Calif/Mumbai: Globally there are significant Shifts in Employer-Employee Relationships, which drive organizations to rethink career management. Summarized in a WhatWorks Brief (Bersin by Deloitte), the findings appear in two new research reports: “The State of Career Management,” which outlines major shifts identified among organizations attempting to rethink career management; and “The Career Management Framework,” which provides guidance for companies thinking about career management as many organizations flatten career paths to remain competitive.
“Today’s business conditions put a great deal of pressure on companies to compete more effectively,” said Dani Johnson, vice president and learning and development research leader, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Externally, organizations face volatile markets, stiffer global competition and rapidly changing industries. Internally, they encounter unstable and constantly changing workforces, the consistent need to upskill workers, and evolving worker expectations. To stay competitive, many companies are rethinking their strategies to efficiently and effectively move workers into, around, and out of the organization.”
While there is no one best way to approach career management, Johnson added, “Our new framework helps organizations identify the career management approach to which they are most aligned. It then shows them ways to tweak the programs and processes associated with elements of the framework to be most effective.”
The research found that most organizations align with one of four basic approaches to career management:
Structured: Prepares workers for and moves them through well-defined career paths that align fairly closely to the organizational structure.
Flexible: Moves workers through fairly well-defined levels of the organization, providing some flexibility when it comes to career paths and job descriptions to accommodate worker development and organizational needs.
Open: Enables finite or project-based work by organizing workers in teams based on their capabilities. This approach offers workers active and aggressive internal mobility with opportunities to create very personalized career paths.
Transitory: Facilitates work by finding, utilizing, managing and nurturing leading talent from a variety of sources. This approach often brings workers into the organization for smaller, more defined pieces of work, and then moves them out again once that work is completed.
The research shows that effective organizations align the elements in three major areas critical to a strong career management strategy. They are:
People: As organizations look beyond full-time, balance sheet workers to short-term contractors, consultants and retiree pools, they should take into account the characteristics and expectations of workers. For example, if the work is project-based, the organization might look for workers who are interested in progressing through roles involving different, interesting work, instead of a traditional up-and-out career.
Progression: This area refers to the general path workers follow (e.g., upward or lateral movement), how well-defined responsibilities are and how particular roles relate to other roles in the organization. Developmental activities that equip workers to do various jobs should align with the overall strategy of the business as well as the approach taken to career management.
Enablers: Enablers, such as leadership, messaging, and infrastructure are elements that exist within the organization and should be aligned in overall career management efforts. Enablers are often overlooked in career management efforts.
“These three major areas form an integral part of the overall career management framework and should be considered for every career management strategy,” said Johnson. “How organizations align the elements in these areas to the approach or approaches they choose is as important – if not more important – than the actions encompassed by any one of them.”
