One Size Does Not Fit AllMass career customization restructures both the expectations and the mechanics of how careers are built |
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The July 2009 edition of LOMA’s Resource Magazine highlights Thrivent Financial for Lutherans implementation of Mass Career Customization, and how Deloitte helped Thrivent to improve workforce engagement in the area of career satisfaction.
Article overview: There has been one constant throughout work place changes: the career ladder. Career ladders are not going away any time soon. Companies are comfortable with them. They serve a structural purpose, Type-A personalities need mountains to climb, and they are the linchpin of most over-the-counter employee compensation systems. Nevertheless, some executives are starting to ask if career ladders can meet the needs of today’s companies and employees and if the model is capable of delivering the products and services customers demand today. One company that’s questioning the status quo and exploring its options is Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
A number of environmental factors compelled Thrivent Financial to re-invent its approach to career management and to tap Barbara Foote, FLMI, vice president of its Enterprise Effectiveness and Talent Office, and her team to spearhead the effort. “Our goal,” says Foote, “is to build a career culture that drives stronger business results by engaging the workforce in building a long-term career with Thrivent Financial that is in alignment with their aspirations and life needs.”
In 2007, Foote learned about something called mass career customization at a thought leadership conference, where she met a team from Deloitte, which pioneered the concept at their own firm. Intrigued, she brought the idea back to Thrivent and engaged a Deloitte team of consultants briefly to kick-start the process. At the same time, a handful of executives had expressed interest in improving workforce engagement in the area of career satisfaction.
Mass career customization restructures both the expectations and the mechanics of how careers are built. It is based on the view that the career journey of knowledge workers increasingly looks like sine waves of work, with climbing and falling levels of engagement with work over time. What’s
so new about that? In a word, lots. When you work for a company that embraces the philosophy, your career, your professional development and your chance to continue making meaningful contributions are not sidelined as you dial in, out and around the organization.
Reprinted from LOMA’s Resource Magazine, July 2009. Copyright © 2009 LOMA. Used with permission; all rights reserved. For additional information, visit the LOMA Website at www.loma.org.
One Size Does Not Fit All
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