Case Studies

Implementing A Career Management System And The Power Of Engagement

More and more data supporting the impact of employee engagement is flowing out of corporations and consulting firms: "Incremental gains in employee engagement increase profitability, productivity, and customer satisfaction." One of the critical questions executives are asking is "How do we maximize our employee job engagement and be careful with our resources in a turbulent economic climate?:" The Conference Board recently released a summary of multi-national employee engagement research that clearly points out the roadmap for increasing employee engagement through job and career enrichment. Eight primary drivers of engagement were identified and one-half of these drivers were directly related to the job and career of the employee:

The nature of the job
The line-of-sight between individual performance and company performance
Career growth opportunities, and,
Employee development

These four engagement drivers are deeply imbedded in the purpose of career management and act as powerful forces for engagement, commitment, and retention. The following case study gives an account of a company's implementation of a career management process for its employees.
About The Client
A wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, Inc., Manheim was established more than 60 years ago as a wholesale vehicle auction operation. Today, with more than 34,000 employees in 145 operating locations and 12 service centers worldwide, Manheim is the world's largest provider of vehicle remarketing services. In 2007, Manheim handled nearly 10 million used vehicles, facilitating transactions representing more than $59 billion in value. Manheim prides itself in transforming the wholesale vehicle buying and selling experience at live auctions and online through investments in technology, global expansion, and innovative products and services.

The Context
Manheim recognized that employing a highly engaged, focused and productive workforce would be a sustainable competitive advantage moving forward. This effort would require a comprehensive organizational change initiative and a strategic leadership team to lead the way. The area of the business that made sense to begin this effort was IT as technology is the lifeblood of Manheim and work needed to be done to improve engagement, create greater role clarity, and maximize productivity. Frustration among the full time IT staff had been mounting due to confusion as employees did not know how to grow, develop, advance or get promoted and it was time to act.

The Challenge
Manheim sought to develop a competency-based career management system to facilitate career planning and progression among the approximately 250 full-time and 200 contract employees within the global Information Technology (IT) organization. The intent was to support the attraction, selection, and development of IT professionals, thus leading to greater retention, engagement, productivity, and organizational effectiveness. BHI's Solution The centerpiece of the career management system is a set of detailed competencies, thus BHI proposed constructing high definition competency models for each of the 16 positions within the IT organization. Competency models include critical skills and behaviors that provide a validated framework of performance to select, train, develop, manage performance, and design a career management system based on aligned business and talent strategies (see Figure below).

Methodology
Step 1. Job Analysis
BHI first conducted a comprehensive job analysis to fully understand the tasks, responsibilities and content of each of the 16 positions. A thorough review of company and job-specific literature, such as training manuals and job descriptions was conducted, to understand the composition and structure of jobs, tasks, and expectations. Key executives were then interviewed to understand how the target group's performance is tied to company strategy and other talent issues from an executive perspective. To gather behavioral information directly from job incumbents, nearly 90 subject matter expert (SME) interviews were conducted with individuals selected by the Manheim task force and IT leadership based on their performance and tenure in the respective jobs. BHI recommended to Manheim that these SMEs also be representative of Manheim demographically. Lastly, a BHI team of consultants went on site to study the organizational culture and the work flow and processes within the IT group.

Step 2. Competency Model Development
Upon analysis of the data collected from the job research, BHI developed 16 preliminary competency models with definitions and behaviors and provided these to the Manheim task force members for review. BHI held a series of telephone focus group to further validate the models. Once the modifications were agreed upon and changes were made, the final models were presented to Manheim for implementation into the people practices.

Step 3. Behavioral Interview Development
BHI also developed custom behavioral interviews based on the competencies for each position. These semi-structured interviews included a set of questions and behavioral rating guides and scoring criteria for each dimension designed to assess job requirements and characteristics that were determined through research to be essential for success in each position.

Step 4. Career Path Development
BHI mapped the competencies across the progression of position levels to clearly understand the commonalities between the positions and levels within the IT group. Once the links were identified, BHI worked with Manheim to establish common career paths and clear progression steps from one level or job family to the next. The career path tool kit included qualification criteria for interested candidates, job descriptions, competency models, selection process steps, and developmental resources.

Step 5. Socialization and Implementation
Critical to the successful implementation of a Career Management System is a well-coordinated and comprehensive socialization effort. BHI partnered with Manheim to ensure that all stakeholders understand what the tools communicate and how they are to be used in various people practices. For broader socialization of the system and tools into the Manheim IT culture, BHI is supporting communication and branding efforts to ensure complete implementation, understanding, and buy-in of the models across the organization.

Step 6. Talent Audit for Succession Planning (currently underway)
To assist Manheim in establishing succession plans within the IT organization, BHI is collecting performance (competency-based supervisor ratings) and assessment data (personality and cognitive ability) from incumbents. This data will be used to identify individuals who demonstrate the current competence, potential for growth and readiness for promotion to the next level. Manheim will be provided with a resulting 9-box team level report illustrating these variables as well as individual developmental reports. BHI will then conduct a professional consultation to present the Talent Audit results and facilitate a succession planning discussion.

Special Considerations
Organizational Readiness Building a Career Management System is an organizational change initiative. In order for it to be successful, the senior-most member of the HR team must have a seat at the strategic table and Talent needs to be seen as a competitive advantage to business. Furthermore, people development must be a priority in the eyes of stakeholders. The following indicators also suggest that your organization or department may be ready for a Career Management System:

Clearly defined Mission, Vision, and Values
Business/Financial stability
Clear organizational structure
Departmental stability
Open, trusting partnership between HR and Departmental leadership

Measuring Success In order to determine the impact a Career Management System has on the organization, certain quantitative and qualitative measures can be studied. Potential valuable sources include the following:

Engagement Surveys
Performance metrics
Turnover/retention rates with ROI
Exit interview data/Anecdotal feedback
Employee/business workflow observations
Internal promotion rates

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