| Popis: |
During the last decade there has been an increase in discussion about "The Big Crew Change" and how to prepare the industry's young professionals (YPs) for this outflow of knowledge from organizations and how to recruit and retain new talent. There is a growing body of evidence that demonstrates increasing employee engagement and commitment has distinct business performance advantages (Pfeffer 1998, Pollard 1996, Edmans 2007). However, this industry has not given much emphasis to empowering the young professionals themselves to take a greater responsibility in developing and shaping their own organizations. The authors of this paper worked in the same building for more than a year but never met until a mutual friend from outside the company introduced them. The benefit of connecting with someone internally with similar industry experience became clear, and the idea for iMPACT, the company's young professionals organization, took shape. During the planning phases, clear themes for the group's purpose emerged. YPs wanted to know: How do you meet other young people at the company? How do you manage your career to grow in knowledge and responsibility? What kinds of services does the company deliver and what is the company strategy? The company's YPs were looking for a way to make a difference. The purpose of the group is to foster networking and career development among young professionals who want to learn more about the company, develop their careers, and enhance the contributions they can make in their individual areas. The program encourages a mixture of technical and business focus while creating a venue to interact with senior leadership through a monthly speaker series and quarterly social networking events. iMPACT has become a retention tool for the company to identify up and coming leaders as well as provide leadership training to YPs. This paper aims to get YPs more involved in shaping their careers and their company's future. It is about a young professionals group created for young professionals by young professionals. |
