CASE STUDY: CAREER DEVELOPMENT AT KELLOGG'S

Career development is the process used to create opportunities for employees' professional interests and capabilities and to help meet current and future business needs.

Career development at Kellogg's is becoming a more formalized process. The changes for 2004 are subtle and include:

A new, required form (Employee Profile) to be completed by all Kellogg's non-production employees. The Employee Profile provides a snapshot of an employee's career, including biographical information, work experiences, development plans, and assessment on leadership competences and K-values.

The Individual Development Plan (IDP) has been incorporated into the Employee Profile. It includes an overview of employee development for current accountabilities and future career opportunities.

All people managers have a Performance Management Plan (PMP), which concerns their accountability for the development of employees.

Development is a critical process because:

Change seems to be occurring at a faster rate than ever and employees must learn to change and adapt quickly.

Relying solely on employees' current capabilities would place the company at a competitive disadvantage.

Recent survey data indicated that Kellogg's employees have an interest in development.

Focused development builds stronger teams and attracts and retains the best and brightest talent.

What is an effective development plan?

Development requires more than just identifying the areas or competences that are going to be developed. Just like a project at work, development is more successful when there is a specific plan to accomplish the change in behavior. Employees will have better success in development if their plan:

is tied to their PMP accountabilities ;has relevance to the business needs; is limited to three or four areas for development; has specific development actions required for each area; consists of primarily experience-based development actions; identifies the resources and support needed for each development action; specifies a date for completion.

Kellogg's philosophy is that the manager and the employee share responsibility for an employee's development. The employee is responsible for keeping skills current and developing skills for future opportunities. Managers make sure employees' expectations are realistic and opportunities to grow are offered and supported.

Manager's and employee's responsibilities for employee's development

Manager's role Employee's role

Review Employee Profile; Take responsibility for own

Complete the manager's page of career;

the Employee Profile; Perform well in current role;

Review previous feedback and Complete the employee page

development; of the Employee Profile;

Consider possible development Clarify career interests;

actions; Determine realistic career goals;

Understand what is required to Learn more about position

make development more requirements;

successful; Consider possible development

Create key messages to share with areas to focus on;

employee in meetings; Plan activities to improve in

Check with employees those areas;

intermittently to ensure they are Schedule meeting with

pursuing development; manager for career discussion;

Provide resources, opportunities, Send all relevant materials to

and support for development; manager (e.g. self-assessment);

Offer coaching and feedback at Follow up with manager if

appropriate times. obstacles are perceived;

Present manager with potential

solutions;

Request feedback and direction.

Question

Ask yourself what could your organization learn from Kellogs approach and how this process might be enhanced in the future.?