The Talent Management Program WAYS was introduced at Carcoustics in 2016. The program enables employees to develop individually - far away from the classic, linear career path. The program provides development paths in three areas that employees can move between throughout their Carcoustics careers: the Project Management Development Path, the Leadership Development Path, and the Specialist Development Path. This ensures our employees to develop their personal potential and visions. For those who prefer not to take on manager responsibilities for example, Carcoustics offers other development opportunities such as organisational projects, greater professional responsibility or additional qualifications. In order to optimize the areas and define development steps and measures for employees, the program is continuously developed further. One focus is on an internal Carcoustics learning system, which includes the elements mentoring and coaching.
The project management development path was elaborated in 2018. Among other things, competence levels for project managers were defined and project classes introduced. This enables an optimal, resource-oriented staffing of projects. Last year, the development path for managers was also developed. How effectively a team or a department performs depends to a large extent on the leadership capabilities of its supervisors. It is essential, as a result, to enable managers an attractive path within the company and to promote their personal and professional progress. For both development paths an internal learning system is used that has been developed within the company and combines various elements:
An important element of the learning system is e-learning. Project managers and supervisors can access e-learning tutorials on company-internal processes on the intranet. In late 2019, they will also have access to an external platform where they can choose from over 5,000 e-learning courses on a wide variety of topics. This time and place independent learning corresponds to the general changes in the working environment - because flexible working and the work-life balance also plays an important role at Carcoustics.
As a second element of the learning system, regular workshops are organized in which project managers from all areas and executives from all levels participate. The workshops are a mixture of training and discussion and offer an optimal platform for a global exchange of knowledge, ideas and experiences.
Mentoring, coaching and training are individual and supportive measures of the learning system. Each project manager or leader can decide for himself/herself whether he/she has a development need that can be covered by these learning measures. While coaching and training are external measures, mentoring is a form of learning that is currently being introduced internally at Carcoustics and is applicable to all employees. In mentoring, an employee who already has experience in a field (the mentor) supports a less experienced colleague (the mentee) in his professional and personal development. In the process of evaluating competencies across the Group, Talent Management responds regularly and as needed. In a survey, the project manager or supervisor receives feedback from various stakeholders, such as supervisors and employees. From the results, employees can identify their individual strengths and potential for improvement and determine development measures for themselves. In addition, the Talent Management department takes the results and derives group-wide fields of development. Therefore they can react with appropriate measures, for example through training.
In addition to the project management development path and the leadership development path, WAYS also includes the specialist development path. This is currently being developed in cooperation between Talent Management and the specialist departments.
"Our goal is to have all three WAYS development paths evolved as far as possible so that every employee knows at all times which development path he is currently on," says Kerstin Widdig, Talent Manager Carcoustics Group: "Then he or she can decide for himself/ herself whether and in which direction he or she would like to develop further according to need - and what he or she can do for it. Every employee should be able to actively manage his or her own development. “
Further information on Talent Management at Carcoustics can be found here. You can also apply directly via our career portal.