Podcast

33

min

January 24, 2024

Barbra Gago

Career paths: A way to scale your company even faster & keep employees happy

Listen now on

TalentBuzz Podcast Summary with Guest Barbra Gago from Pando

Why Career Frameworks are Important

  • Career frameworks address the common issue of lack of career progression, a key factor in employee engagement and retention.
  • Companies often promise growth opportunities but lack clear paths, leading to employee uncertainty about their career trajectory.
  • Effective career frameworks optimize employee development, impacting revenue and business outcomes.

Common Challenges in Career Progression

  • Employees often leave companies to advance their careers, indicating a gap in internal growth opportunities.
  • Traditional performance reviews, conducted annually, can delay or hinder employee progression.
  • The tendency to promote high performers into management roles, regardless of their managerial skills, often leads to ineffective leadership.

Shifting Focus to Individual Contributor Paths

  • The Peter Principle highlights the risk of promoting people to their level of incompetence, particularly into managerial roles.
  • Modern career frameworks offer parallel paths, allowing employees to advance as individual contributors or managers.
  • Companies should align pay scales for management and individual contributor roles to avoid undervaluing non-managerial paths.

Developing Career Frameworks

  • Career frameworks should define levels and competencies specific to each role, providing clarity and direction for employee development.
  • Barbra emphasizes focusing on leveling frameworks before compensation, considering the company's size and growth.
  • Creating transparent, competency-based career frameworks encourages continuous employee development and progression.

Employee Lifetime Value (ELTV) and Career Frameworks

  • ELTV represents the total value created by an employee over time, influenced by hiring costs, ramp-up time, and retention.
  • Optimizing ELTV involves enhancing hiring practices, accelerating employee ramp-up, and creating clear paths for career progression.
  • Companies are becoming more aware of ELTV but still struggle with effective measurement and performance tracking.

Getting Started with Career Frameworks

  • Begin by establishing a leveling framework that reflects the company's strategic goals and growth plans.
  • Introduce a basic rubric with a manageable number of competencies applicable across roles.
  • Couple the introduction of career frameworks with initiatives to encourage constructive feedback anchored around competencies.
  • Gradually evolve the framework to include real-time progression models and systems for tracking development.

Listen now on

You might also like

Employee Engagement Uncovered: The Secret to a Thriving Workplace
Read blog

Recruitment

7 Creative Employee Engagement Ideas to Energize Your Workforce
Read blog

Recruitment

Employee Engagement Examples You Can Learn From
Read blog

Recruitment

Essential Employee Engagement Survey Questions to Ask Your Team
Read blog