Use career planning for all employees

Career planning is bringing succession planning from executive suites to the frontline.

Succession planning used to be an activity performed solely for the corporate elite, those people and positions in the executive suite deemed vital to the success of the corporation. Ten or 20 years ago, the VP of HR and a cadre of senior-level executives sat in a smoke-filled room and plotted the future of the organization and the future of several dozen executives and “fast trackers.”

HR professionals and executive assistants worked long and late assembling notebooks full of information the CEO deemed critical to assessing talent and leadership. Like fraternity brothers discussing promising men from the freshman class, candidate slates were drawn up for key managerial positions.

Much has changed since those archaic processes. Merger and acquisition activity, fast-paced technological change, and global economics have created unforeseen market opportunities and a highly charged business-planning environment. After a decade of downsizing and re-engineering, organizations have become flatter.

Employees at all levels have assumed greater day-to-day leadership and decision-making responsibilities. It takes longer to find qualified candidates to fill open positions. With a diminished labour supply, organizations must pay a premium to hire talent from outside the company, causing every organization to struggle to retain talent.

Peoplescape, a job search Web site, asked visitors why they were leaving their job. An astounding 64 per cent of the respondents named lack of growth or learning opportunities as the reason. Lack of growth was listed four times more often than compensation issues. It is ironic that while businesses are experiencing tremendous growth, many employees don’t perceive any personal growth opportunities.

Because every organization needs leaders, critical thinkers, and decision-makers at all levels of the enterprise, and because every organization struggles to retain talent in the workforce, progressive corporations and government agencies are broadening the scope of the succession planning process.

Progressive organizations are including more employees in the planning process and addressing the people side of succession planning.

The shift from succession planning to career planning is more than word play. “Career planning” helps organizations scout talent and orchestrate careers to maximize contributions by people in the workforce while simultaneously increasing their satisfaction. Career planning helps the organization work more effectively, and keeps people excited about their work. And this attention to their careers and capabilities can pay huge dividends to the organization.

How can career planning for a broader segment of the workforce, accessed routinely by a broader cross-section of the workforce, and forming the basis for operational decisions be accomplished? Like any important business decision, it must be based on a solid process that is religiously followed.

Step 1: Determine who should be included

Many organizations today include all salaried employees in the career planning process. Other organizations include people in specific salary grades. Which segments of the workforce are most critical to sustaining your advantage in the marketplace? Which segments experience high turnover? The first step in creating a meaningful career planning process is identifying the part of the workforce that should be included in the plan.

Step 2: Identify the information needed to make good staffing and development decisions

This step is critical. When completing this step, always keep in mind the sage axiom, “garbage-in, garbage-out.” Ask what kinds of information do your managers rely on to:

•analyse the performance of their workforce;

•analyse the fit of existing or potential staff members in their jobs; and

•assess the readiness of their staff to execute the business plan.

Most of the time, the information already exists in electronic spreadsheets, personal productivity software applications, HRMS databases or file folders. Generally, the real challenge is pulling these disparate pieces of information together so they can be analysed in the proper context.

If you extend the planning process to a broader segment of the workforce, then also consider the information needs of the broader client community. For example, many companies collect competency assessment data grouped as “core corporate competencies” and “job family competencies.”

If you are only interested in executive succession planning, you may only need to track the core competencies. However, if you roll out to operational managers, include the competencies specific to each job family.

Step 3: Find software to support succession and career planning

It’s clear that you’ll need technology to make this happen. A paper process is simply not cost-effective or manageable. If the planning process becomes too labour intensive, it probably won’t work and definitely won’t survive.

•The right stuff. You‘ll need a software tool that captures the relevant information. Hunting through reams of paper to ferret out significant kernels of “intelligence” doesn’t help a manager compete in a “wired” world.

•Intelligence, not just information. “Intelligence,” not mere information, has business value. Planning software must be capable of providing sophisticated metrics and provide the flexibility needed to create your own analytics, analyses that reflect the organization’s unique approach to people planning.

•Job-based or people-based? To streamline the workforce planning process, software should reflect the way organizations work today. To this end, it is critical to take a “people-based,” not “job-based” perspective to this process.

Today, most organizations extend the search for a replacement beyond the direct reports. HR professionals and line managers review the qualities, experiences, and knowledge an individual must have to be successful in a specific job. This means that planning software must support a “person-based” rather than a “job-based” succession planning model.

A “job-based” succession planning model begins with career ladders that define which jobs “flow” into other jobs. Job-based systems list people in the jobs on the career ladder as replacement candidates. These people are not always the best fit and may have little interest in the job. A “people-based” succession planning model, on the other hand, analyses how various people “fit” the requirements of the job. Using this model, replacements are employees (or applicants) with appropriate talent, background, experiences, knowledge and attitude to succeed in the job.

•Tie career plans to development. In order to operationalize career plans, employees must be ready. Employee development plans must address today’s performance issues and tomorrow’s career plans.

Frequently, career plans are derailed because individual development plans only address existing competency gaps or performance ratings. To prepare for the future, you must know where you’re going. So, people need realistic career plans in place to prepare effective development plans.

Step 4. Distribute

intelligence throughout

the organization

Career plans are of absolutely no value to the organization unless they provide relevant, meaningful intelligence, and that intelligence is made available to decision-makers. Intelligence about the talent in the organization must be as easy to access as intelligence about the present and future value of our stocks and mutual funds.

Managers and employees, as well as top executives, must be able to access pertinent information so they can strategically act upon it. Unwieldy and easily dated notebooks cannot deliver the up-to-the-minute intelligence to the people who need it most.

The succession planning process has evolved into career planning to address challenges organizations face in today’s bustling economy.

While once restricted to top executives, a broader spectrum of the workforce requires attention today. Successful organizations scrutinize the careers of employees outside the executive suite, which enhances the effectiveness of the workforce.

Career plans in progressive organizations are fluid, collaborative, and immediately accessible to those who make business decisions. Web technology and sophisticated workforce planning software applications help make career plans the backbone of line managers’ operational plans.

Marcia L. Jones is vice-president and chief operating officer for Criterion Incorporated in Irving, Texas. She has served in academic positions at the University of Tulsa and the University of Dallas. Her areas of specialty include HR planning and HR technology. She can be contacted at [email protected].

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