CAREER JOURNEY DESIGN

There are three human motivations that I try to incorporate into my employee experience design projects: play, purpose and potential. Adaptive, high performing cultures need to fulfill these basic human motivations for their employees. This concept is not my own, it comes from the research presented in Primed to Perform. The authors define these motivations as:

Play - Employees are able to learn and experiment in their jobs. The work itself is fun.

Purpose - Employees believe their work is meaningful and makes an impact. Their values align with that of their employer and the nature of their work.

Potential - The work employees are doing today is leading to something bigger down the road (like reaching specific goals and/or career aspirations).

I worked with my colleague, Alex Hopkins, to design and implement a yearly career journey for employees, built upon the three motivations explained above. At the beginning of the year, employees reflect on a set of questions that helps them analyze their work against the three motivations above. Next, they sit down with their manager to discuss their responses and set goals that are in line with the company’s mission and objectives, as well as their individual work needs and aspirations. There are two formal, performance-based check-ins (a mid-year check-in and an end of year debrief) as well as informal, monthly 1-1s with their manager. Managers provide feedback, coaching and support during every formal and informal meeting. Specific questions are asked each month to ensure that employees are experiencing a sense of play, purpose and potential. The ongoing, consistent feedback and support is what is most important within this system.

We also established back-end processes, a manager guidebook and meeting schedules for the leadership team. These meetings ensure managers are prepared for every performance review and have the proper training and support needed throughout the year.