Career development management is a comprehensive process in which organizations and employees design, plan, implement, evaluate, and provide feedback on their career lives. How to apply the competency model to employee career development management to enhance its scientific nature and effectiveness has been a new focus in enterprise human resource management in recent years.
Traditional Promotion Methods
Hewitt conducted a survey recently among companies in different industries and at various stages of development to study how these companies make decisions regarding employee promotions or career development. We found that companies generally adopt two traditional promotion methods: experience-oriented promotion and performance-oriented promotion.
Experience-oriented promotion refers to the method of using work seniority as the primary evaluation criterion, such as for junior and mid-level positions in the Big Four accounting firms. The Big Four hire large numbers of high-quality graduates each year and provide them with systematic training. In the first five years of an employee's tenure, they progress from level A3, A2, A1 to S2, S1... one level per year, with the only hard requirement being the completion of specified training and achieving satisfactory performance. With the exception of a few employees who are eliminated or held back, most employees receive promotions. This promotion method can be called a health-care type promotion, based on the assumption that the accumulation of work experience equates to an increase in ability. When employees are in the early stages of their careers and the company's training system is relatively complete, this assumption generally holds true. Therefore, this promotion method is more suitable for entry-level positions and groups where employees' overall qualities and learning abilities are relatively similar. Its advantage is that it can give employees a strong sense of job security. However, it does not reflect individual differences in ability and can easily lead to seniority-based promotions.
Performance-oriented promotion uses excellent performance in the current position as the main criterion, meaning selecting employees who perform well in their current roles to take on more challenging and valuable work. In the Big Four accounting firms, after reaching the S1 level and above, such as manager, senior manager, director, and partner positions, promotion requirements become stricter, with personal sales achievements, customer management, and project management results becoming prominent promotion criteria. The basic assumption of this promotion method is that current job performance reflects current ability levels and can predict future performance. However, in reality, there are significant differences in the abilities required for different positions, and those who achieve excellent performance in their current position may not necessarily perform well in the next position.
In practice, companies generally mix these two promotion philosophies.
Competency Model-Based Career Development Management
Traditional promotion methods have considerable limitations, such as insufficient reflection of individual differences and poor predictive power. As companies grow, employee career development is no longer limited to vertical promotions but also includes diverse horizontal expansions in career space. Making career development decisions solely based on experience or performance standards no longer meets modern management needs. An increasing number of companies are applying the concept of the competency model to employee career development management.
According to Hewitt's definition, competencies are "clearly related to individual or company performance, observable, measurable, and cultivable knowledge, skills, attitudes, and other personal characteristics."
A competency model for key positions in a high-tech company consists of six competencies, each divided into three levels from low to high, with specific behavioral descriptions for each level. Based on job responsibilities, each position has corresponding competency requirements.
For example, if an account manager named Zhang wants to aim for the position of department manager as his next career goal, under the condition that he is fully competent in his current role (account manager), he must further improve in the competencies of "developing new markets," "motivating employees," and "managing investments and risks" to reach a higher level to meet the requirements of a department manager. After clarifying the next career development goal and standard, this account manager can, with the support of the company, enhance his abilities in these areas through relevant training and by actively taking on developmental tasks. When a new position becomes available, the company will comprehensively evaluate and compare the abilities of several candidates before making a hiring decision.
Through job competency matching analysis, the company can clearly understand the strengths and gaps in employees' abilities, allowing for horizontal comparisons between different candidates to make accurate hiring decisions. If the selected candidate does not fully meet the target competency requirements, targeted intensive training and development can be provided to help them quickly adapt to the demands of their new position.
Compared to career development methods based on experience or performance, competency-based career development helps companies place individuals in the most suitable positions while providing employees with clear growth directions and goals.
Issues and Pitfalls
Even though competency-based career management still encounters some problems, the biggest headache for companies is the accuracy and cost of competency assessments.
◆ First, comprehensively and accurately evaluating an individual's competency level is relatively complex and incurs significant time and monetary costs.
◆ Due to the high time and economic costs of in-depth assessments (such as assessment centers), companies might use simple assessment results (like 360-degree feedback) as the basis for employee promotions and career development, which could lead to incorrect personnel decisions or cause employees to question the assessment results.
Our suggestion is to consider both cost and the accuracy of competency assessments comprehensively, classifying and stratifying employee groups. For relatively junior positions, simpler career development rules and standards can be established. For instance, when there is sufficient understanding of the competency model within the organization, direct supervisors can assess and provide feedback on junior employees' competencies, or to some extent, use performance or experience to replace competency assessment results. For relatively senior or key positions, we recommend using more accurate competency assessment tools and methods.
Additionally, purely using competency standards as a condition for career development might mislead employees, causing them to focus more on learning and growth opportunities than on their current job performance, which is a wrong orientation. Companies can set current job performance as a threshold for promotion or adopt the nine-box grid talent management method, combining performance and competency standards so that employees who stand out in both areas and contribute significantly to the company can prioritize career development opportunities.
Key Issues in Training and Education in China
China currently has the world's largest vocational education curriculum system (based on the number of graduates). However, although the number of vocational education graduates is increasing, the overall quality remains low.
Traditional teaching methods still dominate. Teaching continues to rely mainly on traditional lecture-style classroom learning. This method affects all levels. Employers commonly complain that new employees lack the ability to apply what they learned in the classroom, and classroom training provides fewer opportunities to develop soft skills and creativity.
Lack of work experience opportunities. To some extent, the culture and historical patterns of the education system hinder experiential learning opportunities. Companies generally hold a skeptical attitude towards participation; although people understand training and apprenticeship systems, they are not enthusiastic about them.
Companies are willing to hire graduates and help them enhance their capabilities, but the phenomenon of employees being loyal to a single company is rare. Therefore, companies are cautious about investing time and resources in employees who have intentions to leave. However, without better ways to provide more practical learning experiences, the ability of new employees to effectively perform their jobs will remain an issue.
New employee expectations. In recent years, the attitudes of Chinese employees towards employers have changed. New employees expect generous salaries and to be entrusted with certain responsibilities. Currently, employees lack humane and robust professional ethics standards. Regardless, people believe that today's employees no longer have respect for work, unlike the previous generations. Whether education can address these issues and how to do so is a topic worth discussing.
Need to improve recruitment methods. There are signs that HR departments often lack the ability to recruit qualified employees. Current recruitment methods are outdated, and recruiters lack the ability to identify qualified candidates, leading to more outsourcing of recruitment. Although outsourcing is considered cost-effective, it widens the gap between employers and potential employees.
Lack of mechanisms to assess soft skills. Existing recruitment methods seem unable to assess candidates' soft skills, and there is currently no good mechanism to match recent graduates with vacant positions. With such a large-scale expansion of the labor force, improving communication between employer needs and workforce capabilities is crucial.
Employers lack a say. Without sufficient participation in educational provision and implementation, employers find it difficult to define human resource needs, determine skill requirements, and assist in designing vocational education content. The key issue is the lack of effective communication between businesses and educational institutions. Although it is widely acknowledged that educational policies and curriculum designs should refer to business and societal needs, reality does not align with this ideal.
Emphasis on theoretical learning. Compared to practical learning, the state of vocational education is not optimistic, especially in China. It is generally believed that vocational education represents failure in some aspects of education. In 2007, the government issued the "Fourteenth Guideline," explicitly prohibiting universities from offering vocational education courses, worsening the situation. Ironically, employers hope education will emphasize vocational skills, but currently, no one wants to get involved in the vocational education system.
Emphasis on obtaining certificates. Obtaining certificates seems to be the main reason people pursue education. Employers are beginning to question this idea because the results of certified education do not align with candidates' actual job capabilities.
Lack of policy guidance. China's technical strategy could benefit from clearer direction. Policies related to vocational education were only established in the last decade, and currently, more government investment is needed in related courses. The gap between enterprises and educational providers should also be bridged more proactively.
Qualities Valued by Chinese Employers
◆ Motivating others
◆ Infusing a relaxed atmosphere into the workplace
◆ Ability and willingness to learn
◆ Working hard without solely pursuing benefits
◆ Being able and willing to help others
◆ Cultivating good relationships with colleagues
◆ Understanding the surrounding environment and knowing boundaries
◆ Multiple work skills - being able to work in different ways