Industry
Career Planning
Career planning is the systematic process by which one selects career goals and the path to these goals and the path to these goals. A career plan is a blue print in which the entire career of employees is mapped out from the point of their entry into the point of their retirement from the organization.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CAREER PLANNING:
- Career planning is a process of developing human resources rather than an event.
- It is not an end itself, but a means of managing people to obtain optimum results.
- Career planning is a continuous process due to an ever changing environment.
- Career planning is an individual’s responsibility, but it is the responsibility of an organisation to provide guidance and counseling to its employees in planning their careers and in developing and utilizing their knowledge and skills. Goals of employees should be integrated with organizational goals.
- The basic aim of career planning is integration of individual and organizational needs.
- To attract and retain the right type of persons in the organization.
- To map out the careers of employees suitable to their ability, and their willingness to be trained and developed for higher positions.
- To ensure better use of human resource through more satisfied and productive employees.
- To have a more stable work force by reducing labour turnover and absenteeism.
- To improve morale, motivation and provide guidance and encourage employees to fulfill their potentials.
OBJECTIVES OF CAREER PLANNING:
CAREER PLANNING TERMINOLOGY
Career goals: The future positions one strives to reach as part of a career.
Career path: The sequential pattern of jobs that form a career.
Career progression: Making progress in ones career through promotions.
Career counseling: Guiding and advising people on their possible.
Mentoring: The process where an executive or senior employee service as a teacher, advisor.
Career anchor: Urge to take up a certain type of career.
Career development: The personal movements an individual makes to achieve his career plan.
Career management: The process of designing and implementing plan to enable the organization, to satisfy employer needs and allow individuals to achieve their career goals.
PROCESS OF CAREER PLANNING
Identifying individual needs and aspirations
To identify the individual needs, employee who are already fit and willing to take higher responsibility, they need training and experience, employee who have the capability to take higher responsibilities but lack in interest or desire.
Analyzing career opportunities
To analyze the demand in terms of knowledge, skill, experience, attitude also analyze the short term and long term career goals.
Identifying match and mismatch
A mechanism for identifying congruence between individual career aspirations and organization career system is developed to identify and compare specific areas of match and mismatch for different categories of employees.
Formulating and implementing strategies
Changes in the career system by creating new path by providing opportunities for lateral movements through job readiness changing employee needs, by creating new aspirations. Training and development is given to the suitable people so as to the needs of both the individual and the organization.
Reviewing career plans
Effective utilization of human resource by matching employee objective to job needs.
CAREER COUNSELING
Career planning may require advising and guiding employees in their possible career paths and the direction in which they ought to be heading. Such advising and guiding is called career counseling.
CAREER PLANNING ADVANTAGES
- Career planning helps an employee know the career opportunities available in an organization.
- The knowledge enables the employee to select the career most suitable to his potential and aptitude.
- An organization with well designed career plans has a better image in the job market.
- Career planning helps to retain hard working and talented employees.
- This process helps employee morale and productivity.
- It is a survey of employee abilities and attitudes.
- Career planning anticipates the future vacancies that may arise due to retirement, resignation, death, etc.
- Career planning facilities expansion and growth of the enterprise.
LIMITATIONS
1. It is not suitable for small organization (Vertical mobility available)
2. Career plans for a period exceeding a decade may not be effective
3. It is not suitable for large organization (difficult in wage structure, absence of adequate opportunities).
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Career development is essential implement in career plans. It consists of activities undertaken by the individual employees of the organization to meet career aspirations and job requirement.
- 1. Career need assessment:
Career needs of employees can be judged by evaluating their aptitudes, abilities, and potential. Many employees may not be aware of what they want to become.
- 2. Career opportunities:
Career opportunities that can be ______ should be identified through job analysis.
- 3. Need opportunity alignment:
Career development employee needs are aligned with available career opportunities to help the employee integrate the development need with organization opportunities.
- 4. Monitoring career moves:
It is necessary to maintain the record the career movements of employee and to monitor the progress towards the predetermined career goals.
NEED FOR SUCCESSFUL PLANNING
- To fill up key positions in future.
- Succession planning helps an organization to groom the successors for key posts. So that there is high level of match between the role requirements and personnel abilities.
- When succession planning is undertaken effectively and overall suitability of personnel is worked out on objective criteria.
- Time lag: The Organization which do not devote so much of time to find that their succession planning.
- Lack of interest: succession related issues may be acknowledged, necessary, preparatory are not defined or licensed in sufficient depth. This makes the result of succession planning exercise meaningless in many cases.
- Over emphasizes: succession planning over emphasizes identifying succession at the cost of integrating learning experiences relevant to future positions. This can occur because of a lack of specific future position requirement.
- Involvement of supervisory board: There is a need for active involvement of the supervisory board or any other high level group of functionaries in succession planning. It should succession as a continuous systematic process and may set up a committee specifically to formulate long term strategies for the recruitment, evaluation, development, retention and dismissal of senior executive.
- Driven by CEO: chief executive takes direct personal interest in succession planning. He must take suitable processes and structures are in a place to provide for a support on effective succession planning.
- Procedural consistency: to take procedural steps to lead succession planning. It is not a seasonal problem. It is continuous strategic evolutionary process that is write independent of the company’s current situation.
- External bench marketing: For making the succession planning successful there is a suitability of the possible successors against bench marked skill requirements. The bench marking should be external rather than internal.
- Pool of successors: To build a pool of successors who are aspiring top positions in the organization. To manage an executive cadre of this kind.
- Objectivity: To finding out successors from the outside also or widened their scope.
- Application of emotional intelligence: To spending a time to control emotional and discussing expectations, suitability and needs of all those involved in the executive succession process.
