Career Management for What Lies Ahead

Executive Summary

In an era of skill shortages, organizations have to respond with new approaches, processes, technologies, and the mindset to retain talent, or risk losing employees quickly.

The modern business landscape is rife with changes and disruptions, exacerbated by talent shortages and a lack of critical skills. As our annual C-Suite Challenge^TM research yet again demonstrates, the key focus for companies is on attracting and retaining employees. CEOs and CHROs realize that a lack of qualified talent will limit their organizations’ ability to innovate and execute business strategies.

At the same time, organizational fluidity is replacing traditional hierarchies, making long-term traditional career plans virtually impossible. And an increasingly diverse workforce has increasingly diverse needs, wants, aspirations, and ambitions. Employees now expect rewarding, varied, challenging career options as part of the value proposition to stay with an organization. While careers have been evolving over the last several decades, the diversity, fluidity, and agility that characterize employees and work today are forcing a new approach to career management. In an era of skill shortages, organizations have to respond with new approaches, processes, technologies, and the mindset to retain talent, or risk losing employees quickly.

Engaging and addressing the needs and aspirations of the broad workforce is of paramount importance, and the pressure to provide meaningful careers to all employees is unprecedented. In response, pioneering companies are experimenting with bold new models for career management. They are deliberately transforming the way they envision career options and facilitating practices that will help employees more effectively navigate the rapidly moving career river. This report examines the shifts occurring in the workplace, innovative new models of career management, and the sophisticated, technology-enabled methods being deployed within organizations to support evolving employee needs.

Our research has revealed four developments that pioneering companies are applying to manage their employees’ careers for the future:

1. Potential is becoming an increasingly outdated concept in the new world of work, and is being replaced by growth. Organizations that have historically invested in a select number of high-potential employees destined for high-profile or senior leadership roles are now moving toward growth models that apply to all employees. New models of growth focus on what all employees are currently seeking, whether that be broadening their skills, deepening their skills, taking on greater responsibilities, or taking on a new role.
2. Increasingly, organizations are recognizing and enabling the power of frequent and highly personalized and targeted career conversations. While there has been considerable emphasis for many years on what managers can do to leverage the power of frequent conversations with their associates, organizations are now expecting and enabling these conversations.
3. New approaches to career management cannot be implemented in isolation. They are a catalyst for, and often an integral part of, a larger rethinking of many traditional performance-management practices, including annual performance reviews and the ranking and rating of employees, as well as compensation processes.
4. Organizations are applying sophisticated analytics to career data, yielding surprising insights for employees and employers alike. For example, they are mapping the historical career moves of their employees to illustrate the many rich possibilities for growth that exist within their organizations.

First movers who transform their approaches to career management can gain a distinct advantage in the constant competition to attract strong talent. New approaches to career management can enhance retention, engagement, and productivity—critical outcomes to succeed in the new world of work that lies ahead.

Actionable advice for those organizations ready to begin managing careers for the future:

• Design a model that is by and for your organization, rather than adopting another organization’s model.
• When an HRMS is replaced, capitalize on the opportunity to redesign the processes and models aligned with it.
• Consider recruiting executives from other parts of the business to fill key HR roles—they can bring fresh ideas, unencumbered by traditional HR practices.
• Take advantage of the widespread dissatisfaction with current approaches, such as high-potential programs and annual performance review processes, to accelerate change.
• Conduct pilot projects as proof of concept, then roll out the changes organization-wide once you have evidence of impact.
• Move quickly, yet make sure to co-create with your internal clients and modify your model to address their feedback. The resulting co-ownership will accelerate adoption.