Broker Assists in bringing employee

Broker
Assists in bringing employees together who might mutually help each other in their careers.
Assists in linking employees with appropriate educational Or employment opportunities.
Helps employee identify obstacles to changing present situation.
Helps employee identify resources enabling a career development change.

Referral agent

Identifies employees with problems (e.g., career, personal, health).
Identifies resources appropriate to an employee experiencing a problem.
Bridges and supports employee with referral agents
Follows up on effectiveness of suggested referrals

Advocate

Works with employee in designing a plan for redress of a specific issue at higher levels of management.
Works with employee in planning alternative strategies if a redress by management is not successful
Represents employee, concern to higher-level management for redress of specific issues.

The assessment center discussed in this chapter can also be an excellent source of information. Other potential sources include personnel records reflecting information such as education and previous work experience. It is usually a good idea for an organization not to depend on any one source of information but to use as many as are readily available. Such an approach provides a natural system of checks and balances.