Executive Council members share their tried-and-true methods for grooming their staff

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times: Your people are your greatest asset, and you need to develop them with as much care as you would your systems and products. Yet, career development programs are often given short shrift by senior executives with deadlines and budgets on their minds.

Members of the CIO Executive Council, a professional organization of CIOs founded by CIO magazine, told us about their career development programs and what makes them work. Here are some guidelines for getting the most out of your human investments.

1 Walk the halls

Senior management meetings are not the right place to glean the career aspirations of your staff. "My organization is five deep. If I waited for the chain of command, I would never get the information I do by just asking people about their careers," says Samantra Sengupta, CIO of the Scotts Co. "I walk the halls a lot and sit down with people at all levels to understand their needs and desires." Based in part on staff feedback, Sengupta decided to split what was solely a managerial career path into three separate paths: traditional management, heavy technical competency with light management and architecture with no management responsibilities. The paths carry similar compensation plans but allow each person to do what he does best. Before you walk the halls, make sure you clearly understand how much flexibility HR will allow when setting up a new career development program, cautions Sengupta. "If you encourage people on your staff to give you a data dump about their career, they may believe that you will act on their wishes," he says. "You have to know what you can and cannot do before you initiate the discussion."

2 Create an integrated job model.

When Jim Burdiss became CIO of Smurfit-Stone in January 2002, there were few titles on his staff other than "systems analyst." So he put Keith Fehd, director of applications development and support, in charge of developing a program that would define paths for progression along four distinct disciplines: applications, infrastructure, business operations and management. "The program is successful because it integrates job titles with salaries, skill requirements, merit increases and our annual review process," says Burdiss. "We now have a much clearer view into the skills of our organization, and our people truly understand their growth potential."

3 Launch a publicity campaign.