Career Paths vs. Career Frameworks and Talent Management

Friday, April 12, 2013

In my prior roles dealing with employee compensation and salary administration, I frequently developed structures for entire families of jobs. Most individuals are aware of such families, an example is accounting where an entry level position might be an accounting clerk progressing to the CFO. If job levels are associated with salary grades and ranges, each successive job level moves up one or two grade levels. This movement corresponds to an increase in job responsibility, scope, knowledge, skills, and abilities. Depending on the organization, there may be similar job families which parallel each other, examples might be roles in accounting, budgeting or financial management. Potentially, an employee might be able to move vertically within a family or laterally across family structures. These “ladders” or “lattices” of progression from one role to the next, ultimately allowing an employee to attain some desired goal, is generally recognized as a “career path”. However, career paths are more like a road map and often lack the details of how an employee accomplices a move from one position to another; this is the function of a “career framework”.

As the term implies, a career framework is both the structure for advancement as well as the means required for an employee to achieve that advancement. A career path is merely one component of a career framework. Career frameworks are well suited to high performers who generally take ownership for their own growth and shy away from some prescribed formula to advancement. Given our example of an accounting family, a career framework might indicate that knowledge of the International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) would be required for posting to the organization’s European offices in Brussels, Belgium. The framework might also indicate fluency in at least one foreign language, including French, German or Spanish. For posting to the organization’s European accounting and financial management offices may also require certification as the European equivalent of a CPA. Lastly, the framework spells out that a desirable candidate must have operational proficiency in the organizations, manufacturing, supply, and logistics functions in both domestic and international subsidiaries.

Career frameworks provide the focus for organizational units to develop a high performer’s talents and direct those talents to key business initiatives when and where they are required. They are applicable to all private and public enterprises regardless of their business cycle, capitalization, customer base, accounting charter or level of maturation. Essential to successful career framework implementation is management buy-in, clear concise employee communications, organizational alignment, adaptability, and flexibility. Career frameworks can focus on narrow set of roles or span the entire scope of the organization. They are not in and of themselves a guarantee for organizational success or achievement. Career frameworks are one tool in the organization’s kit to attract, retain, and motivate top performers and must be integrated along with candidate sourcing and onboarding, training and development, and total rewards.