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How to design a career path?
​By Mansour Baker, SHRM-CP
Posted: 18 August 2020     |     Revised: 26 February 2021
​What are the objectives of a career path?
  • To retain top performers within the company.
  • To Motivate individuals and develop them to their full potential, by differentiating them from other employees based on their outstanding performance.
  • To actively manage the links between personal and organizational objectives which ensures that people remain fully engaged and maximize their contribution to growth and company’s overall strategy.
  • To anticipate future vacancies that may arise due to retirement, resignation, etc. at managerial level.
  • To facilitate expansion and growth of the enterprise. The employees required to fill job vacancies in future can be identified and developed in time.
  • To use the career planning as an input for succession planning.
Definitions 
Career: ​A career is a sequence of positions/jobs held by a person during the course of his/her working life.
Career Path Diagrams: Are diagrams that identify the movement between positions through transfers and promotions.
Career Planning: Is the process of identifying the employee’s potential positions that he/she can be promoted to or transferred to in the future.
Top Talented Program: A program which is especially made for developing and utilizing talented employees at the company, usually the top / outstanding performers, sometimes called “high potentials program”, and it can also be called “star employees’ program”.
Career Management Policies
Career Management shall be conducted on two levels; organizational by using career path diagrams for each department, and individuals by using the Individual Development Plan, which is a part of the annual performance appraisal cycle.
​To map out careers of employees as per their ability and willingness and to train and develop them for higher positions.
​To develop the experience of the employees by encouraging their rotation from one region to another, or from a function to another.
To utilize available managerial Top Talented within the organization fully.
To provide guidance and assistance to employees to develop their potentials to the highest level.
To improve employees’ morale and motivation by providing training and opportunities for promotion.
Career paths shall be updated whenever a change in the structure occurs.
​The base for a solid career development shall be the performance appraisal. Accordingly, an individual development plan shall be designed, and training courses shall be identified and provided.
​Career development shall be encouraged to all employees, however, special attention shall be given to the top performers, and a special program shall be designed to utilize their abilities and skills, this program may be called the Top Talented Program.
​The Top Talented Program shall be updated and amended annually and shall be submitted with the budget to the board.
The employees to be included in the Top Talented Program should be those employees with outstanding performance appraisal result for three consecutive years.
​The Top Talented Program shall include Individual career pathway for Top Talented employees.
Career Path Methodology 
Considerations
Career Path are designed in line with the special requirements and nature of the company, considering the following:
  • Reviewing the organizational structure and managerial levels.
  • Analyzing functions, identifying the main duties and responsibilities of each function and cross matching these functions in order to identify possible moves between different functions.
  • Reviewing job descriptions, identifying nature of each job in terms of its complexity and requirements.
Types of Career Movements
Horizontal Movements, which refers to movements within the same functional group and same administrative level. 
Vertical Movements, which refers to movements within the same functional group but with different administrative level.
Diagonal Movements, which refers to movements within different functional groups and different administrative levels.
Job Specifications
The job qualifications are to be considered when searching for the next job in the career path. 
Exhibit 1
A sample finance career diagram
Top Talented Program
​For outstanding performers, HR will update and amend the Top Talented Program according to the results of the annual performance appraisal.
The Top Talented Program may include the following items:​
  • Name of the employees included in the program
  • Performance appraisal results for the last 3 years
  • What is to be attained/achieved? And when?
  • Career path for the coming 2-5 years
  • The training to be provided to the Top Talented employees
The actions to be taken to develop the Top Talented employees and utilizing their skills:
  • Job rotation, transferring to another region / product / market
  • Performing higher tasks for a certain period of time
  • Swapping with top talented employees from other functions/departments
A four-step career development process
Company staff to be evaluated following a four-step career development process:
 
1. Define individual targets and objectives
 
Description:
  • Define core targets and objectives for the employees in line with the agreed-upon KPIs (for senior staff) and individual feedback and cohort development objectives (for junior employees).
  • Communicate targets and objectives to the employees.
 
Primary responsibility:
  • For junior staff, Career Development Committee to define targets based on prior feedback from line managers.
  • For mid-level staff, Management HR Committee (and for C-level staff, Board HR Committee) to define KPIs and associated targets.
 
2. Collect feedback and evaluate
 
Description:
  • Collect feedback and evaluate staff on both 'performance' and 'potential' dimensions.
 
Primary responsibility:
  • For junior staff, Career Development Committee to evaluate candidates based on feedback received from line managers.
  • Mid-level staff to be evaluated by direct superior, and C-level staff to be evaluated by Board HR Committee.
  • Head of HR to ensure feedback and evaluations conducted on time.
 
3. Decide on career development
 
Description:
  • Make relevant career development decisions on the basis of the employee evaluations (promotions, secondment / training recommendations, bonuses, probation, outplacement, etc.).
 
Primary responsibility:
  • For junior staff, Career Development committee to make relevant career development decisions.
  • For mid-level staff, Management HR Committee (and for C-level staff, Board HR Committee) to decide.
 
4. Provide feedback and effectuate decisions
 
Description:
  • Communicate line-manager feedback and evaluation / assessment decisions to the employees.
  • Monitor implementation of the relevant Career Development decisions.
 
Primary responsibility:
  • Career Development (CD) Committee to provide feedback and monitor implementation of CD decisions for junior staff.
  • Management and Board HR Committees to do the same for mid-level and senior staff respectively.

Five core policies for each cohort to be defined:
 
Mid-level and senior staff
  1. Promotion: decisions made on the basis of performance / potential AND availability of senior positions
  2. Training: recommendation for internal / external training to address existing talent gaps
  3. Bonus: qualitative bonus element (portion not linked to quantitative KPIs)
  4. Probation: decisions for under-performers (communication of warning)
  5. Out-counseling: separation of consistent under-performers
 
Junior staff
  1. Promotion: decisions made on the basis of performance / potential only if candidate is within predefined promotion window
  2. Training: recommendation for training to address existing talent gaps and for secondments (top performers)
  3. Bonus: determined by the evaluation score
  4. Probation: decisions for under-performers (communication of warning)
  5. Out-counseling: facilitated placements of consistent under-performers (alternative roles within company)

Assessments will play a critical role in defining the end-of-year bonus payouts for each employee.

For junior staff, a Career Development (CD) Committee should make key career development decisions.
 
Why a CD Committee is needed?
  • Ensure evaluation consistency: Rotations across departments result in employees having constantly changing line managers (superiors).
  • Provide objective and holistic view: CD committee can assess and evaluate candidates holistically across the entire talent pool, to identify over and under-performers.
  • Match skills to job requirements: CD committee can help match talents to career paths (without being limited by a department specific viewpoint).
  
What is a Career Development Committee (CDC)?
  • Composition: A committee comprising of the Head of HR as well as line managers. Each junior employee is assigned a career development adviser to assess and evaluate performances throughout their career.
 
What does it do?
 
Key Activities:
  • Decide employee target objectives based on prior feedback and cohort development objectives.
  • Define employee performance and potential ratings based on feedback received from the respective line managers.
  • Establish and maintain a cross-analyst talent portfolio.
  • Decide on promotions, bonuses, secondments, probation, etc.
  • Monitor implementation of decisions (e.g. secondments for high performers, and exit procedures for consistent under-performers).
 
For mid-level / senior staff, evaluations and assessments should be done by the direct superior.
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