Strategies for Career Development

1 HR Response to Organisational Change1 Strategies forCareer Development :Promise, Practice andPretenceWendy HirshCharles JacksonIESR eport 305 RSupported by the IESR esearchClubtheInstituteforEmploymentStud iesSTRATEGIES FOR Career Development :PROMISE, PRACTICE AND PRETENCEO ther titles from IES:Managing Careers in 2000 and BeyondC Jackson, J Arnold, N Nicholson, A WattsIES Report 304, 1996. ISBN 1-85184-230-6 Careers in Organisations: Issues for the FutureW Hirsh, C Jackson, C JacksonIES Report 287, 1995. ISBN 1-85184-213-6 Personal Development Plans: Case Studies of PracticeP Tamkin, L Barber, W HirshIES Report 280, 1995. ISBN 1-85184-206-3 Development Centres: Assessing or Developing People?C Jackson, J YeatesIES Report 261, 1993.

2 ISBN 1-85184-185-7 Careers Counselling in Organisations: the Way ForwardC JacksonIES Report 198, 1990. ISBN 1-85184-106-7A catalogue of these and over 100 other titles is available from 305 Wendy HirshCharles Jacksonwith:Polly KettleyPenny TamkinCarole JacksonStrategies for CareerDevelopment:Promise, Practice andPretencetheINSTITUTEforEMPLOYMENTSTUD IESA study supported by theIES Co-operative Research ProgrammePublished by:THE INSTITUTE FOR EMPLOYMENT STUDIESM antell BuildingUniversity of SussexBrighton BN1 9 RFUKTel.+ 44 (0) 1273 686751 Fax+ 44 (0) 1273 690430 Copyright 1996 The Institute for Employment StudiesNo part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, taping orinformation storage or retrieval systems without prior permission in writingfrom the Institute for Employment Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this publication is available from the British LibraryISBN 1-85184-231-4 Printed in Great Britain by Microgen UK LtdvThe Institute for Employment StudiesIES is an independent, international centre of research andconsultancy in human resource issues.

3 It has close workingcontacts with employers in the manufacturing, service andpublic sectors, government departments, agencies, professionaland employee bodies, and foundations. Since it was established25 years ago the Institute has been a focus of knowledge andpractical experience in employment and training policy, theoperation of labour markets and human resource planning anddevelopment. IES is a not-for-profit organisation which has amultidisciplinary staff of over 60. IES expertise is available to allorganisations through research, consultancy, training aims to help bring about sustainable improvements inemployment policy and human resource management.

4 IESachieves this by increasing the understanding and improvingthe practice of key decision makers in policy bodies andemploying IES Co-operative Research ProgrammeThis report is the product of a study supported by the IES Co-operative Research Programme, through which a group of IESS ubscribers finance, and often participate in, applied researchon employment issues. The members of the CRP are:Abbey National plcBAAB arclays Bank plcBritish Steel plcBritish Telecommunications plcThe Cabinet Office (OPS)Department of TransportElectricity Association Services LtdGlaxo Wellcome plcGuardian Insurance LtdHalifax Building SocietyHM Customs and ExciseHM TreasuryJ Sainsbury plcLloyds TSBM arks & Spencer plcNational Westminster Bank plcThe Post OfficePrudential Corporation plcRolls-Royce plcShell (UK) LtdUnilever UK (Holdings) LtdWoolwich Building SocietyviAcknowledgementsWe would like to thank all the participants in the case studyorganisations who gave their time and their views.

5 The linemanagers and other employees who took part in discussiongroups gave us much food for thought and we hope their voicescan be heard in this thanks are also due to the IES team who worked on theproject Penny Tamkin, Polly Kettley (IES Research Fellows)and Carole Jackson (Associate of IES); and Julia Simmons foradministration and producing the manuscript. Peter Herriotgave valuable advice and Development : a Business The importance of Career Why we have been looking at Career The structure of this is Changing? Trends in The key trends new types of Career Adapting to new Managing change and A minimum set of Career Development Changing Career Message and its Business The 'anti- Career ' 'Over to you' the self-managed The 'pro- Development ' drivers22` A range of positions on Career Different deals for different Experience of Change Perceptions of What do employees think of Career developmentmessages?

6 What do employees think of Career processes? What do employees see happening in practice? Agenda for the Future Closing the Rhetoric Where do the key challenges lie? An appropriate and honest A sensible Delivering on the Summary48 Appendix Case Study Organisations50 Bibliography51 Strategies for Career Development1 SummaryHow are major UK employing organisations dealing with careerdevelopment in circumstances which we are told threaten thevery concept of a ' Career '? Pressures forcing change in the ideaof ' Career ' as offering both security and progression have comefrom workforce reductions and frequent changes in organisationstructure. They have brought declining promotion opportunities,loss of job security, a short-term performance culture, and abreakdown of the old processes by which careers changes in the world of work also raise issues about therole of ' Development ' for those in employment.

7 By developmentwe mean all those activities which enhance technical orpersonal skills, and therefore include learning from workexperience as well as education and public debate on these issues has tended to tell a simplenegative story (eg the 'end of the Career ', the 'jobless society' etc.)or to offer particular magic solutions (eg self-managed careers;self- Development ; the learning company; lifetime learning etc.).This IES study tries to go beyond the stories we tell ourselves,by examining how careers are really being defined andmanaged in fifteen major employing organisations, many ofthem seen as leaders in both business and HR responsibilities for Career and developmentThe case study organisations participating in this research haveindeed been under strong pressure to re-examine their ideasabout Career Development .

8 Most of them have reduced thecommitment of the organisation to managing the careerdevelopment of the workforce. This was clearly reflected inmessages to the workforce from senior managers. It was alsoshown in a shift away from Career processes managed by the21996 Institute for Employment Studiesemployer (eg promotion boards, regular job moves) towardsnew processes mainly managed by the employee (eg personaldevelopment plans).However, there has been less general discussion of the pressuresnow driving major employers back towards accepting moreresponsibility again for Career Development . These are felt whendownsizing begins to level off, and include:l the need for a flexible workforcel the Development demands of 'total quality' and 'customerfocused' businessesl the fear of losing and/or demotivating key staff, to whom theconcept of ' Career ' is still cruciall concern at Board level about successionSo the pendulum of responsibility for Career developmentwhich often swung abruptly over to the individual, is starting toswing back again towards more of a 'partnership'.

9 This shows incareer Development processes being further adapted to meetboth organisational and individual of messages about employment anddevelopmentThe case studies do not, however, show a single 'answer' interms of where this pendulum of responsibility now lies. Whatthey do show, as illustrated by the diagram below, is acontinuum of positions on the issue of Career Development . Atone end the ' Career ' deal offers a high degree of integrationbetween an organisational Career and planned Development . Atthe other extreme, the 'job for now' deal offers just that, withonly enough training to make sure you do the job is significant that this model makes explicit both theemployment relationship, and the degree to which the employertakes responsibility for Development both are crucial research suggests that a degree of alignment between theemployment deal and the Development deal is a feature ofsustainable Career Development Strategies .

10 It also suggests thatvery extreme positions at both ends of the model are moretheoretical possibilities than sustainable for Career Development3 Alignment with business needs tends to segment strategiesWhat is clearly happening is that beneath the general rhetoric ofcareer Development (most often about supported self- Development ), real strategic positions vary from one part of theworkforce to another:Senior managers and 'high potential' staff are receivingrenewed attention and are still expected to have a ' Career ' withthe organisation, even if not a Career for life. Successionplanning is being strengthened, and the Development of thisgroup is usually skilled workers will indeed be managing their owncareers, and need to maintain their external employability.