Fairplace and Manchester Business School recently undertook a research project to identify employer opinions and perceptions about career management (CM) and plans for the next year. The research looked at what drives the adoption of CM strategies, which is at the heart of how organisations attract, develop and retain staff.

Today’s employees want managers who commit to developing and empowering them. Management should discuss with staff what they want, their aspirations, where they want to be in three, five or 10 years’ time. They should help staff understand how to advance their careers towards achieving such goals. But do they have the skills to do this?

Most managers are not trained or skilled in holding the meaningful career conversations crucial to the CM process. Developing a culture that encourages and supports CM means training managers to actively support staff. Establishing rigorous, tangible criteria for the assessment of CM effectiveness will facilitate integration with other HR activities. Thus CM can play a key role in contributing to the development and management of core capabilities and organisational resourcing needs.

Ironically staff want their managers to spend time with them discussing their careers, though line managers feel ill equipped for those conversations. Conversations that go well will drive employee retention but, sadly, conversations that don’t go well or don’t happen may drive staff out of the organisation.
The most popular interventions come as no surprise, but they’re not necessarily the best possible CM tools.

What organisations are doing today

• Promoting internal vacancies (57% very frequently/always do this)
• 360 degree feedback (48% very frequently/always) (38% very frequently/always)
• Outplacement (33% very frequently/always)

What organisations are not doing

• Career coaching (75% never/very infrequently engage in this activity)
• Career path mapping (59% never/very infrequently)

What organisations plan to introduce in 2010

• Offer support and guidance (57% suggest a high possibility of adopting this practice)
• Mentoring (45% suggest a high possibility/definitely)
• Career coaching (39% suggest a high possibility/definitely)

Survey participants considered the psychological contract between employers and employees, and the symbiotic relationship resulting from good CM processes. Staff exit interviews and engagement surveys often show that people leave organisations for opportunities to develop. Employees feel they must change jobs to find such opportunities. Bizarrely companies offer outplacement to staff made redundant but don’t provide CM for talent they want to keep.

Marketing an organisation as an ’employer of choice’ requires a demonstration of commitment to CM. It’s not enough to just advertise for candidates. In terms of retention, CM improves retention of key staff and boosts the attractiveness of an employer, as well as making them better able to respond to the changing needs of the marketplace.

The return on investment doesn’t derive from a single career management intervention but results from a strategic approach to CM. Fairplace has been working with Deloitte on a CM programme that saved them over £640,000 in year one - on an investment of £50,000 - in reduced recruitment fees. Effective CM, embedded in the culture, systems and processes of an organisation, “breaks the silo mentality and shows people that they don’t need to leave”. At the heart of people management policies it will reduce attrition, save on recruitment costs and, in the long run, ensure a pipeline of high quality candidates.

To survive and thrive employers must address CM but the research shows that 75% of organisations don’t offer any career coaching or career path planning. Participants defined CM as a “contract between employers and employees to take a strategic view of their employees’ careers focus for the benefit of both parties”. Taking CM seriously and strategic investment in employees pays dividends.

Firms considered effective at CM typically had communal, high trust cultures encouraging employee commitment. Those able to integrate CM with resourcing needs and performance management are more likely to create shared understanding of business objectives and develop the capacity to achieve them. The research reinforces the concept of reciprocity inherent in the concept of CM but found a lack of understanding about available interventions and their benefits.

About the Research
In conjunction with Manchester Business School, Fairplace talked to 90 organisations and three focus groups, two in London, one in Manchester, made up of senior HR and L&D managers to find out what’s happening at ground level in career management.