Structuring for Success
Views to my blog continue to skyrocket. Yesterday, 937 hits – setting daily, weekly, and monthly records with no difficulty at all. So far today, over 100 hits; previously, this number would have astounded me. It’s good news for the Capital Times. People still read their stuff, even if they scraped their daily paper. I’ve continued to read thru the new comments on the article. One struck me as particularly interesting.
From user “CEO”: The recession has caused a lot of hardship for many people. Hopefully it has also provided us all a higher appreciation of being employed. Starting at the bottom and working a lot is exactly what new employees should expect…as well as a philosophy to adopt for a successful career. There are too many employees, regardless of age, that believe they should be rewarded for showing up at 8 and leaving at 5 (so they can head to the Union Terrace for fun or play softball). That’s not how one succeeds.
I, like most people, value hard work. I like the idea that I could put in an extra hour of work every day and see the results in monetary and promotional reward. Alas, while correlations between work and reward may exist, it’s hard to call their relationship causational without also factoring in results. CEO’s comment isn’t quite the truth in that regard. The comment also makes CEO seem a bit old and angry at all those young coots who don’t understand how it was when CEO was growing up (no doubt, hills no matter which way CEO walked, blinding snow storms 12 months of the year, and a 14 hour work day for which CEO earned $1 and was damn grateful for it).
The comment is also interesting in terms of the company in the commented article. This company, many find, has very few opportunities for advancement. Even those employees who move into managerial roles (as “team leads”, whatever that means) are told they will receive more work in addition to their current responsibilities and no pay raise. I’m sure they get monetary reward come end-of-year bonus time and are more highly favored during the regular raise cycle, but nevertheless, it’s not a promotion.
What would a proper structure for advancement look like at this company? Let’s take the position of “customer support” and sketch out some more formal lines of promotion and career growth.
1. Initial Learning (0-12 months employment). For the first year, employee will undergo rigorous training in various software applications, including programming languages that build the software. Employee is required to pass certification exams within the first 6 months. After training, employee will spend 1 month periods shadowing various company roles and begin initial customer support/issue troubleshooting.
2. Interest Growth (13-24 months employment). For the second year, employee will begin working as an issue troubleshooter as part of a support pool. During this time, employee will be expected to demonstrate competency in all areas of support, including customer communication, programming, troubleshooting, configuration, and customization. At the end of 24 months, employee will submit a 2 page write-up of interests within the company. Employee will also be given the opportunity to leave the company and receive a $1000 bonus for doing so (this ensures dedicated employees stick around to receive additional responsibility for the next stage).
3. Customer Support Specialization (12 month periods, starting at month 25). Employee has now demonstrated competency in all areas related to customer support and has expressed a preference for which type of support employee would like to continue doing. Employee may choose to stay in the support pool for another year, as a support assistant, helping newer employees perform support. Otherwise, employee will choose from 4 career tracks. Track A requests a year-long commitment. Others are more flexible.
A) Customer Communication Specialist. Employee is assigned one initial customer contact, for which employee manages all issues and ensures successful application of software. This includes regular meetings with customers, support team members, and coordination with implementation team. It may involve small amounts of troubleshooting, but is mostly focused on keeping the customer happy.
B) Technical Troubleshooting Specialist. Employee takes advanced knowledge of troubleshooting and is dispatched to difficult problems. Employee is expected to have advanced knowledge of code bugs and system setup and integration.
C) Programming Customization Specialist. Employee takes advanced knowledge of coding and uses is for special request projects from customers. Employee meets with customers, develops mockups, gets project approval, and helps implement the special project.
D) Secondary Support Specialist. Employee assists all three career tracks when needed. While not encouraged for more than 1-2 years, this helps employee engage many skills, while not requiring a specific commitment.
4. Management and beyond (48+ months). Recognizing that employee may be tired of any given career path, management opportunities offer meaningful advancement and responsibility changes. Employee may be able to help oversee support of several customers. Employee may be able to supervise a group of Interest Growth employees. Employee may move into another field altogether. This stage offers incentives and flexibility to the experienced employee who may find current responsibilities boring.
This entire setup is not without its problems. For example, it requires a lot of organization (meaning you need employees just to track all this stuff). That, in itself, could be a career path. It adds in layers of complexity to a “flat” organization. Now, specific roles and responsibilities are laid out, meaning individual initiative may be reduced in some employees. And it may make some tasks more difficult. For example, a Customer Communication Specialist may come up against a difficult problem but find no way to get help needed for a number of hours. Meanwhile, the customer is stuck with a major problem that support bottlenecks are keeping from resolution.
But it does allow for new employees to see very clearly what a career at the company would look like. And it allows them to talk and meet with people doing a wide variety of tasks. The company also acknowledges that some employees may not like the job, so at the end of 2 years, employees are given the option to leave with a bonus; if they don’t quit, then they give a commitment to further work and responsibility. This helps ensure that the remaining employees WANT to be at the company, rather than are sticking around because of the work they have already put in. Overall, it makes the company seem less intimidating, while also putting more onus on the employees to be open and honest about their future at the company.
In the end, maybe we all should be putting in 12 hour days as CEO suggests. Maybe so, but that kind of commitment is a lot easier when you are at a company where you can understand how you fit into the company’s future and, more importantly, how the company fits into yours. At the company in question, I found both those factors sorely lacking.
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