Focus Magazine - Spring 2012 - 20

FEATURESTORY

Building a Career Advancement Program
I By Matthew Yesko and Staci Johnson osing valuable employees costs #1: Determine Your Vision companies millions of dollars Begin by writing down your vision every year. In fact, estimates for the program. What are you trying show that recruiting, hiring and trainto accomplish? For example, will the ing a new employee may cost compaprogram be designed to help motivate nies anywhere from one front-line salespeople or to three times an emWhat motivates one that will be used to ployee’s yearly salary. identify leaders? Will employees Knowing this, it makes your program tie develnancial sense for compato seek other opment and promotions nies to spend some time opportunities for to compensation? What’s determining what motiin it for the participant? employment? vates their employees to Once you’ve had time stay or leave. Armed with to think through these questions, create this information, companies are better a vision statement. A vision statement able to develop employee incentives may sound something like this: that will serve to enhance retention. Our career advancement program So what motivates employees to will be: seek other opportunities for employ• Developmental: Participants must ment? Research shows that one of the focus on developing new skills in top reasons is the lack of growth and order to move through the promoadvancement opportunities within tional levels. their current company. is is an area • Rewarding: Participants receive adthat is o en overlooked and can be ditional compensation and recognieasily remedied by putting a career adtion for promotions. vancement program in place. Doing • Challenging: Participants will have so will enable employers to keep talto persevere in order to receive a ented people engaged and identify fupromotion; promotions will be ture leaders. looked upon with reverence. Designing a meaningful career advancement program or evaluating an • Ongoing: Participants will be held accountable to a new, higher level of existing one can be challenging. To work standards once they receive a help you through the process, we’ve depromotion. veloped the following ve-point plan: Determining and documenting your vision from the beginning will help to answer questions throughout the development process.

#2: Research Your Needs
Once you’ve established a vision for the program, begin researching your needs. A logical rst step is to determine what type of program will be the best t for your sales force and your budget. Several o -the-shelf solutions are currently available on the market, with some o ering various levels of customization. Or you may choose to go with one that’s fully customized, developed either in-house or by an outside entity. e trick is to nd a program that best meets the needs of your sales force and is cost e ective for your company. As you begin to evaluate di erent career advancement programs, seek the advice of sales representatives as they can be an excellent resource of information. Utilize their input to determine the types of rewards and recognition that motivate reps, how much time they feel they can dedicate to career advancement without impacting their other job responsibilities and incentives that would drive a top-performer to this type of program. ey may also be able to guide you toward speci c activities and courses that will build value for the program. Next, spend some time researching the nancial aspects of a career advancement program, such as the amount of time and resources that will be necessary to implement and support the program. You’ll also need to know what the company will get in return for their investment.

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Focus Magazine - Spring 2012

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