IBM’s Role in Creating the Workforce of the Future
IBM is consistently ranked as one of the best companies in the world as an employer and as a place to start one’s career. Yet, it is dramatically changing how it recruits, how it engages with universities and the composition of its employee development programs. Why? How will IBM’s changes affect its employees, its customers, its university partners and its competitors? What will its actions mean for you?
Tom Kucharvy’s new report “IBM’s Role in Creating the Workforce of the Future”, examines how and why IBM is making big changes to many components of its candidate preparation, recruitment and career management efforts. For example, it is dramatically expanding and refocusing much of its 50-year old Academic Initiative, the primary vehicle by which it partners with universities. It is extending this program beyond information science, engineering and business schools into dozens of new disciplines, sponsoring cross-department initiatives and helping universities develop curricula and learning environments to produce what it believes will be a new type of 21st century knowledge professional—what IBM calls a “T-shaped person.”
And, once hired, every employee creates a custom self-directed career path, and gets access to career coaching and to a tool that recommends and delivers educational materials that will prepare the employee for their next career steps. IBM is also developing a new global mentoring program and is structuring assignments and career paths in a way that will develop each employee’s T-shaped skills.
This report examines the rationale behind IBM’s dramatically evolving view of the requirements for 21st century knowledge workers in general, and the composition, education and career paths of IBM employees in particular. It drills down into the three major elements of its greatly expanded and restructured interdisciplinary university partnership program, and assesses its recruitment priorities, career tracks and the new focuses of its employee development efforts. It then explains how each of these efforts link into the company’s Smarter Planet initiatives; the implications for IBM, its customers, partners and competitors; and the lessons that all companies in all industries can learn from IBM’s efforts.
What You Will Learn
- Which characteristics IBM believes will be required for its own employees and for all 21st century knowledge workers
- Why and how IBM is expanding and refocusing its Academic Initiative to meet the needs of the 21st century knowledge workforce
- Which career tracks the company provides for its recruits, how it is changing its employee assessment model and the new types of learning opportunities and assets it is providing its employees
- How IBM’s direct and indirect efforts are intended to directly and indirectly accelerate IBM’s Smarter Planet initiatives
- How these programs are likely to affect IBM’s relationships with its customers, partners and competitors