Career Planning and Development

Career Planning Meaning Need for -- Process Succession Planning Career Development -- Steps Career Development Actions Advantages Recent Developments Opening Corporate Example: Career Plan at HP India HP India encouraged employees to develop themselves. Career paths up to the local regional level are napped for each role and continuous learning and career development tools are available to all employees. In addition, it provided formal training programmes, and reimbursed employees for tuitions

Companies have to plan for the career and develop the career of its employees after providing technical and managerial skills. Now, we shall study the career planning and development in the following lines. CARRER PLANNING Individual Career Planning assumed greater significance with the unparallel growth and speed of knowledge, phenomenal increase in educational and training facilities and widespread increase in job opportunities. Similarly, organizational career planning also gained importance with the change in technology, human needs, values and aspirations, increase in organizational size, complexity and number of openings at different levels. MEANING OF CARRER PLANNING A career pertains to all the jobs that are held during ones working life. Edwin B. Flippo defined a career as a sequence of separate but related work activities that provides continuity, order and meaning in a persons life. Dougls T. Hall defined a career as an individually perceived sequence of attitudes and behaviors associated with work related experiences and activities over the span of the persons life. Writher and Davis defined various terms of career planning as given hereunder. A career path is the sequential pattern of jobs that from a carrier. Career goals are the future positions one strives for as a part of a career. Career Planning is the process by which one selects career goals and the path to these goals. Career development is those personal improvements one undertakes to achieve a personal career plan. Career management is the process of designing and implementing goals, plans and strategies to enable the organization to satisfy employee needs while allowing individuals to achieve their career goals Box. 11.1 presents career planning practices. Career Planning Practices Example Promote from within whenever possible Employ personal employee intranet sites to facilitate career planning Install customized systems to facilitate rapid leadership development Design career and training paths for key competencies Identify and Develop Key character traits in managers Deploy career rotation as a tool communicate a global culture Hold managers accountable as gatekeepers of employee career path planning.

The Louisville Courier-Journal Royal Dutch/Shell Saturn American Express Federal Express Royal Dutch/Shell Clorox

Need for Career Planning Career planning is necessary due to the following reasons: To attract competent persons and to retain them in the organization. To provide suitable promotional opportunities. To enable the employee to develop and make them ready to meet future challenges. To increase the utilization of managerial reserves within an organization. To correct employee placement. To reduce employee dissatisfaction and turnover. To improve motivation and morale. Process of Career Planning and Development Steps in Career Planning and Development include: i) Analysis of individual skills, knowledge, abilities, aptitudes etc. ii) Analysis of career opportunities both within and outside the organization. iii) Analysis of career demands on the incumbent in terms of skills, knowledge, abilities, aptitude etc. and in terms of qualifications, experience and training received etc. iv) Relating specific jobs to different career opportunities. v) Establishing realistic goals both short-term and long-term. vi) Formulating career strategy covering areas of change and adjustment. vii) Preparing and implementing action plan including acquiring resources for achieving goals. Managers act as mentors in advising the employee in their career plan (See Box below) An Innovative Career Plan at AT & T A unique company initiative at AT&T is on Offered permanent positions at Resource Link. internal labour pool of contract employees. Resource Link employees retain the same salary and Termed Resource Link, the AT&T contingent benefits that they had when they joined AT&T earlier. labour pool has more than 600 people working It is only their assignments that remain temporary. for it. About 50% of these joined the contract Rather than being in traditional job and career path, pool as a career move. Resource Link the Resource Link Associates move from project to promised employees an opportunity to increase project. their skills, knowledge, visibility and AT&T is reaping innumerable benefits by marketability. building on internal contract pool like Resource Employees electing to be part of Resource Link Link AT&T has successfully been able to retain used to apply through a selection process. and develop talented employees. Attributers that come in handy include a track At the same time, the company is spending much record for high performance, multi-skill less on severance payments. Another pay-off is development and ability to contribute in various that there are huge savings on fees that it would fields. otherwise be paying to external agencies for Once employees are selected, they are hiring temporary employees.
Source: Human Capital, September 2001, p 49).

Succession Planning Succession planning is to identify, develop and make the people ready to occupy higher level jobs as and when they feel vacant. Succession may be from internal employees or external people. Organizations appraise employee potentialities, identify training gaps for future vacancies, develop them for higher and varied jobs. The scope of succession plan would be more when the organization grows steadily and employees have potentialities to take up higher responsibilities. Box 3 presents the succession planning practices of various companies. Mentoring helps in developing subordinates and employees at lower level and outside people and make them eligible for higher level jobs (See 4 for examples on mentoring).

Career Development Steps involved in Establishing a Career Development System Career development programs are not a recent idea. There are four steps in establishing a career development system. They are (i) needs- defining the present system (ii) vision-determining new directions and possibilities (iii) action plan-deciding on practical first steps and (iv) results maintaining the change. Box 3 Succession Planning Practices. Example GE Capital, Lucent Technologies Weigh key leadership characteristics according to company culture and values Eli Liffy Align succession plans with the corporate culture to create a foundation for success. GE Customize pieces of the succession planning process to fit individual business units. Clorox Use Performance Metric Tools that are aligned with corporate culture to organize top potentials Glaxo Wellcome Conduct a division-by-division succession planning process Match succession planning and development processes to emerging trends in corporate culture Novartis Match succession planning and development process to emerging trends in corporate culture.

Motorola Novartis Glaxo Wellcome Bell Atlantic Lucent Technologies

Box. 4 Company Examples in Mentoring Avoid large overhead costs that are not fully utilized by extensively using contract trainers Design participation in mentoring programs to be beneficial to senior managers as well as the junior member Encourage informal mentoring as an intermediate step to a more formal process Establish iterative process to work new potentials into mentoring program. Utilize corporate Intranets list possible executive choose and mentors to facilitate the mentor identification process.

Step 1: Step 2 : Step 3 : Step 4:

Needs: This step involves in the conducting of needs assessment as a training programme. Vision: The needs of the career system must be linked with the interventions. An ideal career development system known as the vision links the needs with the interventions. Action Plan: An action plan should be formulated in order to achieve the vision. The support of the top management should be obtained in this process. Results : Career development programme should be integrated with the organizations evaluated from time to time in order to revise the programme.

Career Development Actions i) Job Performance: Employee must prove that his performance on the job is to the level of standards established, if the wants career progress. ii) Exposure : Employees desire for career progress would expose their skills, knowledge, qualifications achievements, performance etc. to those who take decision about career progress. iii) Resignations: Employees may resign the present job in the organization, if they find that career opportunities elsewhere are better than those of the present organization.

iv)

v)

Change the job : Employees who put organizational loyalty above career loyalty may change the job in the same organization if they find that career opportunities in other jobs in the same organization are better than those in the present job. Career Guidance : Counseling provides information, advice and encouragement to switch over to another career or organization, where career opportunities are better.

Advantage of Career Planning and Development

For Individuals: i) The process of career planning helps the individual to have the knowledge of various career opportunities, his priorities etc. ii) The knowledge helps him select the career which is suitable to his lifestyles, preferences, family environment, scope for self-development etc. iii) It helps the organization identify internal employees who can be promoted. iv) Internal promotions, upgradation and transfers motivate the employees, boost up their morale and also result in increased job satisfaction. v) Increased job satisfaction enhances employee commitment and creates a sense of belongingness and loyalty to the organization. vi) Employees will wait his turn of promotion rather than changing to another organization. This lowers employee turnover. vii) It improves employees performance on the job by tapping their potential abilities and further employee growth. viii) It satisfies the employees esteem needs. For Organizations A long term focus of career planning and development will increase the effectiveness of human resources management. More specifically, the advantages of career planning and development for and organization include: i) Efficient career planning and development ensures the availability of human resources with required skill, knowledge and talent. ii) The efficient policies and practices improve the organizations ability to attract and retain highly skilled and talented employees. iii) Proper career planning ensures that the women and people belonging to backward communities get opportunities for growth and development. iv) The career plan continuously tries to satisfy the employees expectations and as such minimizes employees frustration. v) By attracting and retaining the people from different cultures, enhances cultural diversity. vi) Protecting employees interest results in promoting organizational goodwill. Recent Trends in Career Planning Organization started using career planning as a technique of retaining employees. Career planning should be designed such that it not only provides multiple alternatives, but also helps them have their skills and widen their knowledge base. Organizations started viewing career plan as an opportunity because a well designed career planning system will offer a gamut of alternatives to employees. Instead of traditional corporate on-the-way-up ladder, now there is this concept of multiple career paths, where employees are shown plentiful lateral opportunities and employees are involved in their own career plan (See Box 5)

Box 5 Recent Trend : Concentrate on Contract Staff, but not on Career Plan Why companies are going for contract staff, rather Conductive to short term contract and a flexible than concentrating on career plan? workforce to increase productivity. - The employee market is tight and finding good Full-time employee overheads to permanent is people tough, especially in technical areas. attractive, both for the company and the worker.

The market place is highly volatile. Unexpected changes call for a flexible staff that can be moved out when projects are finished Skills are scarce, particularly in the areas like IT and highly specialized technical areas.

Companies can bring in contract workers for a probation period, try-them-out. And then decide whether to hire them full time or not Revenue per employee is higher with more contract and less full time staff. Employees prefer being independent contractors, because they earn higher salaries, and get independence and mobility.

There is a need for project work in specialized technologies. Such project work is (Source : Human Capital, September 2001, p.48 In addition, organizations rather than planning the career of the employees. Concentrate on contract staff from employees leasing firms and body shoppers (See Box. 6)

Box 6 Encouraging Protean Careers at Ford Motor Company Since the 1979 recession, we find ourselves in a less More breadth of experience to manage the stables, less favourable environment with a rapidly organization. changing technology. In order to be effective, it is necessary to move a mechanistic organization to The previously held ideal of rapid upward movement smaller more organic, efficient organization, is no longer viable. Instead, we must look at career as characterized by flatter structure, broader spans of a life-long sequence of job experiences to be ordered control, responsibility focused at lower levels and a by the individuals own needs and interests and participative management style (which we call coupled with as complete a picture of organizational employee involvement) reality as possible. Carriers will be characterized more by lateral movement or no movement than by upward movement. We Respect to career planning we must: - Encourage employee participation in the From the individuals perspective, there is need to management of their own careers. - Provide information on organizational trends and understand the factors affecting their own career. From the companys viewpoint there is a need encourage developments that will facilitate career planning - Define criteria for success in various areas and broad-based development to provide future managerial provide extensive feedback to individuals on and professional personnel ... There is also a need to signal to employees, especially high performing where they stand in relation to these criteria and individuals that while there has been a change in - Implement supportive practices orientation towards careers, there are still viable The reduction in the overall number of employees options within the company. and the reduction in structure (levels of management and numbers of positions) forces a The ford Career Planning Program is based upon the change in the way we look at career development. following beliefs. - Fewer positions means fewer promotional Individuals have the right and responsibility to opportunities. participate in the management of their own - Broader spans of control-delegated responsibilitycareers. means more people with The Company has the right and responsibility to provide information to individuals and to act on individual plans consistent with the needs of the organization.
(Source: John Turner and Dr. Phyllis C Honer Coping With Career Development in on Industry in Transition

Questions for Discussion 1. What is Career Planning and Career development? Explain the various career development actions. 2. What are the benefits and problems of career planning and development? What do you suggest to minimize career problems? 3. What are the life and career stages? How does the organization plan for the career of employees based on the career stages? 4. What is succession planning? How do the organizations plan for the succession of the employees? 5. What are the problems in career planning and development? Suggest the measures for effective career planning and development 6. Why do companies prefer outsourcing rather than developing the career of its employees?