Support the core needs of your team with a career framework

Lara Hogan delivered an interesting talk, titled Navigating team friction. In her talk, she referred to a model developed by Paloma Medina called BICEPS, which can be used to understand humans’ core needs.

Helping fill the core needs of your team will create a more inclusive environment, and implementing an effective engineering career framework can help you get there.

If you are not familiar with the term career framework, it is a guide that your team can use to understand their capabilities and how to progress within your organization. These often take the form of a matrix that communicates the expectations of individuals operating at each of the levels in your organization.

I am intentionally avoiding the term career ladder, as it suggests a single, inflexible track for progression.

Belonging

An engineering career framework is a tool that can help managers, mentors, and coaches connect with the people they are supporting and develop a community of learning and encouragement.

By presenting people with paths for progression, giving them the opportunity to talk about their aspirations, and involving others in the process, you can create an environment where people feel cared for and understood.

Improvement and progress

Recognizing the achievements of your team by tracking their progress on a career framework is important in filling the need for improvement.

Showing someone how they are growing in different areas helps them see progress toward their goals and increases their motivation to continue learning. For the people supporting members of their team to grow, being able to see progression over time is rewarding because it shows they are enhancing the lives of others.

Choice

Choice is something that is often missing from traditional single-track career ladders. Thankfully, this issue has been recognized by leaders, and companies like Medium have created career frameworks that are more flexible and encourage autonomy so that people can pursue the things they are interested in.

Equality and fairness

Establishing fairness when it comes to compensation and promotions is one of the key reasons companies create career frameworks.

In a strong post called The Null Process, Kate Heddleston describes how discrimination and unclear expectations can arise when companies reject process. Career frameworks can sit at the heart of a clear process for compensation and promotion decisions, which helps establish consistency across employees.

Predictability

Your best employees will leave if they cannot see an opportunity to progress and are not supported to achieve their aspirations.

With a career framework, you can clearly communicate the opportunities available to your team and develop plans to help them get there.

Significance

People want to be recognized for their efforts and achievements. In the workplace, recognition often comes in the form of a promotion, which helps establish a level of status and therefore significance.

Career frameworks help ensure that the people who deserve promotions are the ones who get them.

Conclusion

Becoming aware of the BICEPS model helped me better understand and articulate the value that career frameworks can provide.

These frameworks are all about people, and both they and the processes around them need to be driven by core needs. Failing to consider them will inevitably cause significant tensions to arise.