.
o Providing opportunities (including on the job experiences,
formal and informal training, etc) for exploring options and for
development.
o Giving advice and support and training and supporting those
giving that advice and support.
o And/or for ensuring that someone else does these things.

Employees/trainees are responsible for taking the lead in planning

their careers and for doing most of the work (after all, its their
careers) e.g.:
o Self assessment/awareness and assessing their own needs.
o Understanding the current and future workforce needs of the
wider health sector and of their employer.
o Gathering relevant information.
o Thinking about and assessing options, making decisions,

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 objectives arising out of performance appraisals/reviews etc.

HWNZ will require HWNZ will include its career planning requirements in its funding
career plans in specifications, and will require:
funding
specifications and An assurance that applications for HWNZ funded training have a
will monitor career plan sitting behind them in some cases (see Annex A for
compliance details).
A commitment to develop career plans during the training period in
other cases (see Annex A for details).

HWNZ will also be suggesting to colleges and others that they

promote career planning via reporting and other arrangements relating
to accreditation, registration and certification processes.

HWNZ will not ask to see each career plan. However, HWNZ will:
Expect DHBs and others to have career planning strategies/plans.
Require reporting on progress with career planning.
Monitor compliance and may ask to view career planning strategies
and/or plans and/or random career plans (subject to providing
safeguards re confidentiality).

HWNZ may also, in future, consider establishing an online career

planning template or builder with a view to being able to capture
information on matters such as projected career preferences.

There is a range of existing resources and good practice examples of

career planning and HWNZ will include links to those resources and
Resources and good good practice on its website.
practice
HWNZ will now move on to develop more detailed information and
resources for career planning which we aim to have available online, on
www.healthworkforce.govt.nz, in mid to late February 2011.

As organisations and individuals move to implement career planning,

they may come across issues with the guiding principles or with the
online information and resources and may identify a need for more
resources (guidelines, tools etc).

HWNZ will consider developing further guidelines, templates, tools etc if

there is a demonstrable need and if it is practicable and cost effective to
do so. Please advise of any that you consider would be helpful by
emailing to info@healthworkforce.govt.nz.

7

Medical
Who What’s required, when
PGY1 Career planning process that covers
all four steps required during PGY1
year (commencing with those doing
PGY1 during 2011).
PGY2 Career planning process that covers
all four steps required prior to funding
applications (commencing from late
2011).
Vocational Career planning process that covers
training all four steps required prior to funding
applications (commencing from late
2011).
GPEP1/2 Career planning process that covers
all four steps required prior to funding
applications (commencing from late
2011).
Diploma in Career plan that clearly sets out how
Obstetrics & the course fits with the trainee’s
Gynaecology career path required prior to funding
applications from late 2011
Annex A
Responsibility for Comment
ensuring career
plans done
DHBs DHBs to phase PGY1s through the career planning process during the
year and complete the plan by end of year. This will provide a career
plan for the PGY2 year and beyond.
DHBs In late 2011, the career planning process will either have been done
during the PGY1/2 years or will have to be done at the end of the PGY2
year. This will provide the basis of a career plan for vocational training
(or an alternative).
DHBs and private In late 2011 and later years, a career plan will have been done during
sector employers PGY1/2 years. College programmes will determine much of the
career/training path. The career plan should be regularly reviewed (at
least once a year) during vocational training.
College of GPs or In late 2011 and later years, a career plan will have been done during
DHBs (whoever PGY1/2 years. College programmes will determine much of the
HWNZ pays the career/training path. The career plan should be regularly reviewed (at
funding to) least once a year) during vocational training.
Medical Schools Good practice would be to have a career plan based on the four steps -
as time passes, most trainees will have an existing career plan
8
Diploma in Career plan that clearly sets out how Medical Schools or Good practice would be to have a career plan based on the four steps -
Paediatrics the course fits with the trainee’s DHB (whoever as time passes, more trainees will have an existing career plan
career path required prior to funding HWNZ pays the
applications from late 2011 funding to)

Diploma in Career plan that clearly sets out how NZ Sexual and Good practice would be to have a career plan based on the four steps -
Sexual the course fits with the trainee’s Reproductive as time passes, more trainees will have an existing career plan
Health career path required prior to funding Health Educational
applications from late 2011 Charitable Trust

NZ REX Career planning process that covers DHBs

all four steps required during year
(commencing with those doing
NZREX during 2011)

Retired Drs Nothing required

Advanced Career planning process that covers DHBs

Training all four steps required prior to funding
Scheme applications from late 2011

Nursing and midwifery

Who Whats required Responsibility for Comment

ensuring career
plans done
NETP Career planning process that covers DHBs and private DHBs to phase NETPs through the career planning process during the
all four steps required during NETP sector employers year and complete the plan by end of year. This will provide a career
year (commencing with those doing plan for later years.
NETP in 2011)

9
Later post Career plan that clearly sets out how DHBs Good practice would be to have a career plan based on the four steps -
graduate the course fits with the trainee’s as time passes, more trainees will have an existing career plan
nursing career path required prior to funding
applications from late 2011

MFYP Career planning process that covers College of DHBs to phase MFYPs through the career planning process during the
all four steps required during MFYP Midwives year and complete the plan by end of year. This will provide a career
year (commencing with those doing plan for later years.
MFYP in 2011)

Midwives Career plan that clearly sets out how DHBs Good practice would be to have a career plan based on the four steps -
complex care the course fits with the trainee’s as time passes, more trainees will have an existing career plan
career path required prior to funding
applications from late 2011

Other Career plan that clearly sets out how College of Good practice would be to have a career plan based on the four steps -
midwives the course fits with the trainee’s Midwives as time passes, more trainees will have an existing career plan
post career path required prior to funding
graduate applications from late 2011

Others

Who Whats required Responsibility for Comment

ensuring career
plans done
Hauora Career plan that clearly sets out how DHBs Good practice would be to have a career plan based on the four steps -
Maori the course fits with the trainee’s as time passes, more trainees will have an existing career plan
career path required prior to funding
applications from late 2011

10
Pharmacy Career planning process that covers NZ Pharmaceutical DHBs to phase interns through the career planning process during the
intern all four steps required during intern Society year and complete the plan by end of year. This will provide a career
year (commencing with those doing plan for later years.
intern year in 2011)

Others As per “Who is responsible … etc” on As per “Who is Training for various allied health professionals such as anaesthetic
page 8 above responsible … etc” technicians, sonographers, radiotherapists, clinical rehabilitation, etc
on page 8 above

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