Another good article here from WSJ titled New Career, Same Employer. The gist of the article:
Ernst & Young LLP last year named Nancy Harley director of career mobility for the Americas, a new position designed to help employees of the accounting firm move into new roles. “The longer someone stays intrigued and challenged, the longer they’re going stay with the firm,” Ms. Harley says.
Observers say employers are creating or expanding these programs to improve retention rates in a competitive job market, particularly as Baby Boomers begin to retire.
The initiatives typically include Web-based programs for evaluating employees’ career goals and suggesting relevant paths.
Interesting title – director of career mobility. That position, or some form of it, may become quite common in the next 5 years. Evaluating skills, talents and motivations is already a common tool used today by companies in both hiring, evaluating and promoting.
Here is an example from the article of how a large company handles this topic:
Accenture’s career-change initiative includes resources such as an online skills-assessment tool and a Web page featuring video clips of workers who have changed careers at the company. Every Accenture employee has an internal career counselor. Employees are urged to work with these counselors to develop a plan, including searching the company’s internal online job board.
I like the idea of an internal career counselor. Obviously, Accenture is large so they have the ability to offer these resources. However, managers can still be tuned into these topics with their employees. This management skill will surely become more important as Gen Y increasingly becomes the largest generation in the workforce.
On a related note, I wrote an article a couple years ago that talked about Gen X and Y desiring a skills path for their personal development. You can read it here.