In many interviews I have sat in; whenever a candidate is given the chance to ask a question; other than incentives being offered often would ask what their career path looks like were they to get the vacant position. On the on flip side if you were to ask the same person once employed what their career goals are, chances are you would probably get a blank stare or something like ‘’I want to be the manager or CEO occupying the corner office’’ or something in those lines. Can you see the irony? If not we probably need to have coffee in order for me to explain.
In my experience working with SMEs and even bigger organizations; there has been a growing and disturbing trend of high staff turnover driven by career dissatisfaction especially for individuals under 40 years of age. Most of the people I have conducted exit interviews for on behalf of companies say they see no progressive career opportunities in the organization.
In today’s business environment; loyal, hard working and creative staff can be the difference between success and failure especially for SMEs who are already resource constraint and can barely afford to pay employees well not mention loose them.
SMEs by their very nature are not well staffed and probably have a company structure on paper which is often is not the reality. I’m sure most founders and SME mangers dread the question of career path since they have none and therefore cannot compete on the same footing with bigger organization that seemingly have a clear cut linear career path that can satisfy the appetite of prospective talent.
At a basic level career is associated with personal and professional growth hence career path is understood as a linear growth pattern with a defined destination often with increased prestige and compensation package. This means that one can look at the past and predict the future and take similar steps to achieve the same result. For example the person who vacated the office worked for 5 years starting off as an intern then junior accountant, then senior accountant then finance manager and finally finance director.
This view of career doesn’t fit the reality of 21st century business environment where predicting organization future is a mirage cognizant of rapidly changing customer preference and taste, shortened product life cycle and stiff competition driven by globalization among other factors.
SMEs must therefore seek alternative options for personal and professional development of their talent in order for them to level the playing field and compete for talent with legacy institutions.
Rather than following a straight line career path SME managers can encourage and establish programs that increases the employability of their staff in the labor market. Mentorship and in house workshops to develop and enhance soft skills in communication, public speaking, report writing among others are some great examples.
More and more organization are adopting highly agile organizations structures focused on customers and rapid product development which in most cases than not are flat structures as opposed the old school functional structures. With these changes it becomes difficult to identify career milestones which were associated with change in position and title. New age SMEs can still create milestone; not based on position but achievements, knowledge, skills and experience. This means for example an employee is awarded with a certificate when they execute a new ERP or have stayed with the organization for 3 years or gets a salary raise when they complete a course related to their current job.
As the old adage goes necessity is the mother of invention; SMEs need to be creative in circumventing their HR challenges by developing alternative strategies of attracting and retaining top talent that is in Africa.