What it does offer is mentoring. In a phone interview, Carpenter explained how the mentoring is done. First and perhaps most surprising, the program requires daily feedback from mentors. Immediately after a meeting, for example, employees might be told which of their actions did and didn't work. Such feedback can come several times a day.
Participants also consult with mentors about career and life goals.
Having identified their dream job, they interview people who actually do that job to get a realistic view of its positives and negatives. A list of perhaps 15 to 20 required skills is developed for each job, and a participant's peers and supervisors rate that person's ability in each area. Besides giving employees a sense that they are working toward specific goals, the skills-development program has the beneficial effect of encouraging lateral moves to jobs where those skills can best be learned. That helps the company fill important though less glamorous jobs while alleviating pressure on it to provide opportunities at the most senior levels, where jobs are scarcer, Carpenter says. The company also makes coaches and consultants available to mentors who are stuck on an issue, such as a personality conflict or a psychological hang-ups that is preventing an employee from reaching the next level.