Rotational Development Progams

HRGddss

Does anyone have any information to share on these programs from development to implementation and what happens when it's over?

Thanks!

Don D

My experience has been that the outcome is more often than not a systemic pre-situational realignment. Just kidding, as I have not the foggiest idea what you're talking about or which consultants might be pushing it. x:-)

sonny

I'm confused, too. A wild guess. . is it the new buzz for cross training?

Don D

Probably just means 'We're gonna rotate who gets to go to training.' Haven't we all done that forever anyway? Now there's a new bussword for it?

Carey

I know that we have had rotational development programs for those identified as "high potential" employees. The programs have had different names depending on what type of employee was involved. Basically, those in the program are placed in different positions to develop skills and give them a broad range experience and help identify their strengths for a permanent placement. There may be several areas identified that the person has to work in and when they're done they get a management position. There is also usually some formal mentoring going on.

I haven't been that closely involved in the programs at my company and have somewhat of a problem with the labeling of employees early on as "hi-pos". We just terminated a "hi-po" in our Sales group who NEVER sold a job in two years, but certainly was paid his $25K annual retention bonuses. There are plenty of employees with potential who are never given a chance for whatever reason. Usually comes down to who you know, who likes you, etc.

My negative attitude aside, I can see how such a program, if it was implemented well and fairly, could have value.

AJ SPHR

I worked for a large mfg company that offered Rotational Engineering Programs. We recruited Engineering graduates right out of college and they were selected to be in one of the specific programs, based on their degree (e.g. electrical, mechanical, industrial engineering). They spent 6 months at each assignment for a total of 1.5 to 2 years (depending on the type of program), moving between assignments in an office environment to the mfg plants. Near the end of their rotation period (they moved together in a group and would "graduate" together), the mgrs with the available slots interviewed the upcoming program graduates and selected one of them to fill their needs based on their skills, performance and the graduate's preference (e.g. plant or office).

It was a great program for those engineers who stayed around. They had tremendous experience and exposure which helped improve communications between mfg and design engineers. The one problem we had was that those engineers also became highly attractive to competitors and we often lost some of the graduating class a year or two after their rotation program.

We tried instituting a variation on this program for experienced employees, but it was too disruptive in many ways to move someone out of their job and into another department for temporary periods of time. But as a college recruiting tool it was wonderful.

HRGddss

This last is the kind of program I was talking about. Essentially, you draw people out of college and develop them in several assignments across the company then, ideally, place them in the company. These are often those identified as "high potential" new hires and are targeted at future management roles.

AJ SPHR

We had a great program and many engineering grads were eager to be considered for positions. We could attract the cream of the crop because of the hands-on training and exposure embedded in these programs. The risks were:
* spending a lot of time and money on a rotation program student, only to have them go to a competitor for much more money once they "graduate" from the rotation program
* a student doesn't like any of the potential assignments available to him, so you must "assign" him one
* none of the mgrs who have jobs available like a particular student (meaning they didn't have good skills and experiences during the program so they fell to the bottom of the list), so you had to just assign the student to one of them
* sometimes it was difficult matching as many students with their first choices for job openings

We had a similar but much smaller and shorter program for accounting and for IS. Anything else I can tell you about the programs?

HRGddss

Do you have any sort of documents like a job description, profile, etc?

AJ SPHR

Unfortunately I don't have access to any documents pertaining to the program. It was at a previous employer and the program was dismantled several years ago. You may want to contact a couple of colleges/universities. Depending on what kind of programs you want to develop, they may have some templates or material from other companies they could share. For example, if you were interested in engineering programs, I suggest Lehigh, Temple, Cornell and RIT(can you tell the company was headquartered in NE?)