Agile Career Development: Lessons and Approaches from IBM

Supercharge Performance by Linking Employee-Driven Career Development with Business Goals

How do you make career development work for both the employee and the business? IBM has done it by tightly linking employee-driven career development programs with corporate goals. In Agile Career Development, three of IBM’s leading HR innovators show how IBM has accomplished this by illustrating various lessons and approaches that can be applied to other organizations as well. This book is for every HR professional, learning or training manager, executive, strategist, and any other business leader who wants to create a high performing organization.

About the Authors

Mary Ann Bopp is Manager of Career Development for the IBM Center for Learning and Development. She leads global career development initiatives for all IBM employees. Many of these programs have won external awards or citations from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), the American Society of Training & Development (ASTD), and Brandon Hall Research. She is also the recipient of various internal IBM awards in recognition of her work achievements. She has over 21 years of career development program management experience and ten years of management accounting experience. She is a volunteer member of the Accounting Advisory Committee for Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY, providing counsel to the committee for accounting skill needs of business students.

Diana A. Bing recently retired from IBM. Her last position at IBM was Corporate Director, Enterprise Learning. In that position, she designed and introduced career, professional, and technical development for IBM’s worldwide employee population. Programs included new employee orientation, career framework and progression, competence development, mentoring, job rotation and exploration, skills initiatives, and technical development. Her programs and initiatives won numerous awards from prestigious organizations such as ASTD, Brandon Hall, and SHRM. Over the years she has served on many community organizations, as well as non-profit, educational and global innovation initiatives and boards. She is an executive professional coach and is a speaker on career, multicultural, and women’s issues. Diana is coauthor of Intelligent Mentoring: How IBM Creates Value through People, Knowledge, and Relationships.

Sheila Forte-Trammell is a Learning Consultant for the IBM Center for Learning and Development and has extensive knowledge and experience in a variety of Human Resources disciplines. She has a record of designing global programs with the goal to develop, retain, and engage employees. Through these initiatives, employees are able to feel welcomed and valued in the IBM workplace. As a result of her many contributions, Sheila has received several IBM awards as well as national recognition. Sheila is also a keynote speaker and seminar presenter at several national conferences and considers herself a servant of the community. She is coauthor of Intelligent Mentoring: How IBM Creates Value through People, Knowledge, and Relationships.