Is there a “right time” to introduce a career strategy? One question I am regularly asked by business leaders is this:
“We want to have a career strategy, but we don’t know what our business will look like in six months. Is it better to wait?”
I understand the question, and the confusion that comes with it as we see where to start in creating a skills-based organization. But the answer from me is always polite but firm… “No”.
It is true that many organizations face real uncertainty around their markets, business model and the relevance of the products and services they sell. But when shafts of clarity finally shine through the clouds of doubt, how would you like your people to think and act?
Would you want them to move with uncertainty, hesitation and fear from the old point A to the new point B? Or would you like them to feel, in all weathers, that they have the tools to face the challenges and opportunities they face?
In one of our popular virtual tables earlier this month, Rakhee Unadkat, Associate Director, Global Talent at EY showed how their organization seized the moment and implemented a significant new career model and talent marketplace to meet its future needs. And we at The Career Innovation Company have shown how career models, which are often associated with complex terms and concepts, can actually be visually explained very simply, to make them understandable to everyone. This could mean describing a career in terms of pathways, a spectrum of possibilities or developing career experience maps.
The right approach will be different for each business – in the end it is their impact that really matters – and to us, a career model is a means of representing possible career movements within an organization. It helps employees:
- Understand the career options and options available to them.
- Make informed career decisions, based on their ambitions and abilities.
And of course, it plays a very important role for line managers because it creates a structure for them to have career conversations.
This is true, in all business weather. If leaders truly want their people to rise to every challenge, rise to every opportunity, they shouldn’t want them to passively wait for top-down clarity about the future. Instead, they should want employees to actively think about their career development, build knowledge and confidence, and leverage their networks and relationships.
There is ample evidence to show that career development is a key driver of engagement, so the opportunity—today, not tomorrow—is to enable everyone to develop the skills and confidence to be ready, eager and ready for when the “unknown” businesses become “known.” There can be opportunities for people to grow with the new business model, grow elsewhere if not, and even seamlessly transition back in the future as circumstances change.
So, when it comes to career strategy, my answer to the question above is that there are no good reasons to “wait and see.” The future may be uncertain, but one certainty is that a workforce that enables a great career strategy is the best bet at all points in the business cycle.
For information on this or our career strategy and support solutions, please contact Racquel Perry at racquel.perry@careerinnovation.com
