Tag Archives: Career Road Mapping

Investing in Employees Part 1 – Short Term Transactions or Long Term Partners?

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In this two part blog series, I am going to examine different perspectives of employees. The continued (and often exclusive) emphasis on short term earnings and current quarter results often and easily spreads into decisions around employee management and investment. The short term view of employees is that they are temporary resources that we engage to deliver a certain defined service. When that service is no longer needed, the employee is expendable. Employees are viewed as short term transactions.

This construct may certainly be valid for a subset of employees, especially if a business has large swings and is “large temporary project based.” Employees may be needed to simply fulfill a large non-recurring contract. However, there is a real need to view a significant part of the employee base as long term partners.

Long time employees who have strong loyalty to the enterprise serve many important roles. Often they are the ones who have a deep understanding of the entire enterprise and how everything works together within the company, and grown into general management roles. Other employees develop a strong expertise of industry dynamics and fulfill strategic planning and market planning roles. Others develop a deep relationship with the client base and are the sales leaders. And some become experts and senior advisors and specialists within a certain function of the company. In Part 2 I will explore the generalist vs specialist dynamic a little deeper.

Very importantly, enterprise organizational and employee development tools and processes need to address long term employee partnership as well as short term transactional skills. There is frequently a gap here. When I meet with clients, many have robust programs for employees to develop skills in their current jobs. Annual development plan reviews often focus on skills to enhance or improve current job performance. But are employees also engaged on discussions of five or ten year career growth?

This is a typical short term skills building cycle, but a longer range career planning component needs to be added to employee development programs

Employee development processes need to have balance between the short term and long term and include a long range career growth component. That is what Total Engagement Consulting offers companies with our Career Road Mapping Services. We provide a construct and process for enterprises to offer employees long range career planning customized to their enterprise. This will increase employee engagement and productivity, retention and building long term employee loyalty and partnership.

Look for part 2 next week and also check out earlier blogs around career road mapping:
• Link: Introducing Career Road Mapping Services
• Link: The Business Case for Career Road Mapping / Skills Development

Also take my 11-question career road mapping / skills development quiz to see where your enterprise stands in the area.

The Business Case for Career Road Mapping / Skills Development

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One of the three core expertise areas I offer in my consulting practice is career road mapping using an innovative process where one page summary career maps of successful employees are mined for themes and then packaged for presenting to all employees in an area. In prior engagements, this methodology has been enthusiastically received by employees and has increased their engagement in career planning.

An example of a one page career map – my own (Stan C. Kimer)

But it does always come down to the bottom line. Can I show with actual dollars how investing in career road mapping can add to a company’s bottom line? Absolutely yes! I agree this is important and can be done.

Many recent articles in the HR press document that employee engagement is at an all-time low. Some 2011 articles in SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) states that more than half of US employees are dissatisfied with their jobs and 33% plan to look for a new job when the economy improves. With this kind of mindset, these employees are far from peak productivity.

One of the key areas that increases employee engagement is a robust program of career and skills development. Employees are more likely to be engaged when they believe their company truly cares about their development.

Estimated return on implementing a robust career planning program can be calculated in two areas: increased employee productivity and savings in employee attrition.

PRODUCTIVITY CALCULATION: number of employees x average salary x percent productivity gain = productivity gain in $. For example, with 500 employees averaging $50,000 per year, a modest 2% productivity gain nets 500 x $50,000 x .02 or $500,000.

ATTRITION SAVINGS: number of employees x average salary x time for fully onboarding new employees x decrease in attrition percentage = saving in attrition $. For example, again using 500 employees at $50,000, if it takes 2/3rds of a year for onboarding and you can avoid 2% of the population from departing, the savings is 500 x $50,000 x 2/3 x .02 or $333,333.

In addition you would get the “soft” benefits of overall higher employee morale and being able to attract the best talent as word spreads and your enterprise is viewed as an “employer of choice.”

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