CASE STUDY: CAREER DEVELOPMENT AT KELLOGG'S

Career development is the process used to create opportunities for employees' professional
interests and capabilities and to help meet current and future business needs.
Career development at Kellogg's is becoming a more formalized process. The changes for 2004
are subtle and include:
A new, required form (Employee Profile) to be completed by all Kellogg's non-production
employees. The Employee Profile provides a snapshot of an employee's career, including biographical
information, work experiences, development plans, and assessment on leadership competences and K-
values.
The Individual Development Plan (IDP) has been incorporated into the Employee Profile. It
includes an overview of employee development for current accountabilities and future career
opportunities.
All people managers have a Performance Management Plan (PMP), which concerns their
accountability for the development of employees.
Development is a critical process because:
Change seems to be occurring at a faster rate than ever and employees must learn to change and
adapt quickly.
Relying solely on employees' current capabilities would place the company at a competitive
disadvantage.
Recent survey data indicated that Kellogg's employees have an interest in development.
Focused development builds stronger teams and attracts and retains the best and brightest talent.
What is an effective development plan?
Development requires more than just identifying the areas or competences that are going to be
developed. Just like a project at work, development is more successful when there is a specific plan to
accomplish the change in behavior. Employees will have better success in development if their plan:
is tied to their PMP accountabilities;
has relevance to the business needs;
is limited to three or four areas for development;
has specific development actions required for each area;
consists of primarily experience-based development actions;
identities the resources and support needed for each development action;
species a date for completion.
Kellogg's philosophy is that the manager and the employee share responsibility for an employee's
development. The employee is responsible for keeping skills current and developing skills for future
opportunities. Managers make sure employees' expectations are realistic and opportunities to grow are
offered and supported.
Manager’s and employee’s responsibilities for employee’s development
Manager’s role employee’s role
1. Review Employee Profile; 1. Take responsibility for own career;
2. Complete the manager's page of of the Employee 2. Perform well in current role;
Profile
3. Review previous feedback and development 3. Complete the employee page
4. Consider possible development actions 4. Clarify career interests;
5. Determine realistic career goals;
5. Understand what is required to make development 6. Learn more about position requirements
more successful 7. Learn more about position requirements
8. Consider possible development area to focus
6. Create key messages to share with employee in on
meetings 9. Plan activities to improve in those areas
7. Check with employees to ensure they are
Question Ask yourself what your organization could learn from Kellogg’s approach and how this process
might be enhanced in the future.