Growing
One of the most critical elements of our EVP is the opportunity to grow and develop at KBR, and we are proud to offer career and development opportunities for all. Your hunger for learning and growth has been clear from our very first People Perspectives Survey, and we’ve worked hard to address this need by expanding our Learning Resources and most recently providing a Career Development Hub to help you find ways to progress along your chosen career path.
In 2021, 72% of respondents said their manager had spoken to them about their development in the past six months, which has now risen to 80%. This is a very positive improvement and reflects the expansion of our Agile Performance and Development process, with regular Check-in conversations between managers and their team members to align on priorities, provide feedback and coaching, and discuss the skills and experience you need to advance your career.
Our overall Grow Index score for 2023 was 73%, and we would like to continue to improve in future years as we embed our talent processes across KBR.
It is pleasing to see the continued improvement in scores related to promotions going to those who best deserve them. Back in 2021, less than half of you agreed with this statement, so it’s good to see this rising to two thirds of our respondents this year. There were many comments in the survey about career progression, and following last year’s survey we launched our Pathways series of internal career fairs so if you haven’t yet attended please keep alert for future events. Clearly there’s still more to do and we will keep working on the transparency and fairness of our promotions processes.
We pay particular attention to early-career professionals and work closely with IMPACT, their dedicated ERG, to support these future leaders as they embark on their careers. In 2023, IMPACT introduced LaunchPad, a one-stop shop for KBR employees to get started on their professional development journey. IMPACT is also using HoloLens to enable employees around the world to "visit" different KBR locations to learn from their colleagues and see the product of their work in situ on client sites, and are also sponsoring KBR’s first Global Hackathon this year. The Hackathon final will take place in November, and the winning team will be awarded a two-week trip around the world, visiting KBR locations to learn, network and have some fun along the way. We hope this will be a truly exciting opportunity to grow!
We aren’t forgetting our experienced team members either! In 2023 we launched our Virtual Instructor-led Training as you told us you all wanted the opportunity to participate in training, and we also began running short Espresso Sessions on specific learning topics, which are open to all. Our new Mentoring guidance also supports employees at every stage of their career, and you can find opportunities to find a mentor or become a mentor by reaching out to your local People team representative.
With so many of our people choosing technical and engineering career paths at KBR, ensuring you are up to date with the latest developments in your specialist field is important. Our Skills of the Future hub was launched after last year’s survey to address your feedback, share internal and external programs to advance skills, and enhance our expertise in cloud, cyber, data science and analytics, digital engineering and program and project management. There’s even a competency framework to help you identify what future skills you want to develop. Check it out here!
As one employee said, “… career guidance and staff development plan is still at infancy stage …” But we hope you’ve seen the steps we’ve taken already based on your feedback. We are committed to embedding these programs at all levels across KBR and to providing opportunities and guidance to help all our employees reach their full potential.
