The Life Design News

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The Case for Balancing Organizational and Individual Career Management

Each day I talk to professionals about their career needs and aspirations. I hear from people who are very dedicated to their work and desire to develop both themselves and the organizations they work for. However, I also hear confusion and disorientation. Here are some of the questions I am asked:

• How do you balance work and personal life without sacrificing career advancement?
• How can I successfully balance my career with my family life?
• How do I reduce the level of stress between work & home?
• How do you deal with politics in the workplace?
• My career is stagnant, how do I get it going?
• I know I need help with this but I don't know where to start!
• How do I understand who I really am and what I really need to do to be fulfilled in a career?
• The systems of promotion and reward I understood are ceasing to exist, how do you really know what to do in order to succeed?
• My company says it is my responsibility to manage my career now, how do you avoid failure?

Individuals have been handed full responsibility for their career development. That individuals should own responsibility for their own personal growth and learning clearly matters. Organizations have historically behaved like parents to their employees; a major shift has taken place over the past few years. The table below summarizes some of the key shifts in the mindsets and practices of organizations:

This shift however, has left many people seriously confused as the pendulum has swung from a hierarchical and control-centred approach to one that appears to be abdication. Professionals still need some kind of supportive framework in which to plan. Equally important, organizations need a system for workforce development and planning.

The Business Case for Balanced Involvement

There are three reasons why I believe that there is an overwhelming business case for organizations to provide some structural framework within which a mutually beneficial approach to career and workforce development can flourish.

1. The prime assets of every organization are the capabilities of its people. Developing employees to the maximum of their potential for as long as this coincides with the needs of the organization is essential. Understanding what capabilities the organization will require to meet its objective, and how to match its people resources with the requirements, should be an essential part of the planning process. There is no greater logic that supports a joint planning process than workforce development.

2. People develop their capabilities through a combination of education, training and experience. While development in education and training is considered normal, the majority of growth and development comes from experience. If you look back on your own personal development and ask: What have been the milestones of my experience: a particular course, a job, a special project, reorganization or a promotion? It will likely be the experiential elements that moved you forward.

Opportunities for development are one of the key criteria by which professionals rate their organizations. In the “Canada @ Work” survey conducted by the AON consulting group (2000), 22% of respondents were unhappy with the training provided on the job and 28% said that their organization does not allow them to fully develop their skills.

3. The third area is the cost of retention. The cost of losing, hiring, and retraining people is the great-unsung cost of organizations. It should be a separate item in the profit and loss account of organizations for all to see. Research conducted by the Hay Group (The Retention Dilemma, 2001) states that attrition can cost an organization as much as 4% of revenue and up to 40% of its profits. The primary element that was identified for retaining employees is to help them to feel their careers are moving forward. An effective framework for career management can facilitate this forward movement and increase the retention of employees.

These three elements above speak to the need for a comprehensive and balanced approach. A balanced approach includes:

1. Individual career planning processes
2. Joint career dialogue
3. Organizational workforce development

In the next issue of the Life Design News, we will review the components that create this balanced approach.

Wishing you balance, passion and fulfillment in your lifework!

Rob

"Get your company to start focusing more on the individual. Who are they, what are their motivations, what are their weaknesses, what are their strengths, what can they do as opposed to what are they doing. If they are working at a job unrelated to the job that you need to fill, but they have the raw ability to do the job that you need to fill, spend the money training them rather than on running a revolving door hiring. You are going to find your job is a lot more pleasant; you are going to find a lot of people within your company who are going to fill the jobs." - Herb Greenberg (2002)