Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.
Agile Career Development: Lessons and Approaches from IBM
- By Mary Ann Bopp, Diana Bing, Sheila Forte-Trammell
- Published Aug 17, 2009 by IBM Press. Part of the IBM Press series.
Book
- Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
Description
- Copyright 2010
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-13-715364-3
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-715364-0
Supercharge Performance by Linking Employee-Driven Career Development with Business Goals
How do you make career development work for both the employee and the business? IBM® has done it by tightly linking employee-driven career development programs with corporate goals. In Agile Career Development, three of IBM’s leading HR innovators show how IBM has accomplished this by illustrating various lessons and approaches that can be applied to other organizations as well. This book is for every HR professional, learning or training manager, executive, strategist, and any other business leader who wants to create a high performing organization.
“In the 21st century, there will be an increasing competitive need for any company to operate as a globally integrated enterprise that can effectively develop and then tap the skills and capabilities of its workforce anywhere in the world. In IBM, we have worked to enable a workforce that is adaptive, flexible, and capable of responding to changes in the marketplace and the needs of our clients. Agile Career Development shows how focusing on career development opportunities and guidance for employees is a key factor in our business strategy and a major source of value for IBM employees. This book can be used as a guide to any organization that is seeking to find practical ways to develop the talent of its workforce.”
–J. Randall MacDonald, Senior Vice President, IBM Human Resources
“This book highlights tried and true best practices developed at a company known the world over for active dedication to their workforce. Mary Ann, Diana, and Sheila have captured the key issues that will enhance and streamline your career development program and, subsequently, increase employee engagement, retention, and productivity. I particularly like their practical, real-life understanding of the barriers to most career development programs and the manageable framework to bring career growth to life. They also teach us how to make a business case for career development–critical in creating the foundation for a sustainable program. This includes a good blend of benefits both for the individual employee and the organization as a whole. I only wish I had this book available to me years ago when I was managing a career development program!”
–Jim Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., author of Implementing the Four Levels of Transferring Learning to Behavior
Sample Content
Online Sample Chapter
Agile Career Development: Enabling Career Advancement
Sample Pages
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 2 and Index)
Table of Contents
Foreword xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
About the Authors xxiii
Chapter 1 Having the Right Skills in the Right Place at the Right Time 3
Career Development? Who Cares? You Should. 4
Why Career Development Is Paramount to a Company’s Strategy 6
Change, Complexity, and Globalization 7
Career Development Impacts the Bottom Line 9
Models for Career Development 12
Develop Strategy 14
Attract and Retain Talent 15
Motivate and Develop 15
Deploy and Manage 16
Connect and Enable 16
Transform and Sustain 17
The IBM Approach: Essential Components of Career Development 17
Responsive and Resilient Workforce 18
Linking Performance Management to Career Development 19
Learning and Development 19
Collaboration and Innovation 20
Summary 21
Endnotes 22
Chapter 2 Enabling Career Advancement 25
Why Employees Leave...and the Connection to Career Progression 25
A Case for Change at IBM 30
The Transformation Begins 30
Career Programs Initiated 31
The Definition of a Career Framework 33
The Definition of a Career 33
Setting the Baseline for Expertise Management 36
Competencies and Associated Behaviors 37
Skills that Align to Specific Job Roles 39
Developing Capabilities 40
Summary 41
Endnotes 42
Chapter 3 Defining the Career Development Process 45
Introduction 45
What Is Career Development Anyway? 46
The Benefits of Career Development 48
Benefits to Employees 48
Benefits to Managers 49
Benefits to Clients 50
Benefits to Shareholders 50
Flexibility Needed in Career Development 51
Organizational Differences 51
Learning Style Differences 52
Employee Needs 52
Strategy as the Driving Force Behind the Career Development Process 53
IBM Values as the Foundation of How Employees Act and Develop Themselves 53
Traveling the Road to Career Development 54
Company Business Strategy and Goals 54
Personal Goals and Aspirations 56
Career Opportunities in the Company 56
A Partnership Between the Organization, Managers, and Employees 57
The Career Development Process: An Overview 58
Selecting and Developing New Employees 58
New Employee Orientation Program 60
Assessing Levels of Expertise 62
Growing Levels of Capabilities 63
Creating Meaningful Development Plans 63
Supplementing Development Plans with Experience-based Learning 64
Measuring Success 65
Summary 66
Endnotes 67
Chapter 4 Selecting the Best Talent and Developing New Employees 71
The Changing Landscape for New Employees 71
Actions for Onboarding Success 75
Selecting Talent 78
Onboarding New Employees 82
The Evolution of IBM’s Onboarding Program 82
Orienting and Developing New Employees 85
Pre-Hire 85
New Employee Orientation Program 86
Touchpoint Calls 90
Engaging Managers in the Process 90
Helping New Employees Beyond the Learning 91
Onboarding for Supplemental Employees 93
Measuring Success 93
The Journey Continues 94
Summary 97
Endnotes 97
Chapter 5 Assessing Levels of Expertise and Taking Action to Drive Business Success 101
General Overview 101
Assessing the Organization’s Expertise Portfolio–An Ongoing Business Necessity 103
Aligning Expertise Management with Business Strategy 105
Aligning Employee Interests and Career Aspirations with Skills Forecasting 108
Tools and Practices to Support the Development of Expertise 109
Employee Succession Planning–Strategically Important to the Business 111
Changing Workforce Demographics–A Factor to Be Assessed 114
Varying Approaches to Managing Talent and Skills to Build the Enterprise of the Future–What Drives IBM? 117
Incubating Talent for Business Success–The IBM Way 118
Removing the Mystery from Career Development–IBM Defines a Holistic Approach 119
Summary 121
Endnotes 121
Chapter 6 Building Employee and Organizational Capability 125
Changing Dynamics and Its Impact on Growing Capability 125
Building Careers 127
Considering Employee Needs When Creating Meaningful Careers 128
Flexible Career Paths as an Essential Element of Career Development 129
The Generalist Versus the Versatilist 130
Defining Job Roles as the Basis for Career Paths 132
Putting Career Paths into Action 138
Gaining the Right Experiences to Build Capability for Career Advancement 142
The Components of the Career Framework 143
Managerial Career Paths 145
Summary 146
Endnotes 148
Chapter 7 Creating Meaningful Development Plans 151
Having the Right Skills 151
Road Map or GPS? 152
The Purpose of Career Development Plans and Why They Are Important 153
Characteristics of Effective Career Development Plans 154
Personalizing Career Development Plans 155
Focusing on Specific Development Needs 155
Making the Plans Practical 156
Integrating On-the-Job Learning Experiences 157
“Owning” the Development Plan 157
Development Plans as a Living Process 157
Emphasizing Mentoring, Coaching, and Personal Feedback 158
Career Development Plans at IBM 158
Preparing for the Development Discussion 159
Holding the Development Discussion 160
Software Engineer, Richard Wang 162
Human Resource Generalist, Bonnie Lawson 165
Future Directions for Career Development Plans at IBM 168
Summary 169
Endnotes 170
Chapter 8 Linking Collaborative Learning Activities to Development Plans 173
Overview 173
Collaborative Learning–A Catalyst for Knowledge Transfer 177
Setting the Stage for Team Synergy–A Critical Factor in Collaborative Learning 178
IBM Values–An Anchoring Point for Innovative Career Development Options 180
Career Development at IBM 182
Employee Perspective #1 182
Employee Perspective #2 184
Exploring Ways IBM Uses Innovative Approaches to Facilitate Learning and Development 185
Looking at IBM’s Experiential Learning Portfolio in More Detail 186
Other Experiential Learning Options 191
Job Rotation 191
Stretch Assignments 192
Job Shadowing 194
Cross-Unit Projects 195
Patents and Publications 196
Summary 197
Endnotes 197
Chapter 9 Measuring Success 201
The Importance of Measurement 201
Measuring the Success of Career Development Programs 203
Initial Questions to Ask 203
Issues, Opportunities, and Challenges 204
Levels and Impact of Measurement 205
Measuring Career Development at IBM 208
New Employee Orientation Measurement Process 210
Program Overview 210
Phase One: Time-Series Evaluation Design 211
Phase Two: Steady-State Evaluation Stage 211
Post-Classroom Survey 212
Interviews with Participants, Buddies, and Managers 212
Sample 1: Participants 212
Sample 2: Managers 213
Sample 3: Buddies 213
Interview Protocols 213
Sales Training Measurement Process 216
Program Overview 217
Results of New Sales Training 219
Lessons Learned 222
Other Measurements at IBM 224
Experience-based Learning Measurement Process 224
Measuring Impact and Effectiveness 225
Global Mentoring Program 226
Collective Measurement of Career Development Programs at IBM 229
Career Development: The Difference It Can Make 230
Endnotes 232
Index 235