Here is an interesting article where your leadership can assist developing your team’s talent and career path through linking career development with business priorities though strategic management strategies such as coaching.
Most Career Development Programs Fail to Meet Employee Needs
Insights from Career Development Practice Leader Cate Jones Career development is about getting people to where they want to be and where the organization needs them to be.
As part of an overall talent management strategy, career development initiatives increase the odds that a workforce will be willing, ready, and able to move into the roles that an organization needs them to play when the marketplace demands change, speed, or innovation.
We know that effective career development is not easy, and the BlessingWhite 2007 State of the Career Report underscores the challenges that organizations face in executing career development strategies that achieve increased retention, engagement, and business performance.
Why worry now? The survey responses of nearly 1,000 executives and professionals from 33 countries indicate that too many employees are at risk of leaving. Only 48% of respondents believe they have decent career opportunities with their current employer, and over a third (39%) expect their next career move will take them elsewhere.
Key findings �
Significant numbers of employees are skeptical of their employers’ efforts.
Although most of the executives we interviewed described good intentions and significant investments in career development, less than half (40%) of survey respondents overall believe that their organization is committed to helping employees achieve personal career goals. One UK manager shared, “People development is seen as increasingly important — in fact as a strategic imperative. However, a lot of this relates only to the top commercial people in the company, and I see it as lip service only for most functional employees.”
The large majority of employees don’t benefit from career development initiatives.
Fewer than one in three respondents (29%), regardless of organization size or employee tenure, indicated that their employer’s approach to career development meets their personal needs. One U.S. manager wrote: “You must take ownership of your career. Do not allow yourself to become a ‘victim’ of your company’s misguided or ineffective structures.”
Employees value advice and development over mere information.
Career coaches, career coaching training for managers, training/workshops for employees, and temporary assignments/secondments were rated by survey respondents as the most helpful career resources. Information (whether in print or online) consistently ranked as least helpful. During our interviews, employees often described how mentors or managers influenced their career decisions. They also praised the value of special projects, as a U.S. federal employee explained, “Temporary stints are very valuable. They help you broaden your skill set, and you make a lot of lasting contacts.”
Lateral moves can be uphill battles.
Less than half of survey respondents overall (40%) agreed or strongly agreed that their employer makes it easy to pursue lateral career moves, not just promotions. Our interviews confirm that mobility across functions is a challenge — one that organizations are addressing by educating employees on alternate career paths and using internal PR to “legitimize” moves that aren’t up an obvious career ladder. The sober tale of one CLO of a global division: “When we looked at the unacceptable turnover of our high-potentials, we found we had ‘renters’ not ‘owners’. We also discovered it was easier for them to leave than to negotiate a career internally.”
Our recommendations
Despite solemn findings, our interviews uncovered success stories in firms large and small. Here are three of the report’s recommendations for ensuring that career development initiatives positively impact employee engagement, retention, and the bottom line.
Establish three cornerstones of career development success.
- Individuals must own their careers, be clear about what they’re looking for, and be committed to taking action. They cannot succeed on their own, however, nor should they manage their careers in a vacuum of free agency.
- The organization must have a point of view about career development and provide tools and a structure to enable employees to develop their careers in the context of what the organization needs.
- Managers stand at the cross roads where their team members’ capabilities and goals meet the organization’s priorities. They need to understand and buy in to the organization’s career development point of view. They also must be competent and confident in supporting (not directing) employees’ career journeys.
Link career development and business priorities.
The more employees know and care about the organization’s direction and business priorities, the more willing and able they’ll be to satisfy their career aspirations and apply the necessary skills when the organization needs them.
Take a multi-faceted approach.
Creating a strategic talent management strategy, with a blend of information, high-tech tools, coaching, development, and HR processes. High-tech tools excel at providing information to employees or gathering information about employees. Yet employees themselves place highest value on career coaches, managers or mentors, networks of colleagues, special projects, even training sessions — where they can exchange ideas and get advice.
The potential rewards are worth the effort to crack the code for career development that delivers for your unique organization and workforce: increased employee engagement, reduced turnover, and high performance that results from the right skills in the right place at the right time.
For more information on Career and the Meaning of Work, or other BlessingWhite solutions, see www.blessingwhite.com.
September 30th, 2008
I found this article interesting in my capacity as a leadership coach helping my clients take proactive steps in their Life Plan. I thought I will share this with you and invite you to give your comments.
Career Development Today:
The Long and Winding Road
Today’s changing career landscape promises endless possibilities. At the same time, as organizational priorities constantly shift, it features unexpected twists and turns while offering few road markers. As a result, your employees may suffer from what Paul Smith describes as a new strain of “blind ambition.”
Smith, who is Director of Training and Development for the Consumer Health Care Products division of a global pharmaceutical firm, explains, “We found that employees understood they needed to take charge of their careers. Some, at our encouragement, took the initiative and tried to figure out the answers to ‘How do I do this?’ ‘Who do I talk to?’ ‘What are the unwritten rules?’ Unfortunately, they didn’t receive a lot of help from us, and they often got it wrong.”
Getting it wrong includes mismatched skills or interests, misery, failure, or a dead-end role that doesn’t deliver what the organization needs most. Yet no one is suggesting a return to a more traditional, linear notion of careers. Not organizations, which need to realign and redeploy talent nimbly in response to changing market conditions. Not employees, who come to work each day with new expectations and the desire to make the most of their unique skills.
Both sides crave elements of the old system. The same talent who may not want to be “managed” do look for career opportunities and a sense of what lies beyond the next hill. The same organizations who can’t promise lifetime employment require a return on their investment in that talent, making sure that the right skills are in the right place, focused on the right priorities, at the right time.
Enter “career development” — redefined.
Unfortunately, too many career development initiatives either create a free-agent mentality that doesn’t support the organization’s priorities or flip responsibility over to individual employees without the appropriate support from the organization. Neither works. In fact, HR managers surveyed for The Society for Human Resource Management’s 2006 Talent Management Report identified “creating policies that encourage career growth and development opportunities” as being among the top four areas of improvement needed in their organization’s talent management systems.
Effective career development programs are designed to provide employees with the information, tools, and development they need to move into roles the organization needs them to play. The recommendations that follow reflect the best practices of two organizations that are successfully addressing the needs of both the organization and the workforce.
Provide a process, not a path.
Today’s unpredictable business climate dictates the demise of the definitive “next step” on the career ladder. As Allen & Overy, a law firm with 26 offices in 19 countries, experienced significant shifts in its business, new opportunities for associates were created. The challenge was, according to Julian Tutty, Head of Performance, Learning, and Development, “With new opportunities came uncertainty. The paths taken by senior partners no longer apply.” In response, the firm is rolling out a comprehensive career management program for associates 3 to 4 years into their tenure to help them identify and develop for the career moves most appropriate for their talents and goals as well as the firm’s priorities.
Smith says his division experienced similar business shifts, which resulted in the creation of new opportunities. Yet employees were stymied without a road map. He explains, “We wanted to provide a process to help individuals identify their interests, determine their strengths and development areas, and make better decisions about their options.”
Provide useful information.
Employees need more than permission to seek lateral moves or a process for managing their career. The more information your organization can provide about options available to employees, the better. Allen & Overy detailed new positions and laid out alternative paths to becoming a partner. The firm is also working on a competency framework to help associates better identify the skills they need to develop into desired roles.
Competency definitions also figured prominently in the approach of Smith’s organization. Position “brochures” were created that described the various levels of responsibility, and examples of possible development paths were included. He explains, “We asked high performers ‘What was your path?’ and found that they often held a series of jobs but did not follow the same path. So we included these examples to emphasize that there is no one route. We wanted to send the message that thoughtful ‘bouncing’ is not only okay; there is evidence that the high performers have moved the most.”
Prepare managers.
Managers should not drive career development initiatives, but they can derail them if they’re not part of the process. Smith made sure his division’s career management implementation featured a top-down rollout to create manager buy-in. Half-day workshops, focused on coaching fundamentals such as establishing trust, were also offered to ensure that managers were better equipped to coach employees in their development. Tutty has addressed skepticism at Allen & Overy directly with a communications strategy and briefings. After all, he explains, “The senior partners never had this type of support themselves, and helping others find their own answers is very different from their day jobs.”
Provide accountability and incentives.
Both firms implemented career development initiatives in the context of performance management and bonus structures. By doing so, they underscored the organization’s commitment to employees and ensured that employees’ career moves benefited the organization. Smith notes an additional payoff: After employees completed the initial phase of the career management process, the Talent Management Meetings (in which managers discussed skill sets and the potential of employees) were more productive and accurate.
Take a multifaceted approach.
As with any strategic workforce initiative, success is unlikely to come from one tool or one day of training, as these initiatives illustrate. Tutty is in the process of supplementing the steps taken so far with a Coaching Center to provide one-on-one career guidance. Smith reports plans to revisit the on-boarding process to reflect the competency and career management tools implemented so far.
Reap the rewards of retention and competitive advantage.
Both organizations have enjoyed anecdotal reports of success and increased alignment. They expect increased retention of top talent to follow. According to Smith, “Not enough companies invest in career development. Those that do will achieve competitive advantage. We want to attract top talent by showing that this is a good place to work. We also want to retain top talent — by keeping them pursuing what they’re interested in doing and becoming better at it.”
For more information on any of the above or how BlessingWhite can help your talent achieve career success while delivering the results you need, call +61 3 9889 5687 or email info@blessingwhite.com
September 24th, 2008
