Chief Learning Officer - March 2008 - (Page 49)

human capital ration, and it adds up to a workforce more independently minded than ever. Therefore, senior learning professionals, their partners in HR and business leaders charged with mobilizing key talent internally — rather than let it walk out the door — must provide resources and information to facilitate talent mobility throughout the corporation and enable employees to make informed decisions to manage their careers. alignment. Again, there are economic (not to mention sociological) reasons for this. On the talent demand side of the equation, businesses competing in today’s globalized, informationdriven environment must alter their strategies and workforce plans too often to rely on static, linear career paths. On the talent supply side of the equation, the definition of a career path for members of generations X and Y is different from that of their predecessors. For these employees, and for those who will soon enter the workforce (recently labeled “Gen-Connect” by futurist Jim Carroll), a desirable career path will be one that zigzags and requires new skills, competencies, relationships and experiences that reflect their interests and are largely shaped by technology. A career today might mean starting in operations, then transferring those skills and experiences to a different role altogether — perhaps even learning — and then doing something entirely different after that. Career Path for One, Please Traditionally, careers have been defined as stepwise progressions within specific disciplines (e.g., financial analyst, senior financial analyst, manager, director, VP of finance and perhaps even CEO). These levels have been mapped to compensation bands so that employees can see the commensurate salary increases that go with moving up the progression the organization has laid out. This way of describing a career worked well as long as employees could see that organizations were committed to moving people along these paths. While this still may work for specialized, technical disciplines, the days of moving along a linear path for 30 years toward a gold watch and a sizeable pension are gone for the most part. Relevant career paths are essential to any organization interested in aligning its demand for talent with its supply. (See Figure 1, p. 50.) Variety in career paths will play a growing role going forward to achieve and maintain this Many organizations have tasked talent management committees to make strategic investments that put the best people in suitable roles at the right time to drive performance. What’s a CLO to Do? How long has it been since your organization updated its career paths? Do they reflect the dynamic business plans of your organization? Were they built on the premise that job security and advancement for employees have a greater dependence on experience needed, goal achievement and competencies than on length of service? Do they encourage individuals to consciously take stock of their strengths, interests, life events and development opportu- 49 March 2008 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer http://www.clomedia.com

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Chief Learning Officer - March 2008 Editor's Letter Table of Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Learning Solutions The Treasury Board of Saskatchewan: Training the Trainers With Experiential Learning Clo Profile Environment Xerox: Creating a Learning Masterpiece Tactics Capturing the Knowledge of the Workforce Productivity Succession Planning Tips from the U.S. GAO Human Capital Influencing Competency Management Case Study Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - March 2008

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