I believe staff should have well-rounded experience for their first three or four years and then should look for an area to specialize in.
Today, many staffers start out in a single area and that is where they remain. While this provides them with tremendous opportunities to acquire a strong depth of knowledge within that area, it doesn’t expose them to other services the firm performs and industries the firm has clients in. How things develop depends on the firm’s staff career management and the staff person’s proactivity toward their career.
There is no one perfect method, but these are serious issues and could determine the shape of the career for the staff person, and their and the firm’s future success. I do not think it can be done alone, by either the staff person or firm. It should be a collaborative effort of the staff person and their boss, mentor or career coach. This requires a probing discussion to determine what the staff person likes to do, their skill sets, what they would want to learn and the type of clients they would want to work on. It also involves establishing goals and benchmarks for the next year and possibly for five years.
I suggest five-year goals, with a carefully drawn up plan for the first year, and perhaps with quarterly benchmarks and a quarterly meeting to discuss the progress. I would not be too rigid with the quarterly benchmarks as long as there is forward movement toward the one-year goal, but I believe quarterly meetings are essential. Staffing is the largest expense item on your profit and loss statement, and needs management, training, mentoring, coaching, development and investment.
There are many ways to evaluate staff, and I have many checklists for this. However, this is not a current performance evaluation, but a process to establish a long-term goal. In effect, this is a strategic plan for the investment in staff development. Here are some questions that can be used to get started:
1. What would you like this staff person to be doing in five years?
2. Are they in agreement with that?
3. Are they on track for that?
4. What would they want to be doing in five years?
5. Are you in agreement with that?
6. Are they on track for that?
7. What plan does the firm and staff person have to attain the stated five-year goals?
Then, using the overall plan, develop a detailed plan for the next year. If the employee agrees that it's reasonable, set up the next quarterly meeting to review progress on their plan.
Planning a future career is a long-term project that needs thought, input and discussions. It is OK for a long-term goal or a plan to not be in place yet, but it is not OK for the process to not have started. No plan is a plan to continue as is with no growth factored in.
Whatever the plan, growth needs to be ongoing and continual. Sometimes it is initiated by the staff person and sometimes by the manager or partner. But no matter how it is done, it needs a start. So, get started if you haven’t started yet.
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