Take Two - Managing
the Careers of Technical Specialists
Copyright © 2006 Marion Stone
Used with permission of the author:
Author:
Marion
Stone
Director
Cornerstone Connections
marion@cornerstoneconnections.co.za
www.cornerstoneconnections.co.za
20 April 2007
Back to ... Workinfo.com Human Resources Magazine Volume 1
Issue 8, 2007
Hayley, one of your
graduate accountants, has just resigned after only 18 months service. She may not
be the most experienced in the company, but you can barely keep graduate
trainees long enough to get a return on the investment of recruiting and
training them. And the time that you will need to spend to find a replacement for her
doesn’t bear thinking about …
The growth of the
economy and the challenges of the BEE scorecard mean that South African business
is starting to feel the impact of skills shortages in specific sectors. Organisations
have often referred to ‘people being our greatest asset’ but never has it been
quite so true as in today’s environment.
For many years now,
organisations have fought their competitors on the battleground of
efficiency and the tight control of resources. Now that efficiency
has become more of a
given, competitiveness rests on being effective, which is about working smarter
through your people. As a result, the engaging and retaining of your
skilled and talented employees has become an important strategic
consideration because it affects your competitiveness as an
organisation.
Organisations will need to take things a step further than just quoting the platitude
‘people are our greatest asset’.
Why do they leave?
Organisations need to
find a way to find a way to engage their employees to retain them since
engagement is a measure of commitment to the organisation. A CLC study showed that
employees who are engaged perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to
leave the organisation.1
The reasons for
leaving an organisation will be varied and personal to individuals
but the same study
showed that key contributing factors include feeling a lack of connection to the
organisation. Connection is achieved by making sure that individuals understand
how their work contributes to the organisation’s success and by providing
career development opportunities.
How do we keep them?
In the past,
opportunities would come with time as employees moved incrementally up the
career ladder. Associated with each move would be increases in
responsibility and reward. This pattern is not a given in today’s
environment where
organisational structures are flatter and rates of change mean that the position you
are targeting today may be gone tomorrow.
Opportunities for
technical specialists can be even more restricted because their skills are not easily
transferable to other business functions. They become specialists because
they enjoy their chosen area of expertise and will look for opportunities to be
rewarded and recognised for the depth of their knowledge.
Consider Mike, a
senior engineer who is performing well enough to be offered a managerial role, but
who chooses to stick with his area of expertise. Within a couple of years he is
watching colleagues who started at the same time as him and who opted for the
managerial route earning considerably more than he is.
What lesson does Mike
take from this? Clearly the organisation values managerial skills more than
technical skills.
So often technical
specialists take the management route because they see no alternatives. This
produces managers that resent having to deal with ‘people issues’, which take
them away from what they actually like doing – the technical stuff! High levels of
dissatisfaction in these cases result in high turnover.
So, what are the
alternatives? Some possibilities include:
-
Dual Career Paths
-
Projects and
Relocation
-
Position Creation
Dual Career Paths
Dual career paths
allow technical specialists to progress through the organisation without giving up
contact with their field of expertise. Ideally there should be an option to choose one
of two career paths – the one technical and the other managerial. The career
paths need to be of equal length and should run parallel in terms of seniority,
reward and other benefits.
Projects and
Relocation
Technical specialists
can act as advisors and mentors on projects where they stand to develop a
broader understanding of the business. Others on the project will gain additional
technical skills through the mentorship of the specialist.
Another possibility is
relocating specialists between divisions so that they get to practice their skills
in a different environment. Or create an interdisciplinary group to generate some
creative thinking. If you always recruited chemical engineers, why not add
a chemist or a physicist to the mix?
Position Creation
If an organisation has
a particularly talented technical specialist, why not consider creating a position
that plays to their strengths? Consider internal consultant or strategic advisor
roles. This works most effectively when the technical specialist has reasonably well
developed competencies and interpersonal skills.
How do we support
them?
Underpinning these
strategies is the organisation’s responsibility to help
technical specialists to
understand and work with their own career. The way in which this
is done is through career
coaching or career development workshops. The purpose of such interventions
is to help them plan their career through being clearer as what their own values,
skills and interests are and then matching them with organisational
opportunities. This way, technical specialists are equipped to
take charge of their
career, which gives them a greater sense of control.
A career development
process includes 3 important stages:
-
Self-Assessment
-
Innovation
-
Impact
Self-Assessment
The core questions to
ask at this stage are –
Who am I? Where am I
now?
This is a reflective
stage where motivations, interests and skills are examined.
Self-assessment
provides essential information about what is important and interesting to
individuals and will help them to assess whether career opportunities are
appropriate
Innovation
The core questions to
ask at this stage are –
Where am I going?
Where do I want to be?
This is a
visualisation stage where individuals describe what they want for
their life and career.
Impact
The core questions to
ask at this stage are –
How will I get there?
Am I achieving my goals?
This is essentially a
planning stage where goals and plans to achieve these goals are shaped to ensure
that individuals remain focussed and take proactive steps to reach their goals.
This limits reactive career decisions.
The career development
approach equips technical specialists to make conscious career choices. It
does not work in splendid isolation however and organisations must ensure that line
managers are equipped to support the process.
Other support tools
and processes like job boards, mentoring and feedback are also essential in
maintaining momentum.
The rewards of
investing time in a retention strategy for technical BYT’s are obvious. Just think
again as to how much time and effort will go into replacing Hayley….
1 "Driving Performance and Retention
through Employee Engagement", Corporate Leadership Council,
2004
Marion
Stone is an
experienced training and development consultant with over 10 years
of experience both nationally and internationally. Her
comprehensive understanding of training strategy and practice has
been acquired in various sectors including manufacturing, FMCG,
construction, media and travel. Her work has focused predominantly on middle managers although she has worked with
various levels within the business from the shop floor to senior
managers.
Marion
holds a first degree in chemistry (UCT) and an MSc in Strategic
Training and Development (
University
of
Surrey Roehampton
). She is accredited by the South African Board of Personnel
Practitioners as a Chartered HR Practitioner. Her diverse
background ensures a practical approach to development activities
that are joined up with organisational goals and processes.
She can be contacted at marion@cornerstoneconnections.co.za.
For regular
newsletters from Marion click on 'Subscribe to newsletter' on
www.cornerstoneconnections.co.za.
Cornerstone
Connections builds
connections between the organisation and it’s employees and
between managers and their teams. Consultancy and training are
offered in the areas of:
Short
description
The growth of the
economy and the challenges of the BEE scorecard mean that South African business
is starting to feel the impact of skills shortages in specific sectors. Organisations
have often referred to ‘people being our greatest asset’ but never has it been
quite so true as in today’s environment.
Keywords and
relevant phrases
Commitment, competitiveness, dual career path, engagement,
human resource, impact, innovation, position creation,
project, recruitment, relocation, retention, self-assessment,
support, training.
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Issue 8, 2007
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