Commentary - Jan 15, 2005

Dan L'Abbe

A Look at Career Ladders

Career ladders are not the hottest topic among most human resource practitioners today, but they are of tremendous interest to the knowledge workers - who are the most valuable and hardest employees to replace.

Career development and management was lost in the downsizing of the 1990s. Career management went out of favor as employees were released in droves. As they began to dust themselves off and head back to work, they realized they needed to plan their own career.

In today’s marketplace knowledge is everything and you have to be the one who is focused on your career. Since career development programs have gone out the window, employees now tend to think of themselves as free agents in charge of charting their own career course. Employers may indirectly help fund career development, but a number of them aren't directly assisting the employee. A majority of employers these days expect you to “bring your own career.” Most companies don’t want to develop careers they want to rent them and have you bring all your skills to the table.

Companies that have put energy into developing career growth and advancement will keep their employees as we move about the employment freeze into a period of employment growth. If a company can show their employees that they can grow with their careers, they are much more likely to retain those employees that have the knowledge.

Most employees want to develop a career. If their employer has put time and effort into a solid career development plan that will allow them to climb the ladders, they will find career satisfaction. Then when another opportunity comes knocking the employee will not be as motivated to move on. This allows employers to maintain their knowledge.

Does your company have a program for career development? It takes support from all levels to develop a strong career development program and the measurement of a successful program takes time.

The true test of a successful career development program is how the knowledge workers move through the organization or out of the organization.

About Granite Solutions Groupe

Granite Solutions Groupe (Granite) is a San Francisco based recruiting firm that specializes in recruiting and placing highly-skilled senior-level Project Managers, Business Analysts and IT Managers at global firms throughout the financial services and IT Market. Contact them online at www.granitesolutionsgroupe.com.