Career Development in Best-Practice Organizations:
Critical Success Factors
by Natalie Lam, Lorraine Dyke and Linda Duxbury
"In every organization we examined, the message is clear: career development is employee owned, manager facilitated and organization supported."
"One of the key differentiators for an organization to become an employer of choice now and in the future … is the amount of avant-garde strategic development you do so that people will be learning the newest things that need to be learned in whatever field. … This is the value that people are looking for in terms of … corporate development or institutional development in any organization. … Offering career resiliency and offering opportunity to learn the best will be the attraction for people coming into the job market. That’s what they are looking for. They’re looking for companies that will give them career resiliency."
Why invest in Career Development?
- Changes in the work nature and environment of work (transient)
- Higher demand for quality and innovative human resources
- Career development serves to help companies achieve their strategic goal by equipping employees with relevant knowledge, skill and attitude to help them achieve personal goals that are congruent with that of the company's.
Benchmarking
This study uses benchmarking as the basis of identified critical success factor
Fitz-Enz, the guru of benchmarking, formally defines benchmarking as a “continuous systematic process for evaluating business practice and organizations that are recognized as examples of best-in-class through organizational comparison.”
“In today’s ‘lean and mean’ business climate, development is a necessary survival strategy: it helps companies position themselves so they can adjust to rapid changes in their environment. … Development processes enable companies to meet such challenges quickly and effectively. … Organizational career development [is] a strategic process in which maximizing individuals’ career potential is a way of enhancing the success of the organization as a whole.”
Methodology of the Study
Critical Success Factors
Fourteen organizations were identified and in-depth interviews were held with individuals responsible for career management and career development programs in each organization.
Of the 14 organizations, one was a Crown corporation: Business Development Bank of Canada; five were public sector organizations: Health Canada, National Research Council, Statistics Canada, Treasury Board of Canada and the Ontario Public Service; and eight were private sector companies:
• Alcan Aluminum
• Bank of Montreal
• Bell Canada
• Hewlett-Packard Canada
• IBM Canada
• Pratt & Whitney Canada
• Royal Bank of Canada
• Xerox Canada.
In best-practice organizations career development is aligned with personal goals as well as corporate objectives
Best-practice organizations invest in career development
In other words, people development must be aligned with business performance for both parties to win.
Best-practice organizations have a culture which values, supports and rewards learning
"Best-in-Class" progressive organizations
Best-practice organizations are also willing to invest in the career development process: to back up their vision of a career-resilient workforce that is committed to the organization’s success with actual commitment in financial, human and technical resources.
In all the organizations interviewed, there is emphasis on employees to value continuous learning and for the organization to strive to be a “learning organization.”
Top management commitment and support is key
Without the driving force from the very top, the best processes and tools will not work or provide the benefits they are capable of delivering. The organizations we studied indicate that most senior executives set the tone for the culture.
Best-practice organizations identify and give special attention to high potential employees
Best-practice organizations focus on identifying leadership throughout the organization
In best-practice organizations responsibility for career development is shared
Almost all of the organizations in our study identify high potential employees and target them for systematic and more extensive development and exposure, and planned career moves.
Best-practice companies integrate career management processes into other key human resources processes
In all the best-practice companies examined, responsibility for career development rests with three parties: the individual, the manager and the organization.
focusing on high potential employees is not enough – it is also important to pay attention to the “solid citizens,” the good contributors who may not be the “high potential employees” or the “high flyers” but whose motivation and contribution are critical to the success of the organization.
Best-practice companies emphasize experiential learning
career management and development processes are integrated with and supported by other HR processes such as performance management, succession management, HR planning, and in many instances, recruitment and staffing.
most best-practice companies will consider “learning from experience” to be the most important developmental strategy including:
• on-the-job learning
• rotations
• assignments
• projects
• task forces
• “flow-through” or developmental positions
Best-practice organizations regularly evaluate their career development system
Evaluations of the effectiveness of the career development system and programs are done with varying degrees of sophistication in best-practice organizations.
Best-practice organizations offer their employees a number of development options
In best-practice companies there is accountability for career development
development options including but not limited to:
• formal courses
• seminars
• workshops
• action learning
• conferences
• mentoring.
To ensure managers recognize the importance of these activities, systems are in place in best-practice organizations to hold managers accountable for the development of their employees.
Best-practice organizations give managers training on how to help employees with career development
Best-practice organizations are good at communicating with employees
Best-practice organizations give employees the processes, information, tools and resources they need to develop their careers
Best-practice organizations recognize that for managers to be competent and comfortable in their career development activities, they need to be trained in activities such as how to be an effective coach, how to give performance feedback, etc.
They know that new career development tools and initiatives, no matter how good, are useless if not utilized.
provide a host of information and resources to facilitate individual career planning and development (i.e., self assessment tools; clear and visible competency profiles and performance requirements against which employees can map their own progress and aspirations; guides to personal/ career development plans; and catalogues of internal and external training options and educational opportunities, workshops, and resources in career and personal planning such as books and videos)