Career Paths: Charting Courses to Success for Organizations and Their Employees(32 Talent Management Essentials)

CAREER PATHS “I like how Carter, Cook, and Dorsey have balanced the perspective and needs of the employee with the needs of the organization. They’ve provided a practical toolkit for practitioners, rooted in a strong conceptual model. I have looked at other sources on career paths in organizations, but this is the book I’d actually use to design a system.” Steven D. Ashworth Ph.D, Manager, Human Resource Research & Analysis, Sempra Energy Utilities “If you are, like me, a consultant who helps organizations develop and utilize their talent toward maximum performance; or a business leader building a worldclass organization with limited financial resources; or a Human Resources manager whose Generation Y employees are anxious to get ahead – you need to read this book. It clearly defines the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of using career path models as the foundation for a comprehensive talent management process.” Gena Cox Ph.D, Managing Consultant, Human Capital Resource Center Career Paths offers a career path model and useful tools and tips for developing, implementing, and integrating career paths into talent management systems. The authors describe the value of career paths from individual employee, organizational, and industry standpoints and show how career path efforts can be integrated with recruitment and hiring, strategic planning, succession management, employee development, and retention programs. With a sample career path guide and a list of resources for organizations, this book is an indispensable reference for HR professionals, managers and executives, training and development professionals, and organizational consultants.

Table of Contents:
Series Editor's Preface xi Preface xiii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 What are Career Paths? 2 The Goal of This Book 19 Overview 21 Chapter 2 A Conceptual Toolkit for Constructing Career Paths 23 Career Path Attributes 26 Career Path Patterns 27 Outcomes 29 The Bottom Line 31 Chapter 3 A Practical Toolkit for Constructing Career Paths 33 Sources and Methods 34 Past 34 Present 37 Future 37 A Note about the Special Role of Interviews and Focus Groups 38 How to Construct Career Paths 39 Initial Steps 39 Sequential List of Positions or Roles 47 Qualifi cations 53 Critical Developmental Experiences 54 Competencies that are Accrued, Strengthened, or Required 56 Career Success Factors 60 Other Information 63 Explicit Focus on Movement 64 Promoting Alignment 64 Assessment of Personal Attributes and Career Paths 64 Implementation Tips 65 The Bottom Line 67 Chapter 4 Integrating Career Paths into Talent Management Systems I: Recruitment, Hiring, Retention, Promotion, and Employee Development 69 Connecting the Employee to the Organization 69 Engaging the New Workforce 72 Recruitment and Hiring 73 Retention 80 Promotion 81 Development Planning and Execution 83 The Bottom Line 89 Chapter 5 Integrating Career Paths into Talent Management Systems II: Strategic Workforce Planning, the Early Identifi cation and Development of Executive Talent, and Succession Management 91 Keeping an Eye on the Big Picture 91 Strategic Workforce Planning 92 Identifying and Developing Early-Career, High-Potential Leadership Talent 95 Who Are Our High Potentials? 95 How Can We Develop (and Promote) Them Faster? 97 Managing Communications Regarding High Potentials 98 Succession Management 99 Evaluating Readiness for Promotion in the Context of Succession Management 101 Methods for Evaluating Readiness 102 Keeping Those "Not Yet Ready" on the Path(s) to Get There 102 The Bottom Line 105 Chapter 6 Expanding Success Beyond the Individual Organization – Industry and Economic Development Perspectives 107 Career Paths and the Industry Perspective 109 Examples 110 Differences between Industry Career Paths and Organizational Career Paths 116 Career Paths and the Economic Development Perspective 118 Examples 120 Differences between Career Paths Designed for Economic Development Purposes and Organizational Career Paths 124 Labor Market Analyses and Analyses of Cross-Occupation Requirements 125 Labor Market Analyses 125 Analyses of Requirements across Occupations 126 The Bottom Line 127 Chapter 7 Looking to the Future 129 Trend One – Demographic Trends 130 Implications for Organizations 131 Trend Two – Technology 132 Implications for Organizations 134 Trend Three – Globalization and Changing Organizational Structures 134 Implications for Organizations 135 Trend Four – Defi ning Career Success 136 Implications for Organizations 136 The Bottom Line 137 Career Path Resource List 139 Notes 143 References 147 Name Index 151 Subject Index 153

About the Author :
Gary W. Carter Ph.D, is a Vice President at Personnel Decisions Research Institutes (PDRI). He is the leader of human capital consulting services in PDRI’s Washington, DC office. Dr Carter is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist with over 20 years of experience designing and implementing human capital systems, and career path and talent management tools. Kevin W. Cook Ph.D, has 15 years of experience in design, development, implementation, and evaluative research of assessment and development methodologies at all employee levels. He is an expert in the field of talent management with an emphasis on global leadership assessment and development and multinational talent programs. David W. Dorsey Ph.D, is a Vice President at Personnel Decisions Research Institutes (PDRI). He has over 15 years of experience in human capital consulting and applied research and development. He has conducted innovative work in the areas of performance measurement, career management, and training and development, produced numerous professional publications, and received multiple research awards.