I have been away from this for awhile, so here's to starting up again. Most recently I have been exploring Career Assessments. A great starter assessment that is free is the Princeton Review career assessment tool, which is a mini-version of the Birkman. At approximately $100.00 per person the Birkman is a decent relatively inexpensive tool that could definitely be incorporated into your career planning strategy.

These days most organizations are missing the boat, and haven't yet started to offer internal career counseling services. However, when I was Manager, Organizational Development for Envision Financial I saw a dramatic improvement in staff satisfaction results on our engagement survey. In fact, they went from 65% to 89% satisfied in a 1 year period and I really believe it had a lot to do with focusing on career planning services.

Check out the Princeton Review career assessment tool at http://www.princetonreview.com/login3.aspx?RDN=1&uidbadge=%07

Any comments or suggestions on career planning and assessment tools are welcome.