How do you make career development work for both the employee and the business? This book is for every business leader who wants to create a high-performing organization.
Summary
Title: Agile Career Development: Lessons and Approaches from IBM
Author: Mary Ann Bopp, Diana A. Bing, Sheila Forte-Trammell
Themes: Agile, Career, Cases, Technology
Year: 2010
Publisher: IBM Press/Pearson
ISBN: 0137153643, 9780137153640
Pages: 246
Agile Career Development by Mary Ann Bopp, Diana A. Bing, and Sheila Forte-Trammell is an essential guide for professionals looking to take control of their careers and navigate the rapidly changing job market.
Featuring easy-to-follow steps, the book provides readers with the tools and strategies to identify their skills, set meaningful goals, and create a personalized career plan.
IBM has done it by tightly linking employee-driven career development programs with corporate goals and objectives. In Agile Career Development, three of IBM's leading HR innovators show how IBM has accomplished this by illustrating various lessons and approaches that can be applied to other organizations as well.
This book is for every HR professional, learning or training manager, executive, strategist, and any other business leader who wants to create a high-performing organization.
Mary Ann Bopp, Sheila Forte-Trammell, and Diana A. Bing explain the company’s ongoing programming. They discuss what it does, why, and how.
My Book Highlights:
"... The company that provides career development for people to learn and/or retrain in a newly developing software technology might win both in attracting and keeping valuable employees and by being able to move quickly into a new market..."
"... Having people with the right expertise aligned with the needs of the organization is necessary for business effectiveness..."
"... Offers employees clear guidance on how to advance in their careers..."
"... Organizations would benefit from creating some form of framework that provides employees the ability to see the breadth of opportunities available to them and how they can grow by moving across job roles or business units..."
"... Career development is a structured process; however, it needs to provide enough flexibility to take differences into consideration and to allow for those differences in approaches to career development. These include organizational differences, learning style differences, employee needs, company strategy, and company values..."
"... Managers need to support employees in enabling career development, but managers also need to guide employees to ensure their career goals are not unrealistic. Employees have a responsibility to take the initiative to act upon development plans—their careers are their careers, and they have to own and manage them..."
"... Career development can open doors for employees—and organizations. It can act as a motivator to retain employees, saving companies turnover time and money..."
"... Onboarding, especially when seen as a long-term process, determines in large part whether new employees find their places, begin to make contributions quickly, and discover paths for growth that makes them choose long-term involvement..."
"... The result is an end-to-end workforce management solution to improve IBM’s efforts to help clients succeed and drive greater innovation across the enterprise..."
"... IBM has made skills assessment a priority, and it has yielded a record of success in the global marketplace. IBM’s principal focus is to optimize the skills and capabilities of its workforce in order to become more adaptable to the fickle and sometimes unpredictable nature of the global marketplace..."
"... Companies should consider implementing a formal structure that identifies and defines the job roles needed within the company, as well as the associated skills needed to perform those job roles, in order to attract, retain, and develop employees..."
"... Business leaders are provided with a process to ensure development planning is aligned with business objectives and client value. They receive better information and can make better workforce management decisions..."
"... The career development plan is a way for employees to reflect upon their needs and aspirations and align them with the goals of the organization. A meaningful development plan creates a platform to discuss with their managers, mentors—and others who are instrumental in supporting employees as they move forward in achieving their career milestones..."
"... The choices that employees have to develop skills are a demonstration that the company is sensitive to the fact that learning is not a “one size fits all” process..."
Once employees enter the company, they need to feel welcomed, and they need a plan for getting quickly immersed in the work they were hired to do.
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| The Elements of Career Development, Captured from the Book |
The authors draw on their extensive experience to provide readers with actionable advice and real-world examples that are essential for successful career development.
Some key insights and learnings from the book include:
- Leverage self-knowledge to build an effective career strategy.
- Identify transferable skills and tangible accomplishments.
- Prepare for virtual job interviews and embrace change.
- Develop a career portfolio to showcase skills and experience.
- Connect with professionals and mentors for networking opportunities.
- Create a career plan that is tailored to personal goals and interests.
Chapters of the Book:
1. Having the Right Skills in the Right Place at the Right Time
Career Development? Who Cares? You Should.
Why Career Development Is Paramount to a Company’s Strategy
Change, Complexity, and Globalization
Career Development Impacts the Bottom Line
Models for Career Development
The IBM Approach: Essential Components of Career Development
2. Enabling Career Advancement
Why Employees Leave… and the Connection to Career Progression
A Case for Change at IBM
The Definition of a Career Framework
The Definition of a Career
Setting the Baseline for Expertise Management
Competencies and Associated Behaviors
Skills that Align to Specific Job Roles
Developing Capabilities
3. Defining the Career Development Process
Introduction
What Is Career Development Anyway?
The Benefits of Career Development
Flexibility Needed in Career Development
Traveling the Road to Career Development
The Career Development Process: An Overview
4. Selecting the Best Talent and Developing New Employees
The Changing Landscape for New Employees
Actions for Onboarding Success
Selecting Talent
Onboarding New Employees
Orienting and Developing New Employees
Measuring Success
The Journey Continues
5. Assessing Levels of Expertise and Taking Action to Drive Business Success
General Overview
Assessing the Organization’s Expertise Portfolio
Aligning Expertise Management with Business Strategy
Aligning Employee Interests and Career Aspirations with Skills Forecasting
Tools and Practices to Support the Development of Expertise
Employee Succession Planning
Changing Workforce Demographics
Varying Approaches to Managing Talent and Skills to Build the Enterprise of the Future
Incubating Talent for Business Success
Removing the Mystery from Career Development
6. Building Employee and Organizational Capability
Changing Dynamics and Its Impact on Growing Capability
Building Careers
Defining Job Roles as the Basis for Career Paths
Putting Career Paths into Action
Gaining the Right Experiences to Build Capability for Career Advancement
7. Creating Meaningful Development Plans
Having the Right Skills
Road Map or GPS?
The Purpose of Career Development Plans and Why They Are Important
Characteristics of Effective Career Development Plans
Career Development Plans at IBM
Future Directions for Career Development Plans at IBM
8. Linking Collaborative Learning Activities to Development Plans
Overview
Collaborative Learning
Setting the Stage for Team Synergy
IBM Values
Career Development at IBM
Exploring Ways IBM Uses Innovative Approaches to Facilitate Learning and Development
9. Measuring Success
The Importance of Measurement
Measuring the Success of Career Development Programs
Measuring Career Development at IBM
New Employee Orientation Measurement Process
Interviews with Participants, Buddies, and Managers
Sales Training Measurement Process
Other Measurements at IBM
Career Development: The Difference It Can Make
In conclusion, Agile Career Development is a must-read for professionals of all levels. With its comprehensive approach, the book offers valuable insights into the ever-changing job market and provides readers with the tools they need to advance their careers.
By leveraging self-knowledge and recognizing the importance of networking, readers can gain the confidence and skills necessary to foster meaningful career growth.
Mary Ann Bopp, Manager of Career Development in IBM Center for Learning and Development, leads the design, development, and deployment of numerous IBM global career development initiatives and related processes.
Diana A. Bing recently retired as IBM Director for Professional Development and Enterprise Learning after 31 years with the company. Currently, she is an executive and professional coach, supports nonprofits, and is involved in developing programs regarding women and diversity.
Sheila Forte-Trammell, the Learning Consultant in IBM Center for Learning and Development, has held HR positions ranging from Placement Counselor and Recruiting to Multicultural People in Technology Program Manager. Now she is focused on expanding IBM Global Mentoring Program as a business imperative across the many borders of IBM's employee population.
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