The Professional Development Programs at Abbott - Essay Example

Abbott is a global company with comprehensive health care products that develops new medicines and technologies for healthcare and management. It hasits presence in more than 100 countries and its products are sold in 130 countries. Abbott has a long history of its prestigious Professional Development Programs for nearly half century. The senior manager of Professional Development Programs, Ann Tomlin says, "Various departments needed employees with the same skill sets, so we created the program to enable engineers to experience different departments and work with different products in a short amount of time." (Tomlin)A primary objective of the Professional Development Program (PDP) is the development of participants in preparation for future key positions within the Abbott organization (Abbott)PDPs are highly selective, two-three year assignment and rotation-based programs built around formal learning and mentoring.

As a member of the program each employee will contribute as a functioning professional in a specific area within the company, rotate through challenging, demanding and diverse assignments and be paired with a mentor to assist in the development of his / her career. (Abbott) The success of participants in Professional Development Programs is convincing enough to prove that these programs are really helping them to grow in their career. According to Tomlin nearly 25% of participants are now in senior management positions.

She says, "We believe that you not only develop a super foundation, but also the right core elements to build a career for leadership." (Tomlin)One of the most popular psychological tests is Myers -Briggs type indicators (MBTI). It helps in knowing how a person feels and tends to think like in different situations. "It identifies individual's preferences for energy, information gathering and life-style" (Raymond Noe). It is highly useful for understanding and practicing different concepts like communication, teamwork, motivation, work styles and leadership.

Abbott has developed a very scientific and successful system for its workforce training and development. It has incorporated all the latest methods in assessing the training needs of employees and how best they can learn new skills. As a part of its program, it makes personality type assessment before launching its career development programs. It has a clear Development Framework to help its managers and employees. The senior staff members are assigned mentoring roles and are actively involved in the development process of employees.

Performance expectations are clearly set for employees by giving them a description of their competency levels and performance results. At every stage the employees are provided with the development needs to reach the next level in their career. In fact, a development road map keeps the employees more focused on the need for improving their knowledge and skills to deliver the best performance.The Professional Development Programs at Abbott Laboratories have been developed keeping its workforce of different departments.

It enjoys the reputation of being one of the best paces to start a good career for college graduates. However, it faces the challenge of building global teams across its centers around the world. Job rotation and providing the employees opportunities in different countries will be more useful for the organization in future. Referenceshttp://www.diversitycareers.com/articles/college/07-sumfall/dia_abbott.htm http://www.abbott.com/global/url/content/en_US/50.50.10:10/general_content/General_Content_00387.

htmNoe Raymond, 2008. Employee Training and Development