Advancing Careers,

Driving Results
Career Development for Business Success
Table of Contents
A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT 02

INTRODUCTION: HEIGHTENING THE CHALLENGE AND MEANING OF WORK 03

HOW THIS RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED 04

KEY FINDINGS: DEVELOPMENT PERFORMS 05

Regional Variations
IMPLICATIONS: RE-ENGAGING THE DISENGAGED 09

Career Development Linked to Individual Engagement Drivers

Career Development and Talent Attraction
Underlying World of Work Trends
RECOMMENDATIONS AND ADVICE: ALIGN TALENT WITH BUSINESS STRATEGY 14

Keys Drivers of Learning and Development

Be Systematic in Your Approach
Make It Cultural
CONCLUSION: THE DEVELOPMENT IMPERATIVE 18
A Word From the President
Job dissatisfaction doesn’t just destroy morale; it destroys businesses.
At Right Management, we have been seeing increasing signs that
employees in workplaces worldwide are becoming dissatisfied and
disengaged, with inevitable consequences for productivity and
business performance.

This white paper not only investigates the extent of discontent in the
workplace, but also offers a view, based on groundbreaking research,
of how the issue can be effectively addressed. In a major study of
organizational effectiveness involving more than 28,000 employees
around the world, we found that providing employees with learning
and development opportunities expands their capabilities and,
just as importantly, enhances their engagement with both their job
and organization.

Read on to discover what your organization can do to drive its results

by creating more satisfying jobs and careers for your most important
asset—your people.

Douglas J. Matthews
President & Chief Operating Officer
Right Management
 Introduction

Heightening the Challenge

and Meaning of Work
Boredom and discontent in the workplace is a serious business
performance issue. In a major international study of organizational
effectiveness involving more than 28,000 respondents, Right
Management has found that two-thirds of employees globally are
less than fully engaged by their work and organization. With weak
engagement translating into lower retention, greater absenteeism
and poorer productivity, organizations almost everywhere are
simply failing to perform to their true potential.

What can organizations do? Offering employees career development opportunities

provides an important answer. As our study shows, career development not only builds
skills and capacities that can help organizations achieve their strategic goals, but
also addresses the motivators driving employees to put their skills and capacities to
optimal use. Employees are looking for challenge in their jobs. They want to contribute
meaningfully to their organization’s success. By equipping employees to find greater
challenge and meaning in their work, career development promotes engagement and
enhances the performance of the individual and the organization alike.

3 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 How This Research Was Conducted
Conducted between November 2008 and January 2009, our
study surveyed 28,810 employees across 10 business sectors
in 15 countries to get their views on 11 major topics related to
organizational effectiveness.

Respondents indicated their level of agreement with nearly 100 different statements grouped
according to each of these 11 general topics. We then tested for statistically significant (i.e.
greater-than-chance) relationships between responses to the statement “There are career
opportunities for me at my organization”—an item belonging to the learning and development
topic—and responses to statements addressing engagement and other key determinants of
organizational effectiveness. While the existence of a strong relationship, or correlation, is not
necessarily an indication of a causal link, it does provide reasonable grounds for concluding
that causality may be involved. Over 90% of our respondents worked for private corporations
employing 50 or more people and earning revenues between $1 million and $1 billion. The
study used a stratified sample of employees that matched workforce population in each
country on several factors, including industry, size of organization, gender and age.

15 COUNTRIES
United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, UK , France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, China,
India, Japan, South Korea

EUROPE
NORTH AMERICA
JAPAN

ASIA-PACIFIC
MIDDLE EAST
AND AFRICA

SOUTH AMERICA

10 BUSINESS SECTORS
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing; Mining and Quarrying; Manufacturing; Electricity, Gas and Water Supply; Construction;
Wholesale and Retail Trade; Restaurants and Hotels; Transportation, Storage and Communication; Finance, Insurance,
Real Estate and Business Services; Government, Social and Personal Services

4 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Key Findings

Development Performs
Opportunity for learning and development is a top driver of
engagement. Of the 11 general topics, learning and development
opportunities was the second highest ranking item to drive
engagement, more important than leadership, culture and
compensation.

ENGAGEMENT DRIVERS BY TOPIC IN RANK ORDER

1. Work processes 6. Structure, roles and capability

2. Learning and development opportunities 7. Recognition and reward
3. Culture 8. Customer focus
4. Senior leaders 9. Strategy
5. Communication 10. Immediate managers

Our research revealed significant correlations between the statement “There are career
opportunities for me at my organization” and several statements and topics addressing
organizational effectiveness. The key findings include:

••Providing career opportunities drives engagement. Organizations that provide career

development opportunities are six times more likely to engage their employees than
organizations that do not. Fifty-four percent of employees who responded favorably to (i.e.
either agreed with or strongly agreed with) the statement “There are career opportunities for
me at my organization” reported being engaged. That figure compares to an engagement rate
of only 9% among employees who responded unfavorably to this statement.

5 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Figure 1: Impact of “There are career opportunities for me at my organization” on employee engagement

IMPACT OF “THERE ARE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

FOR ME AT MY ORGANIZATION” ON EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Engaged
54%
Favorable
Not Engaged 46%

9%
Unfavorable
91%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Global Benchmarking Study, December 2008

Base: 28,810 Global Employees

••Providing career opportunities drives retention. Organizations that provide career

development opportunities are more than four times less likely to lose talent in the next year
than organizations that do not. Only 5% of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed that
their organization provides career opportunities indicated that they planned to leave within
the next year. By contrast, 22% of those who did not agree that their organization provides
career opportunities said they planned to leave within a year.

Figure 2: Relationship between “There are career opportunities for me at my organization” and retention

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “THERE ARE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR

ME AT MY ORGANIZATION” AND RETENTION

Plan to stay for

under 1 year Favorable 5% 31% 64%
Plan to stay for 1 to
less than 5 years
Unfavorable 22% 37% 42%
Plan to stay for at
least 5 years

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

••Providing career opportunities drives productivity. Organizations that provide career

development opportunities are almost 2.5 times more likely to be productive than
organizations that do not. Seventy-two percent of employees who responded favorably to
the statement “There are career opportunities for me at my organization” reported that their
organization is productive. Among those who failed to respond favorably, by contrast, only
30% indicated that their organization is productive.

6 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Figure 3: Impact of “There are career opportunities for me at my organization” on productivity

IMPACT OF “THERE ARE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

FOR ME AT MY ORGANIZATION” ON PRODUCTIVITY

Productive
72%
Favorable
Unproductive 7%

30%
Unfavorable
36%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Global Benchmarking Study, December 2008

Base: 28,810 Global Employees

••Providing career opportunities drives performance. Organizations that are judged to

be a best performer are almost three times more likely to provide career development
opportunities than those that are judged to be a below-average performer. Sixty-three
percent of respondents who identified their organization as “one of the best performing
organizations in its sector(s)” also responded favorably to the statement “There are career
opportunities for me at my organization.” By contrast, a favorable view of their organization’s
commitment to providing career opportunities was taken by only 23% of those who identified
their organization as a below-average performer.

Figure 4: “There are career opportunities for me at my organization” by organization performance

“THERE ARE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES FOR ME AT MY ORGANIZATION”

BY ORGANIZATION PERFORMANCE

One of the best performing

63%
organizations in its sector(s)

Above average
55%
performer
Average
39%
performer

Below average 23%

performer Favorable

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Global Benchmarking Study, December 2008

Base: 28,810 Global Employees

7 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Our findings show a connection between providing career opportunities and all the links of
what we might call the performance chain. Career opportunities drive engagement, which, in
turn, drives retention and productivity. Best-performing organizations are significantly more
likely to provide career development opportunities than are below-average, average and even
above-average performers because best performers recognize that providing such opportunities
works. It yields measurable results.

REGIONAL VARIATIONS

••BRIC countries provide the most opportunities. At 68%, 59% and 53%, respectively,
employees in India, China and Brazil were most likely to agree or strongly agree that their
organizations provided career opportunities. France, Sweden and Japan recorded the lowest
favorable response rates at 38%, 36% and 33%, respectively. The United States’ favorable
response figure was 52%, the United Kingdom’s figure was 44% and Germany’s figure was
40%. It shouldn’t perhaps surprise us that the countries that appear to be providing the most
career opportunities are three of the four so-called BRIC nations whose economies are
widely recognized for their fast-paced development.

••Career opportunities double engagement in Japan. At 63%, Canada, the United States
and Denmark showed the highest engagement levels among employees who agreed or
strongly agreed that their organizations provide career opportunities. By contrast, in China,
South Korea and Japan, those who agreed or strongly agreed that their organizations provide
career opportunities reported engagement rates of only 44%, 32% and 23%, respectively—the
lowest rates of all 15 countries surveyed. Yet it is in these countries dwelling at the bottom of
the opportunities-engagement table that providing career opportunities has the biggest impact
on engagement. In Japan, where only 11% of respondents reported being engaged, extending
career opportunities to all employees would more than double engagement rates to 23%. The
increases would be comparable in South Korea, where engagement would rise from 18% to 32%,
and in China, where it would rise from 29% to 44%. Extending career opportunities would have
a significant impact even in countries at the top of the table. In Canada, the United States and
Denmark, engagement would increase by more than one-quarter.

••Career opportunities double retention in South Korea, Brazil and China. German,
Canadian and U.S. respondents who agreed or strongly agreed that their organizations provide
career opportunities were most likely to indicate that they would stay with their employer for
at least five years. The figure for Germany was 73%, for Canada, 71% and for the United States,
70%. The greatest impact on five-year retention, however, was recorded in South Korea, Brazil
and China. While only 21% of South Korean respondents who said that their employers fail to
provide career opportunities indicated they would stay at least five years, 56% of those who
said that their employers do provide opportunities indicated they planned to stay at least five
years. The comparable figures for Brazil were 27% and 60% and for China were 25% and 50%.
Intentions to stay, in short, more than doubled when career opportunities were provided.

8 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Implications

Re-engaging the Disengaged

The true significance of our findings can be appreciated only
when considered in relation to accumulating evidence that a large
and growing number of employees are not satisfied with their
jobs and places of work.
Our organizational effectiveness study itself provides a good deal of this evidence. It found
that only 34% of employees worldwide are fully engaged by their jobs and organizations. In
none of the countries surveyed did engagement levels top even 50%. The highest levels were
recorded in India (45%) and the United States (44%). European countries ranged from a high
of 40% (Denmark and Norway) to a low of 30% (Germany and France). East Asian countries
scored lowest of all, with China at 29%, South Korea at 18% and Japan at a mere 11%.

Figure 5: Engagement by country

ENGAGEMENT BY COUNTRY

Percent fully engaged India 45%

U.S. 44%
New Zealand 43%
Canada 41%
Denmark 40%
Norway 40%
Brazil 38%
Australia 36%
Sweden 34%
UK 33%
Germany 30%
France 30%
China 29%
South Korea 18%
Japan 11%

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Global Benchmarking Study, December 2008

Base: 28,810 Global Employees

9 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Our study approached engagement as a state of mind encompassing an employee’s
satisfaction with, pride in and commitment to both the job and the organization. It also took
into account an employee’s willingness to speak well of (or advocate for) his or her job and
organization. Clearly, the low levels of engagement revealed by our study indicate that many
employees worldwide are not only less than satisfied with their work and workplace, but also
less than committed, less than proud and less than willing to advocate.

Figure 6: Employee Engagement: Four Factors, Two Levels

RGANIZATION JOB ORGANIZATION

ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT
Factors

mmitted to doing what 1 I am committed to doing what I am committed to doing what

quired to help my is required to perform my is required to help my
anization succeed. Commitment job well. organization succeed.

roud to work for my 2 I am proud of the work I do. I am proud to work for my
organization. Pride organization.

I would recommend my
eak highly of my organization to my friends I speak highly of my
3
organization’s and colleagues as a great organization’s
Advocacy products and services.
ducts and services. place to work.

I am satisfied with my 4 Overall, I am satisfied with Overall, I am satisfied with my

zation as an employer. Satisfaction my job. organization as an employer.

FULLY ENGAGED

These indications of dissatisfaction are supported by other research. In a recent poll of more
than 900 workers across North America, Right Management found that a remarkable 60% of
respondents plan “to pursue new job opportunities as the economy improves in 2010.” A further
21% indicated that they are considering making such a move and are actively networking as a
result. Only 13% said they intended to stay. Our results are largely consistent with the findings
of the Herman Group, which in its “Herman Trend
JOB Alert: 2010 Workforce/Workplace
ORGANIZATION Forecast”
Factors ENGAGEMENT ENGAGEMENT

I am committed to doing what I am committed to doing what

Commitment is required to perform my is required to help my
job well. organization succeed.

10 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

I am proud of the work I do. I am proud to work for my
Pride organization.
 reports that “54 percent of today’s employees are ready to jump, as soon as the economy
improves.” Even if many of these employees fail to follow through on their stated intentions, as
may well prove the case, their survey responses reflect a significant degree of unhappiness in
the workplace. Contented, engaged employees are less likely even to consider leaving.

Figure 7: Most workers want to quit

DO YOU PLAN TO PURSUE NEW JOB OPPORTUNITIES AS THE ECONOMY IMPROVES IN 2010?

Yes, I intend to leave 60%

Maybe, so I’m networking 21%

Not likely, but I’ve

4%
updated my resume

No, I intend to stay 13%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Right Management online poll of 236 employees conducted in November 2009.

More evidence of discontent emerges in a recent Conference Board study involving 5,000
representative U.S. households. Researchers found that only 45% of U.S. employees find their
jobs satisfying and only a slim majority (51%) find their jobs interesting. This study is worth
pausing over since it not only presents a snapshot of employee attitudes at the moment,
but also identifies a long-term trend. Job satisfaction, it reveals, has declined by 16% since
1987, with about a quarter of that decline (nearly 4%) occurring in 2008 alone. The recession
has clearly had a significant impact on workforce unhappiness, but the trend is not merely
cyclical and the challenge not merely short-term. The Conference Board’s figure for U.S. job
satisfaction (45%), we should note, is almost identical to Right Management’s figure for U.S.
employee engagement (44%).

It is, then, in the context of extensive disengagement, dissatisfaction and discontent within
workforces worldwide that we need to understand the findings of our organizational
effectiveness study. Career development represents one of the most effective means
organizations have at their disposal of addressing this pressing talent management issue.
Employees are not inspired by their jobs. Career development offers them opportunities to
assume roles of greater interest, challenge and/or variety, while providing greater meaning in
work by linking individual effort to the larger purposes of the organization. Employees want
to understand how they fit into the larger picture and they want to participate meaningfully
in helping the organization realize its strategy. Providing career development makes such
understanding and participation possible.

11 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 CAREER DEVELOPMENT LINKED TO INDIVIDUAL ENGAGEMENT DRIVERS

A consideration of the top individual engagement drivers revealed by our study offers
penetrating insight into just how providing career opportunities can enhance engagement.
As stated earlier, our survey consisted of 100 statements grouped into general topics. We
analyzed the correlations not only of each general topic with engagement, but also of
each individual statement. Of all the statements comprising our survey, “There are career
Providing career
opportunities for me at my organization” showed the 15th highest correlation. That ranking
development
alone demonstrates the connection between providing career opportunities and engagement.
opportunities It is important to appreciate, however, that providing career opportunities is
touches on at also connected with individual engagement drivers even higher on the list.
least six of the
top 10 individual INDIVIDUAL ENGAGEMENT DRIVERS
engagement
drivers. In order of their ranking, the top 10 of these individual engagement drivers
are as follows:
1. I am committed to my organization’s core values (strategy)
2. Our customers think highly of our products and services (customer focus)
3. My opinions count (communications)
4. I have a clear understanding of what is expected of me at work
(structure, roles and capability)
5. I understand how I can contribute to meeting the needs of our customers
(customer focus)
6. I have been fairly rewarded (recognition and reward)
7. Senior leaders value employees (senior leaders)
8. Everyone is treated with respect at work, regardless of who they are (culture)
9. I can concentrate on my job when I am at my work area (work processes)
10. My personal work objectives are linked to my work area’s business plan (strategy)

A well-designed career development program can help employees arrive at a better

understanding of the organization, including its core values (1), and of what it expects of
each employee at work (4). Through such a program, employees can better understand how
they can contribute to customer needs (5) and how their personal work objectives link to
their work area’s business plan (10). Providing career development is also a means by which
senior leaders can show that they value employees (7) and by which the organization
(when programs are available universally) can demonstrate that they treat everyone with
respect, regardless of who they are (8). Providing career development opportunities, in
short, touches on at least six of the top ten individual engagement drivers.

12 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND TALENT ATTRACTION

An additional benefit of providing career development involves talent attraction. If organizations

do, indeed, begin to see talented employees leaving in large numbers within the next year,
implementing effective career development initiatives could play a strong role not only in
reversing the trend, but also in filling vacant positions. Right Management recently conducted a
survey asking, “What is most important when considering a new employer?” Respondents singled
out career development prospects by a wide margin. Organizations offering career development
opportunities attract new talent by building their brand as an employer of choice.

Figure 8: ”What is most important when considering a new employer?”

EMPLOYEES VALUE CAREER DEVELOPMENT MOST

Career development prospects 40%

Work/life balance 21%

Innovative company culture 15%

Competitive compensation 12%
and benefits
Good rapport with manager 8%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Right Management online poll of 236 employees conducted in November 2009.

UNDERLYING WORLD OF WORK TRENDS

Talent mismatch driving need for organizations to develop talent. The case for providing
career development must also be understood in conjunction with trends in the world of work tied
to changing demographics. In many countries, the working-age population is either growing more
slowly than in the past or experiencing outright decline. One result is an increasing talent mismatch:
as highly skilled employees retire and as the nature of available work shifts, organizations are
already encountering difficulties filling key high-skill positions even as, paradoxically, they reduce
their workforces generally. Since this talent mismatch is only likely to intensify as the population
ages, the importance of developing talent that can help the organizations meet evolving needs
will become ever more urgent. Career development enables employees to proactively own their
career progression in view of the new skills they will need in the changing world of work.

Employees demanding more choice and greater opportunity. Another outcome of

demographic trends is a more varied, multi-generational workforce composed of individuals
with unique needs and desires. Especially in high-skill work environments, individuals will
expect, and be granted, more choices and greater control over their working lives. Even though
organizations have shed jobs and placed increasing emphasis on employee productivity, they
will increasingly find it necessary to adopt a new model that gives employees a more active
role to play, with higher levels of contribution and participation. Highly talented employees will
look for workplaces where they can express their individuality and realize their aspirations. A
workplace that doesn’t promote, enable and support personal interests and creativity, and isn’t
interested in listening to new ideas, is unlikely to hold many attractions.

13 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Recommendations and Advice

Align Talent with Business Strategy

What are the building blocks of an effective career development
strategy? How do organizations ensure that they demonstrate
their commitment to employees, that they have the right people
with the right skills to meet current and future business needs,
and that employees understand how they can contribute to the
organization’s success? What, in short, do organizations need to
do to provide employees with career opportunities?
KEYS DRIVERS OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Our organizational effectiveness study provides some high-level guidance by identifying key
drivers of “There are career opportunities for me at my organization.” In order of impact, the
top seven are:

1. I am encouraged to take ownership of my own development

2. I receive the development I need to do my job well
3. I know how to progress in my organization
4. My organization invests in its people’s learning and development
5. There is sufficient incentive to perform well at my organization
6. My organization ensures that there are people ready to move into jobs when
positions become available
7. My immediate manager facilitates effective discussions about my
career development

Investing in learning and development (4) and ensuring that individuals receive the development
they need to succeed in their jobs (2) are obvious steps in creating meaningful career
opportunities. So too is providing performance incentives (5): employees must be given reasons
for advancing their careers. Clearly, organizations that ensure that they have people ready to
move into newly available positions (6) signal their commitment to providing career opportunities
rather than hiring from the outside. The most powerful driver of “There are career opportunities
for me at my organization” is empowering employees to take ownership of their development
(1). In part, such empowerment must involve ensuring that employees know how to progress (3),
which, in turn, may depend on managers facilitating effective career discussions (7).

14 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 These drivers, then, can be reduced to four essential recommendations:

1. Prefer developing from within versus hiring from the outside

2. Ensure that your investment in learning and development is meaningful
3. Provide employees with incentives to progress
4. Make employees partners in their own development—empower them

BE SYSTEMATIC IN YOUR APPROACH

How, then, do you invest? How do you make employees partners in their own development?
How do you ensure that qualified people are available internally to fill vacancies? An essential
step is to create a formal career development program. Depending on the needs of the
organization, such a program could take a variety forms, but certain features are universally
applicable. A distinction must first be drawn between the accountabilities of the organization
and those of employees.
Ten of the top Organizations Should Conduct a Skills and Needs Inventory. The organization must
15 individual undertake a rigorous analysis of present workforce skills and future talent needs. Creating
drivers of an inventory of present skills and future needs is key to giving proper direction to individual
development. Development cannot succeed for the individual, let alone for the organization,
engagement
unless it is strategically oriented towards achieving larger business goals. Employees who
can, in fact, be
develop capabilities of little relevance to their job or organization won’t have an active part to
tied to career play in the organization’s success.
discussions.
Organizations Should Emphasize Meaningful Career Discussions. The organization must
also take the lead in initiating and facilitating meaningful career discussions. Facilitating career
discussions is an essential step in empowering employees to drive their own development.
This point is worth emphasizing because our research shows that career discussions between
employees and immediate managers are rare. In a recent poll involving more than 650 U.S.
employees, 37% of respondents indicated that they never engage in career discussions with
their managers, while 29% said they engage in such discussions just once a year. Only 16%
reported that they have career discussions once a quarter. Skilling and equipping managers to
have regular, meaningful, career coaching conversations with employees is a foundational step
in a systematic career development program. Just as important is holding managers accountable
for holding those career conversations as part of any systematic career development program.
Career discussions are not only vital to providing career development opportunities for
employees, it offers managers an occasion to address directly many of the top individual
drivers of engagement that were revealed in our organizational effectiveness study
(referenced above). Career discussions, for example, can be used to explore and/or reinforce
the organization’s core values; demonstrate that employees’ opinions count; that senior
leaders value employees; and help employees understand what is expected of them at
work and how they can contribute to meeting the needs of the customer. Ten of the top 15
individual drivers of engagement can, in fact, be tied to career discussions.

15 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Employees Should Be Accountable for a Process of Career Discovery. A successful
learning and development program cannot rely on the organization alone. With guidance,
support and tools from their organization, employees must be held accountable for engaging
in a process of career discovery. This process should involve three phases:
••Self-discovery. Individuals employ reliable assessment tools to help them better
understand their abilities, interests and values. They must receive assistance in evaluating
assessment results.

••Organizational discovery. Individuals look beyond their current role and business unit
to explore the needs, success factors, strategy, direction and values of the organization as
a whole. By doing so, they gain a more thorough insight into how their abilities, interests
and values can be aligned with the organization’s priorities. It is here that the organization’s
inventory of talent needs would come into play.

••Career discovery. Individuals evaluate options, develop a career map and hone skills,
enabling them to manage their careers proactively. They receive guidance in the form of
structured career discussions with managers and team members.

This process must be continuous and dynamic. An individual’s interests change, as do the
priorities of an organization. Career maps should not be set in stone, but regarded as guides
that will evolve as the individual evolves in his/her role.
Rolling out a formal career development program across an entire organization can be a
complicated and daunting proposition. A proven approach to lessening the burden would be
to build momentum gradually by starting with small pilot projects, moving on to individual
business units and eventually the organization as a whole.

16 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

Case Study
REAL EXAMPLES
Career Management Improves Retention

A leading global consumer products organization began experiencing

retention issues after a downsizing initiative significantly reduced
upward career growth opportunities for remaining employees. In
response, the organization, partnering with Right Management,
introduced a career management program equipping employees to
be more proactive and successful in managing their own careers.
Participants engaged in self-discovery and career planning activities
involving assessments, workshops and one-on-one coaching. In
analyzing results, the company found that attrition among those who
participated in the program fell to less than half of the company’s
average and its return on investment exceeded 200%.
 MAKE IT CULTURAL

A formal career development program alone is not enough to provide employees with career
opportunities. If formal development is not to devolve into a set of sterile procedures, it must
be embedded in an organization-wide culture of learning and development. Senior leaders,
immediate leaders and employees all have a role to play in fostering such a culture.
An essential condition is the support of senior leadership. Senior leaders must throw their
weight behind career development, present it as a key strategic imperative and emphasize the
role of employees in taking ownership of their own careers. Doing so provides leaders with
a clear opportunity to demonstrate that they value employees, treat them with respect and
appreciate their opinions. As our organizational effectiveness study has shown, these are all
key engagement drivers.
The role of immediate leaders is to help make the organization’s career development
intentions real and impactful. They must approach career development as a key responsibility
and hold themselves accountable for enhancing their career coaching skills, as a means of
supporting employees to realize their career goals. Facilitating varying work responsibilities,
offering stretch assignments, implementing a job-rotation scheme or providing opportunities
to run with new projects or initiatives, can support employees in their learning and growth on
the job. By initiating effective career development discussions, leaders can help employees
better understand the organization’s core values and mission, what is expected of them in the
organization’s changing landscape, how they can contribute to realizing the organization’s
strategy, and how they can access opportunities beyond their immediate role. These, again,
have all been identified as important engagement drivers.
Employees, finally, must develop the capacity and be given the license to manage their
work and careers proactively. They must take the initiative not only in understanding the
organization and its priorities, but also in pursuing the experiences and skills that will help
them grow in their role, and in taking ownership of their work.

18 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

 Conclusion

The Development Imperative

Workforces worldwide are showing increasing signs of being dissatisfied and disengaged,
even as a large and growing body of research has drawn a direct line from engagement
through retention, productivity and, ultimately, business performance. Organizations that
fail to address workplace discontent risk losing their competitive advantage; their ability
to respond quickly and effectively to changing market conditions; their investment in key
talent with hard-to-replace skills; and whatever productivity gains they have achieved. Our
evidence indicates that career development can make a significant contribution to diffusing
the threat. Career development provides work with interest, challenge and meaning. Aligning
the skills and capabilities of the employee with the business strategy of the organization
satisfies the need of employees to make a difference and invest in the organization’s success.
It drives engagement, retention, productivity and performance.

19 ADVANCING CAREERS, DRIVING RESULTS

About Right Management
Right Management (www.right.com) is the talent and career management
expert within Manpower, the global leader in employment services. Right
Management helps clients win in the changing world of work by designing
and executing workforce solutions that align talent strategy with business
strategy. Our expertise spans Talent Assessment, Leader Development,
Organizational Effectiveness, Employee Engagement, and Workforce
Transition and Outplacement. With 300 offices in over 50 countries, Right
Management partners with companies of all sizes. More than 80% of
Fortune 500 companies are currently working with us to help them grow
talent, reduce costs and accelerate performance.

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