A global consumer goods company located in the Midwest part of the United States faced a challenge. Nearly 70% of their new leaders were acquired externally, and they were struggling to integrate within the company’s culture. The organization had a strong talent acquisition team that brought in excellent talent, but these individuals were not getting promoted within the organization.
The objective was to develop a clear, simple, and standard career progression model that could be adapted in functions throughout the system. It was important that there was alignment in the company’s leadership behaviors defined in their Leadership Competency Model, and the leadership team took accountability for the identification, development, and success of future leaders by improving their ability to support career development. This all had to be accomplished in a complex organizational structure with changing job titles, frequent organization changes, and shifting industry requirements.
Simplifying Roles for Success
LAK Group partnered with this organization to simplify roles into Career Platforms where there were similar job accountabilities, even when the titles were different. We then designed and implemented two core practices – Career Success Profiles and a Career Coaching structure to support the development of individuals interested in growing their career and the company.
The Career Success Profiles included the following elements:
- Leadership Expectation: Key capabilities that outline expected behaviors across all jobs, roles, and functions.
- Professional Traits: Professional skills needed to perform job activities successfully.
- Functional Capabilities: Technical skills required to deliver role outcomes and objectives.
- Key Experiences: Educational and work achievements needed to perform at exemplary levels in the role.
- Succession: Definition of next steps for individuals in the role and feeder roles into the succession plan.
The Career Coaching experience included unlimited access (through Oriel, our on-demand coaching platform) to professional career coaches for a six-month time frame to support the identification of internal career opportunities, creation of a development plan, and activation of this development plan. We also designed and implemented Career Conversations Workshops to support a manager’s ability to have effective career conversations with team members.
Tangible Results: Success with LAK
LAK Group challenges our partners to develop and integrate a scorecard for every talent initiative to measure progress and define a return on their investment. In this case, the global organization experienced the following outcomes in the second year after implementing their career success profile process:
- A shift to a focus on internal pipeline development with an increase to over 70% of leadership positions filled by internal talent.
- Retention of high-performing talent improved by just under 10% in two straight years.
- Increased participation in company development programs and perceived value of internal development resources.
- Engagement of teams where leaders were promoted internally increased by 16%.
The overall impact was strengthening and anchoring leadership and professional behaviors that support culture, retention, and career development while enhancing employee experience and commitment. For more information on creating tools, processes, and experiences that drive career development and retention within your organization, contact LAK Group at 262.219.2480 or info@lak-group.com.