"Paternalistic" approach to career management giving employees a very limited control over their future career in the company. This is the recipe for a successful human resources management strategy and low staff turnover in the French tyre manufacturer Michelin. The strategy was presented at the traditional employee development conference called HRD by the British professional HR organization Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
The Michelin's career management strategy assumes that the priority is the personal development of employees, not the manager's need not occupy specific vacancies. Managers and their subordinates then work together no more more than two or three years while managers have no right to keep the people in their teams longer. This unconventional way of career management is the work of Alan Duke and Daniel Boulanger, former Michelin's career managers who spent 35 years in various positions in the company's various business units in various countries.
Alan Duke, who was the historically first diversity director in Michelin, explained at the conference that the company "builds its management on the long-term view and respect for its people". Recruitment and selection is carried out in the spirit of seeking "personalities for career" rather than "competencies for jobs". Most managers therefore come from the first line.
When asked by the conference participants what both managers and employees think about being placed in departments that they might not be interested in, Duke answered that "the real beauty of this approach is that it actually works." Long-term staff fluctuation remains in minimum numbers.
-kk-