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especially – to match high performance evaluations with actual
promotions) with family support (for fathers especially – to
prevent penalizing care).
Finally, we suggest that to make career interventions entirely
successful, qualitative research is needed that explores how
supervisors in their role as performance managers and em
ployees themselves navigate between the expectations raised
by these interventions versus the ongoing implicit assump
tions of the existing system. Regarding MCC we noticed that
in the current design the common career profile serves as a
reference point on which the two other career choices „up“ and
„down“ are anchored and judged. Gaining insights into the as
sumptions that lie behind the common career profile, and who
decides on it, might be instrumental to further improving the
effectiveness of MCC and to challenging and changing norms
around careers. Finally, we advise intervention designers to
interview involved stakeholders (e.g. employees, HR managers,
supervisors) to find out needs and motives for choosing differ
ent types of career combinations. Interview results ideally in
form the entire design process of a career intervention and
give answers on the content of career dimensions (e.g. pace,
workload) critical to adjust for optimal success.
Concluding remarks
The adoption of career customization such as MCC is an explicit
and holistic attempt to help employees customize their career
to meet their personal needs. Our findings on MCC can guide
practitioners and researchers in the design process of new types
of sustainable, flexible and customized career interventions.
Our study has shown that implementing flexible careers comes
along with challenges. A firm that manages to tackle these
challenges and succeeds in matching its career system to the
demands of the changing workforce will be able to promote
sustainability in combining career and care and will manage to
retain talent effectively. Finally, we believe that while outside
events such as economic downturns will continue to play a role,
career customization can contribute to building a sustainable
solution for a new generation of employees.
PROF. DR. CAROLINE STRAUB
Professor of HRM and Leadership at the
Institute for Corporate Development
Bern University of Applied Sciences
E-Mail: Caroline.
DR. CLAARTJE VINKENBURG
Independent expert consultant
on diversity in careers
E-Mail:
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