Hiring with a termination date

It used to be easier to provide employees with a challenging career. When we hired people right after they completed their education, we introduced them into entry level positions and then showed them the corporate ladder, which they could climb, year by year until retirement. We had time, we had clear career progressions and we had the tools to identify potential managers, leaders, experts. And we also knew how to identify those who reached that point, where there was no longer a fit. But in the new world of work emerging around us this career management model no longer works. This idea of a stable career, a steady climb up the corporate ladder, a clear view into the future, it no longer exists. Today’s Work Futures column examines how career management is transforming for people and for organizations.

There are a number of trends at work here, redefining career progression. Because organizations are removing layers of management in order to adapt to the changes and necessary speed, it is no longer possible to measure career progression as a climb up grades and roles and management hierarchy. To add to this, the younger generations are challenging the notion that their progression should mirror that of those who came before them. With the rapid changes in technology, many new employees are in fact hired for the skills they bring into the organization, for capabilities that the organization needs and its experienced employees do not have. As a result, those new hires we used to consider “inexperienced” are sometimes able to contribute in ways that experienced employees can’t, challenging the relationship between experience and career progression. On top of all these, we are also seeing a change in how we manage work. We used to work within organized organizational structures, where one worked with the same people on one’s team and under a clear management chain. That too is no longer the case and today we often conduct our work in various work teams where our team mates don’t necessarily report to the same manager and our manager doesn’t necessarily manage our work.

We have to realize that in the new world of work careers are not managed by the organization, they are made possible there, but managed by the employees themselves. In this age, where roles and professions disappear and new ones are being created, it is no longer possible to define a professional identity by belonging to a job or an organization. Careers now consists of a collection of knowledge, capabilities and experiences which, together, shape our professional identity. The shelf life of many of the career elements we used to consider our experience has significantly shortened. We have no choice but to continuously identify those which will no longer carry us forward and create our own opportunities for learning and experience in order to keep ourselves relevant for the future. Think of production workers, who need to learn to run new machines, of programmers, who need to learn new machine languages, of designers who need to learn to use new tools and work with 3D printers.

Careers are now the responsibility of employees but organizations can certainly help and those who will, will find themselves at an advantage. This begins by allowing employees access to learning, both in terms of time and budget. Many organizations create agreements with content providers and provide employees with free access to online courses. But it is more important to understand that most of the learning comes not from courses but from work experience. Therefore we see today more and more organizations enabling their employees temporary experiences in the form of project or assignments, but also more frequent role transitions, sometimes flexing role requirements. In this way, the organization shows that it is committed to the development of its employees and enables them to develop new abilities and learn on the job.

In this new world of work, where people join organizations for a limited and relatively short time, organizations need to create career strategies to accommodate quick ramps, the ability to team and contribute and, on the other side, to recognize when a role has run its course and it is time to help the employees find their next job within the organization, otherwise they will find them elsewhere. Those organizations wise enough to encourage continuous learning are allowing their employees to identify areas of development and get the experience needed to build their skills. Such organizations are likely to engage and retain good employees, compared to those who still believe they can keep doing what they did in the past.

Even if you try, you can’t stop the changes or their impact on careers. We have to manage our careers for more years of our lives, through shorter periods in roles and organizations, and under constant pressure to keep our skills up to date and adapt to any new technologies and the changes they bring to our industries, professions, roles and capabilities. It is important to remember that a career is something we build over time, with every change of role, opportunity to learn something new, and with every experience. And that these can occurs in what is called ” work ” but they can also be gained in our free time, however we choose to use it. And organizations that understand this will support their employees’ need to remain relevant and provide appropriate experiences. And if they don’t, they are likely to discover that employees will find their own opportunities for development and might leave, perhaps earlier than is necessary. And that would be a shame.

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