By Rachel Emma Silverman
For years, companies have left employees to figure out their
careers on their own. Now, a handful of firms are helping workers
map out their next steps.
Big companies like Aflac Inc., Genentech Inc. and American
Express Co. are hiring career counselors, training some managers to
give job advice and launching in-house career centers similar to
those found on college campuses. Other companies, such as Accenture
PLC, are taking steps to better market internal job opportunities
and make clear what it takes to land a new position.
As the hiring market heats up, the idea is to help workers plot
their next few jobs and learn how to ascend the corporate
ladder--preferably without having to leave the company.
Company career centers are open to everyone, but human-resources
executives say that some efforts are designed to appeal to younger
workers who are demanding more clarity about their prospects, and
in some cases, want to feel they are being groomed for bigger and
better things.
"There [are] a lot of questions and uncertainty about what's
next for us. When do you talk to your managers about your next
move? When do you start looking for your next job?" says Julianne
Strom, a 26-year-old marketing manager at HR technology company
Workday Inc. "We are all unsure about that."
Workday started a new program late last year to promote job
postings internally and to train managers to tackle young workers'
career questions. As the nine-year-old company has grown to more
than 3,500 workers, top leaders wanted a formalized approach to
developing people's careers, rather than just "letting it happen,"
says Ashley Goldsmith, the Pleasanton, Calif., company's chief
human resources officer.
Less than half of the respondents to a recent Towers Watson
survey of 32,000 workers and 1,600 employers said they felt their
companies provided useful career-planning tools or meaningful
chances to get ahead. Lack of career opportunities ranks after pay
as a major reason why workers leave firms, consulting firm Towers
Watson says.
Employee retention is becoming a bigger worry for employers as
the economy improves. More than a third of companies report rising
turnover, according to Towers Watson, with more than half
indicating they are having trouble keeping top performers.
Veronica Covington logs a few hours a week at the career center
at Aflac's headquarters, where she practices mock interviews with a
counselor and researches job opportunities.
Ms. Covington, 29, says meetings with a career counselor helped
her advance three levels, from a research specialist to her current
job as an account relations specialist for the Columbus, Ga.,
insurer. At first, she said she wasn't sure she was qualified for
some higher-ranking positions until the career adviser encouraged
her.
Aflac started the career center after employee surveys showed
staff was unsure about their next step at the insurer, with many
indicating they felt unprepared to win promotions, says Teresa
White, president of Aflac U.S. Ms. White says the career tuneups
have helped Aflac hang on to talented workers, but they have
resulted in departures too."All this career counseling and career
planning sometimes leads to a career that Aflac does not have," Ms.
White says.
Last year, about 20% of Genentech's employees used its South San
Francisco, Calif., career center, which offers workers five
45-minute career counseling sessions a year, along with skills
assessments and other services.
American Express recently opened a second career counseling
center, primarily used by its call-center workers. The new center
in Phoenix provides classes on topics such as crafting a résumé and
building a "personal brand," the company says.
To be sure, not all career moves are mapped out years in
advance, especially in fast-changing industries such as technology.
Some firms have begun highlighting unconventional career switches
or lateral or cross-functional career moves.
Several years ago, exit interviews at Coca-Cola Amatil (NZ)
Ltd., the Coca-Cola bottler in New Zealand, showed that most
employees left because they thought they didn't have substantial
career opportunities within the company.
As a result, the company launched a series of initiatives to
help boost internal career options, says Martin King, general
manager of human resources. The company uses a software tool made
by Fuel50 that allows workers to rank what they value in a job,
such as money, flexibility or travel, and then matches them with
positions that meet their criteria. In a program launched this past
fall, workers can also sign up for coffee meetings with senior
managers to talk about career concerns.
Two years in, the efforts have resulted in 50% reduction in
turnover; for those who do leave, fewer blame the lack of career
opportunities, says Mr. King.
As online coupon company RetailMeNot Inc. grew rapidly from a
tiny Austin, Texas, startup to a publicly traded company with more
than 500 employees, company surveys showed that its young workforce
was "looking for better defined career paths and timelines," says
spokesman Brian Hoyt. "Workers were saying that 'It isn't enough
for me to work at a fun Internet company,'...they wanted to know
where their career was going," he says.
Last year, managers at the company overhauled internal job
postings, moving from simple job descriptions to a more detailed
list of responsibilities and competencies, along with a rundown of
the skills necessary to get the job, says Annette Alexander,
RetailMeNot's vice president of human resources. The company is
also training managers to provide career advice to their young
reports.
Garrett Bircher, 26, an associate product manager, says when he
started at RetailMeNot in 2011 "It was super startup-y," with no
coherent approach to employees' careers. "Now I feel more secure. I
know four jobs ahead of me now where I want to go and what it takes
to get there."
Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at rachel.silverman@wsj.com
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