Two-thirds of Indian companies do not have a formal career management plan for their employees, data and research from Deloitte shared exclusively with ET, showed.

“While organisations may have well-defined promotion policies and processes, a holistic career management framework is not observed. Of the ones which do have a career management process, only 27% communicate to the employees,” according to Neelesh Gupta, director, Deloitte.

What does the career management framework mean?
Career management frameworks mean that companies focus on untapped capacities of their employees and develop these over time.

Backward-looking career framework includes bonuses, recognition, increments, and incentives, which most companies get right.

It is the forward-looking components that derail career management frameworks for companies. These include potential-based aspects such as promotion, sponsorship for courses, stock options, special projects, mentors and coaches, networking opportunities, leadership development programmes, and career path workshops.

Most of the companies fail to include these in their career management frameworks, the survey of 157 organisations across three sectors of manufacturing, services and pharma and life sciences revealed.

Employee career frameworks are a business imperative and keep the talent and leadership pipeline robust, say companies that have built these frameworks.

L&T, which has approximately 59,000 employees, identifies and nurtures future-ready leaders with cross-functional orientation and global competencies, focusing on business, project, and technical leadership, said its executive vice-president and CHRO, C Jayakumar.

The company focuses on the 70-20-10 learning principle, acknowledging that 70% of learning occurs through on-the-job experiences, 20% through interactions with others, and 10% through formal educational events, Jayakumar said.

“The structured competency development process ensures a systematic progression from foundational skills to advanced competencies, aligning with individual roles and career trajectories,” said Jayakumar.

Kamaljeet Kaur, CHRO, BluSmart, said the company focuses on education, experience, and exposure in moulding the career trajectories of its 650 employees.

She credits this approach for the ‘stickiness’ that many of the employees–who started their journey when EV mobility was a relatively new industry—have stayed.

She said, “80% of our chief technology officer’s first line are homegrown talent who evolved from being individual contributors to people managers to now being managers of managers.”

“The attrition rate in people who have been with our company for a year remains extremely low with only one-fifth of the attrition happening in this ageing period.”

Parineeta Cecil Lakra, country people and culture manager, Ikea India, told ET that the company has a host of initiatives across levels for its 3000 strong workforce, called co-workers in Ikea.

“We have internal programs like Bloomers, Next Gen and Leap that focus on leadership development today and in the future. Many of our co-workers have started their journey with Ikea and are now leading a team of co-workers on bigger, leadership roles through these programmes,” said Lakra.