At the end of 2015, TCMO (The Career Management Organisation) commissioned a survey, carried out by an independent third party on behalf of TCMO, seeking to investigate the extent to which senior managers plan their careers.

 TCMO promised to share the results with everyone (even if you didn’t take part!).  Like their previous research project, these findings make interesting reading.

The ‘Executive Summary’ bullet points are as follows:

  • Nearly 40% of executives believe they are not really prepared for their next career move.  Conversely, 31% of executives do believe they are either well or better than averagely prepared. 30% are ‘averagely’ prepared.
  • Some 28%-31% of execs seem to be active in the job market, having spoken to or registered with a headhunter or sought a new role via a job-board in the last month.
  • This is mirrored by the finding that 15% of respondents have spoken to their manager in the last month (and 20% in the last 2-5 months) about their career progression, whereas nearly two-thirds have not spoken to him or her in over six months.  Perhaps this is why so many of our sample are actively seeking a job?
  • Some 40% of our sample have been made redundant at one time or another but 55% don’t know or are unsure what to do to get back on track.  Some 27% have then sought the services of a career coach to help them back to work.  Almost half believe this coaching helped get them a new job.

These are the main findings, but what was really interesting and (perhaps?) surprising was that execs are not being given the opportunity, or perhaps are not requesting one, to discuss their career planning with their line manager.