Career Management: Whose Responsibility?
Career Management is no longer in the forefront of the company. Nor is it solely the responsibility of the individual, as current pundits are, apt to tell us. The reality is employees are the greatest resource any company has and it's never wise to use your resources imprudently. Sometimes we worry about our resources only after there is a problem. For example, some of our concern over the environment is after the fact as we hear of global warming, salmon in danger of extinction, and gang wars among young bull elephants in Africa who have no male role models. It may be too late in many cases. Perhaps now is the time to take a thoughtful look at how we are dealing with our people resources.
As companies faced the 1980's economic crises, it didn't take them long to find the most obvious source of their financial drain: Personnel. Knee jerk reactions to cut lows and get rid of people made bankers happy, but often left customers hanging. The early 1990's started a positive trend in the economy, but the dye had been cast, and companies and employees were beginning to learn the advantages of the "Company of One," as book after book came out urging employees to take charge of their careers, to be independent, to take care of themselves first. Employers were told of the distinct advantages of hiring temporary and contract workers for specific tasks, and then being able to let them go, not having to pay benefits or deal with downtimes. Loyalty is dead, the parent/child relationship of corporate America is a thing of the past, and good riddance.
Well, my friends, its time for a wake-up call. Agreeing that much of the change has been positive… people are taking control of their lives, they’ve become aware of life balance, the economy is booming, and companies are moving into the next century with renewed energy… but, we’re beginning to realize something is missing.
The old implied contract between employee and employer was not always good for either one, but it did provide a sense of stability, of identity, of commitment, of caring for each other and for the greater whole. It provided continuity and historical knowledge that can't be provided by people who come and go. It gave people a sense of community that is sadly missing in our transitory world of the late 20th century.
We tend to respond to crises like the movement of a pendulum, swinging to the extremes. Fortunately, as the crisis fades, and we begin to concentrate on what we are really about, we ease back to the middle and common sense again surfaces. My prediction for the new year is that we will become a wiser culture. We'll remember what we've always known deep inside. We are interdependent upon each other. The synergy we create together is far greater than the sum of the parts when we move as isolated entities.
Let's hope this becomes the year when once again, employers and employees are on the same team, not because they have to be, but because they choose to be. As people move from company to company, (and they surely will because the days of corporate ladders are rapidly disappearing), may their relationships be based on commitment, commitment to their own high standards of performance and of personal integrity. May they treat each other as though they really did expect to be together for the next 30 years... May they also each graciously recognize when they need to separate, and be able to do so with dignity and appreciation of each other as peer professionals.
By Dr. Jean Erickson Walker CMF Pathways/OI Partners, Inc.