Generation X employees represent the future of a highly successful professional services firm. So when rumblings about a lack of clarity around career paths and professional development turned into a roar, senior leadership convened an internal task force. The goal was to identify the competencies employees needed to enhance their professional growth and also meet the firm’s needs. But after nine months and hundreds of man-hours, the taskforce was stuck.
Axiom quickly re-energized the taskforce and help drive an accelerated decision-making process. Important deliverables soon emerged, including:
- A performance management and career development framework that helped employees connect the dots between their professional development and performance expectations.
- A career development toolkit containing training materials specific to the educational needs and individual learning styles of a variety of employees.
- Ways of accurately measuring an individual’s performance and career development so that rewards would be aligned appropriately.
- Post-implementation research confirmed that employees had a deeper understanding of what was expected of them, how training and performance were linked to promotions and how they could create their own individual development program.
- A new compensation system, focused on employee competence and contributions, helped weed out low performers and reduce the reliance on tenure as a primary measure of performance.
- Individual development plans helped staff prepare for future roles and secured their loyalty and buy-in to their role in executing the firm’s strategy.