{"id":905,"date":"2008-06-09T01:00:49","date_gmt":"2008-06-09T09:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=905"},"modified":"2008-06-09T01:01:18","modified_gmt":"2008-06-09T09:01:18","slug":"rethinking-the-career-ladder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/?p=905","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking the Career Ladder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most career ladders go something like this
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associate 1 –> Associate 2 –> Professional 1 –> Professional 2 –> Senior Pro Ladder
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associate 1 –> Associate 2 –> Professional 1 –> Management Ladder<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all really quite predictable.\u00a0 Either you stay on a professional track and perhaps manage projects, but never a P&L and certainly not people.\u00a0 Or you can get on that management track and move up the ranks.\u00a0 These ladders do a decent job of showing internal talent and external candidates what the possibilities are, and that your organization actually does have a focus on learning and development.\u00a0 However, it may not actually be the reality of how people move and advance in an organization.\u00a0 While the ladder may be true for a couple of levels, the chances of someone actually getting through the entire ladder without exiting are rather slim.<\/p>\n

I was at Taleo<\/a> recently and they have some interesting models for some soon to be released career progression functionality.\u00a0 At first I thought it was at odds with my own point of view around how ladders should be managed, but in retrospect, it\u2019s probably much closer than I initially gave them credit for.\u00a0 Their functionality takes the approach that the career ladder should not be based on a rigid form that assumes a person will stay in their function.\u00a0 Instead, by looking at actually transitions between organizations and jobs, you can see how people actually progressed within the organization and find trends.\u00a0 For example, it\u2019s possible that in a sales organization, marketing people often exit the traditional marketing ladder for sales.\u00a0 Or that senior practitioners more often find peer roles in other divisions than going for management jobs.<\/p>\n

My point of view on this is that the career ladder should be neither based on the rigid structures we see today, nor are looking at jobs perfect either.\u00a0 Rather, we should see what competencies any given job demands and match those to competencies in jobs throughout the organization.\u00a0 This might make a rather complex network of possibilities rather than a simple linear job, but it\u2019s much more realistic and allows for greater movement and organizational agility.\u00a0 Taleo\u2019s take on this was not to disagree, but to point out that most organizations don\u2019t have the type of infrastructure to do what I\u2019d like them to do.\u00a0 However, every organization tracks job and organizational transitions, so it\u2019s very implementable this way.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t seem to look at jobs and careers in any sort of linear way anymore.\u00a0 Instead, we look for opportunities that fit with our competencies and our interests, wherever they may be.<\/p>\n

Head nod to Taleo for the discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most career ladders go something like this \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associate 1 –> Associate 2 –> Professional 1 –> Professional 2 –> Senior Pro Ladder \u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associate 1 –> Associate 2 –> Professional 1 –> Management Ladder It\u2019s all really quite predictable.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,20,3,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hr-technology","category-talent-management","category-vendors","category-workforce-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}