From a Business Week Small Biz article on working with Gen Y:
[Jay] Adelson [CEO of DIGG] believes that 50% of a manager’s time should be allocated to developing her staff. Yes, 50%. It sounds like a lot, but Adelson reasons, “If [managers] aren’t doing that, then the headcount is wrong, the budgeting process is wrong, or the company has tried to create too much efficiency. You’ll burn people out.”
I would suggest that in many professional services firms the headcount is wrong, the budgeting process is wrong, there’s too much efficiency (for which you can read too high utilisation/chargeable hours targets) and people are burning out. Estimated manager time allocated to developing staff ~5-10%. Where does the rest of the time go? Managing clients (~30%), Managing Projects (~30%), Internal Stuff (~30%).
To be fair most professional services firms invest considerable dollars in training and professional development – but this investment may be too skewed towards courses and away from coaching and mentoring.
What’s your view? Is the current development allocation on or off target?
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