Impact of individual career development plans on employee satisfaction in small and medium-sized enterprises

Predmet je ovog rada konzistentno utvrditi i objasniti sve relevantne teorijske značajke i činitelje vezane za mogućnosti razvoja karijera unutar malih i srednjih poduzeća primjenom individualnih razvojnih planova u Republici Hrvatskoj te ispitati zadovoljstvo zaposlenika upotrebom tih planova na primjeru društvenog poduzeća osnovanog za pružanje usluga podrške građanima u razvoju, upotrebi i ulaganju u obnovljive izvore energije. Individualni razvojni planovi omogućuju zaposlenicima poticaj u ostvarenju njihovih ciljeva u karijeri, a uz to i organizacijskih ciljeva u poduzeću u kojem posluju. Istraživanje osnovnog cilja rada provedeno je empirijskim istraživanjem pomoću upitnika Google Forms na odabranom poduzeću, odnosno anketirani su zaposlenici navedenog poduzeća. Empirijski dio istraživanja rada bio je usmjeren na analizu i prikaz povezanosti zadovoljstva zaposlenika nakon primjene individualnih razvojnih planova na njihov osobni i profesionalni razvoj unutar poduzeća. Rezultati empirijskog istraživanja pokazuju da su, bez obzira na činjenicu da poduzeće prvi put u svomu poslovanju primjenjuje individualne razvojne planove, zaposlenici zadovoljni provedenim i smatraju to važnim korakom za svoj daljnji razvoj unutar poduzeća (engl. employer branding), ali i za razvoj poduzeća kao cjeline.This paper aims to systematically determine and explain the key theoretical aspects and factors related to career development prospects within small and medium-sized enterprises using individual development plans in the Republic of Croatia. It focuses on individual development plans and their impact on employee satisfaction on the example of a social enterprise whose goal is to provide support services to citizens in the development, use, and investment in renewable energy sources. Individual development plans provide employees with an incentive to achieve their career goals, as well as organizational goals of the company where they work. The main objective of this paper was researched empirically, employing a Google Forms questionnaire within a selected company, i.e. surveying the employees of the said company. The empirical part of the research was focused on the analysis and presentation of the connection between employee satisfaction after the implementation of individual development plans and their personal and professional development within the company. The results of the empirical research show that, although the company applied individual development plans for the first time in its operations, employees were satisfied with its implementation and considered it an important step toward their further development within the company (i.e. employer branding), and also a step forward in the development of the company as a whole