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Published May 2007

Informatica: Effecting a Paradigm Shift

Daniel Margolis

It goes without saying that the IT industry has changed a lot in the past 20 years. IT companies have changed with it, particularly in their approach to managing talent.

Organizations have learned that maintaining a traditionally hierarchical ladder for their employees to climb can hinder motivation and fails to instill career ownership in the individual members of a workforce.

As a means to take a new look at the traditional hierarchical ladder, Informatica Corp., a data integration company, formulated a new career paradigm for its staff: "Individual Responsibility: Take Initiative to Own Your Career."

Through this effort, Informatica offers employee development, career planning, performance and promotion management, competency definitions, alignment and measurement programs to its 1,100 employees who serve more than 2,700 customers. Overall, Informatica's goal is to empower, retain and engage next-generation talent.

Flattened

Traditionally, employees have viewed career paths as a one-way, organizationally controlled ladder. Yet, according to Informatica, over the past two decades, there has been a trend in the United States toward flatter, less hierarchical organization structures.

The result is fewer levels of management and, therefore, an impact on the number of "traditional" management promotion opportunities.

Globalization is an important driver of this trend. Global competition has rapidly increased the rate of change in all industries, with new products and services needing to be produced and delivered more quickly. A shortened chain of command, with less hierarchy and fewer levels between the customer and executive decision-makers, means faster decisions and increased delegation to lower management.

Informatica's new career paradigm was developed in response to this trend. The company has defined five areas of its new career paradigm:

1. Vertical Advancement: Traditional promotion opportunities.
2. Job Enrichment: New opportunities, broader responsibilities.
3. Competency Enrichment: Increasing one's marketability.
4. Lateral Movement: New jobs in new departments.
5. Temporary Global Assignments: Temporary job placements in a different geography to gain awareness and expertise in regional trends, cultural diversity and local customers.

On this last point, Informatica's learning management system (LMS) has been essential, said Jo Stoner, vice president of human resources.

"We have it globally accessible to anyone 24x7 and equip people with what they need to drive their careers forward," Stoner said. "This is where online tools for performance management and employee development come in. It doesn't replace the human element — the employee and manager having a discussion — but it equips both sides with tools and proactively helps build the steps to a career plan."