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| 41march 2017 workspan

Why is it easier for employees to jump to a job with another organization than to change roles and develop internally? Why do companies work very hard to recruit an external candidate, but do so little to engage career opportunities for their current employees? We have found the key to offering employees engaging career opportunities is the quality of the manager-employee conversation.

Let’s listen in on manager Michelle’s conversation with Rishi, one of her most promising employees who is growing his already strong technical skills and may be interested in managing someday.

How are you helping employees reach their

career goals?

CareerDiscussion

By Bruce Barge,Ph.D., Ahalya Neela and Patrick Shannon, Ph.D. Mercer

How toStart a Good

© 2017 WorldatWork. All Rights Reserved. For information about reprints/re-use, email copyright@worldatwork.org | www.worldatwork.org | 877-951-9191

03 |

2017

®

The Magazine of WorldatWork©

42 | workspan march 2017

MICHELLE THE MANAGER: As you know, we’ve set aside some time to talk about your career interests.

RISHI: Great, I’ve given the topic some thought.

MICHELLE: You’ve been doing a great job. How can we keep you engaged and growing?

RISHI: Well, I’m still interested in developing my technical skills but I’ve also thought about managing. I’m open for new opportunities.

MICHELLE: Good. I can think of some projects that would stretch your technical capabilities, and let’s also get you involved in coaching some of our less experienced employees to develop your supervisory skills.

RISHI: OK.

MICHELLE: Let’s stay in touch. I can see that you have a bright future here.

MICHELLE (leaving the meeting, thinking to herself): That really went well.

RISHI (leaving the meeting, thinking to himself): Sounds like more of the same — vague promises and no real dialogue. I think I will explore that outside offer. It might be good to make a change.

Discussing career and growth

What Can Go Wrong In a Career DiscussionMichelle’s approach had these missteps: 1 | Failure to explore the employ-

ee’s career interests. Michelle didn’t take the time to discuss where Rishi wants to go in his career in the short and long term. These discussions typically take some probing because employees may not be clear on where they want to go.

2 | Oversimplified and narrow choices. Michelle limited her career options for Rishi to her department. She offered obvious solutions that might be easy but were not engaging. Discussing career and growth opportuni-ties often requires a broader and deeper view of potential opportunities.

3 | Limited career tools and resources. Michelle did not mention her organization’s resources to help employees explore their career choices. At minimum, she might have discussed different types of roles (e.g., client facing, center of excel-lence/technical experience, project management, people manager). Also, Rishi might not be aware of his employer’s career structures, job posting systems, career websites or developmental resources.

opportunities often requires a broader and deeper view

of potential opportunities.

| 43march 2017 workspan

Facilitating an Engaging Career DiscussionIn this case, it’s easy to understand why the employee may jump to another company’s job opportunity. Let’s look instead at a successful career conversation between manager Joon and employee Sid to see what a difference it can make.

Sid is a promising employee who has been working as a financial analyst for more than two years, demonstrating strong technical skills. As much as the manager enjoys his work, he is not sure what he wants to do in the long term.

JOON: You have been performing extremely well as a financial analyst, Sid. You have been able to create analytical models that we have used for several key reports and decisions. Your trouble-shooting skills on your last project were noticed by my boss, who was very impressed. You’ve had great technical growth since you started here. So can we spend the next 30 minutes talking about where you go from here and address any questions that you have?

SID: I have learned a lot in the past few years, and I know that there is a lot more to learn on the technical side. However, I am not sure what my options are, apart from moving to the associate level.

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44 | workspan march 2017

Explaining the Career Framework

JOON: First, there is no one-size-fits-all career solution. Rather, there are a host of options. We believe that you should be able to choose your career trajectory based on your interests and life situation including horizontal, vertical and diagonal moves. So think of careers being based on three interrelated pieces — job family, career track and career level. By piecing together different combinations of these, you have dozens of career options that you can pursue right here in our company. You can grow your career in terms of content and skills ( job family), in the breadth and depth of your career direction (career track), and in terms of scope and respon-sibility (level).

SID: That sounds good, but can you give me some examples?

JOON: Sure, and you can also check these out in more detail on our organization’s careers site when you have time. But let’s go through the three core elements together:

First, a job family is a set of related jobs that are based on a common set of knowledge and skills, such as software development or financial analysis. The jobs in each family vary in level but they share a passion for an area of expertise. We have several active online communities that are based on job families and the oppor-tunity to develop deeper knowledge and skills. (See Figure 1)

Second, career track is a broader, longer term version of job families. The two most common versions of this are the technical track and the management track. Staying on the technical track means that you pursue jobs that emphasize specialist expertise. You enjoy technical problem-solving jobs or jobs developing specialized products, policy or programs. By contrast, the management track is about managing people and organizations. You have hire and fire responsibility to deliver results through people. This “two-track” career model is often referred to as

the Y, with a technical branch and a management branch.

Of course, many people have great careers moving back and forth between these tracks. Our company also has some specialized tracks such as in sales, project management and business partnering that may be more informal but still very real.

Third, your career level shows vertical progression in responsibility and scope. As an analyst, you are mostly following the direction of others and operating within a defined methodology. As you are promoted, you will increasingly be directing others and managing a larger and more complex scope. Career level means something different on the technical track than the management track, but jobs at the same level will be similar in their value to the business. To progress in your career, you may go verti-cally (promotion), horizontally (same level, but new job family or track) or diagonally, which combines both.

Figure 1 | 3 Core Career Elements

Various Job Families Often Requiring a Unique Set of Skills

Choosing Between Career Tracks i.e. Individual Contributor and Management

Career Level - The Position of a Job Within a Career Stream

Explaining the Career Framework

First, there is no one-size- JOON:

| 45march 2017 workspan

Career Direction

SID: Thanks, that is really helpful. I think I understand, but I still have questions about what this will mean for me. I like technical analyst work but I have some interest in becoming a manager. And I like working for you and our group, but I’m not sure this department is where I want to work longer term.

JOON: Yes, I understand, Sid, and you are right that most people today work in many different roles during their careers. That’s why it’s important to understand all the options available here in our company and how you can craft a career path that is right for you. I want to share a couple of ideas with you that might make this clearer.

Let’s say you decide that for the next few years you want to focus on devel-oping a really strong financial analysis foundation because that is a base

that you can use in a lot of different career options. To do this, you should focus on both breadth and depth of your financial technical expertise. That means you should pursue jobs that expose you to things like capital allo-cation, data analytics and functional areas such as treasury, accounting or audit. You are building your skills within the technical track and expanding relationships by working in related but distinct job families.

Some people like that kind of an approach because it means that you can then use your strong technical foundation to either continue in a technical direction or try a manage-ment position. By contrast, you could also decide that you want to experi-ment with being a “player-coach.” That means you want to continue to do technical analysis work but you also want to lead people. You want to have the flexibility to try out both

career tracks to see what fits you best. To do that, you would start to lead projects or small teams where you would still work as an individual contributor analyst, but you would also get some exposure to people leadership. (See Figure 2)

SID: OK, but what about getting promoted? Is that where the levels come in?

JOON: Yes, career level indi-cates change in job scope and responsibilities. This progression is consistent across job families. Fresh graduates would typically begin at an entry level and with increased exposure and responsi-bilities would grow into intermediate level and so on. When you increase your skills, you become more valu-able and ready to take on broader responsibilities. That is when you are ready for promotion.

Figure 2 | Different Paths to Leadership Experience

Negotiate significant commercial agreements

Grow existing project teams and focus

Lead a large team

Lead a project teamCreate new opportunities

46 | workspan march 2017

Career Development and Tools

SID: It seems like you keep emphasizing improving my skills and expertise as the way to increase my options. I’ve been trying to do that but sometimes it’s hard to know what to focus on.

JOON: You’re right, it can be confusing. But you are also right to focus on developing yourself as the best path to an amazing career. To me, it is definitely the work content that is at the heart of career development. Each job has a set of critical experiences, and your goal is to put yourself in position to gain those experiences.

SID: This is interesting but there is a lot of information here. Where should I start?

JOON: There are multiple options. You can start by joining our online communities that connect experienced and like-minded profes-sionals across different levels for mentoring, learning and knowledge sharing. So if you are interested in understanding what project management looks like, join that community and reach out to understand what their day looks like, what kind of experiences and certifi-cations are needed and so on.

SID: What if I want to get a preliminary overview?

JOON: You also have the option of exploring online career tools such as our career portal, which houses information on all your options and how to prepare for each of them. These are tied to our learning and development programs. We also have an interactive career map where you can choose your starting point and identify the various experiences you need to reach a specific destination.

SID: Destination? Do you mean like a director or VP position?

JOON: For some people, title does represent the destination, but it depends on you. Some employees enjoy being in client-facing roles and would go for sales or consulting positions because they love the people contact and rela-tionships. Others may be intrigued by inventing a new product or earning a patent. Often, we don’t really know our exact destination, so we take on interesting skills and experi-ences, sometimes in roles we might never have considered.

SID: It looks like I have a lot of reading and thinking to do.

JOON: Yes, and your success really depends on you. Our company career philosophy is that you chart your own career journey based on your skills and interests. Also, remember that you have a lot of support here within the orga-nization through our communities. And I very much want to help you.

The Manager-Employee Career ConversationMake sure your managers are equipped to talk about:

The employee’s short- and long-term career interests

Your organization’s career framework including job

families, career tracks and levels

Career directions including potential technical

and manager roles

Career development including understanding the

employee’s current capabilities, what’s required

to pursue new roles and how to gain needed

skills/experience

Career tools such as career portals, interactive career

maps and online communities.

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Beyond the Basic Conversation: Fresh Thinking On Careers The conversation between Sid and Joon was far better than that between Rishi and Michelle. Joon provided Sid with a clear model for how to think about careers, gave some examples and encouraged Sid to take ownership for charting a career path that Joon would support. It was a more substantive and respectful conversation, and Sid walked away feeling like a talented professional who had the support of his manager and was excited about his career journey.

But what about the next conversa-tion? How can Joon and his company continue to offer talented young professionals such as Sid the kind of progressive and dynamic solu-tions that fit business of today? What innovations in careers will help to differentiate your organization with top talent?

❙ Expand the Why. Rather than offering just a basic two-track model — tech-nical or management — show careers as dynamic as business today. Frame specialized career tracks that fit your business such as for sales or digital media. Emphasize the player-coach model and the opportunity to create hybrid roles. Emphasize creativity.

❙ Foster technical communities. Add titles, such as fellow or principal, at the top of the technical track to cele-brate the height of technical value to the business (e.g., market-leading product innovation). Create dynamic technical communities through jam sessions, social networking, recogni-tion and mentoring.

❙ Make it social, digital, interactive. Career is a naturally engaging topic to tell compelling stories. Make them come alive with video, social and a range of technology platforms. Fun, personal, inspiring — like a great career!  

Bruce Barge, Ph.D., is a partner and leads

Mercer’s Talent business in San Francisco.

Contact him at bruce.barge@mercer.com.

Ahalya Neela, MBA, is a senior associate

with Mercer’s Talent business in San Francisco.

Contact her at ahalya.neela@mercer.com.

Patrick Shannon, Ph.D., is a partner with

Mercer’s Talent business in San Francisco.

Contact him at patrick.shannon@mercer.com.

resources plus

For more information, books and education related to this topic, log on to worldatwork.org and use any or all of these keywords:

❙ Career development

❙ Leadership

❙ Employee engagement.