INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM)

When talking about HRM we are referring about any management practices that are connected
with people. Definition that is provided by SHRM describes HRM as aformal structure with an
organization responsible for all the decisions, strategies, factors, principles, operations,
functions and methods related to the management of the people. We can see that HRM plays a
substantial role in the world of business, because every organization consist of people and this
have to be properly conducted. Many surveys have proved that the success of an organization
is very highly connected with the employees that this organization manages. Nowadays, the key
roles are attributed to managers, who are in a direct contact with their personnel and therefore
are the nearest people having the ability to influence the employees’s performance.
Although these findings are globally accepted nowadays, they were not bear in mind in the
past. The development of HRM matches with the development of society. Therefore a country’s
political, economic and social situation has a great impact on the ways that HRM was directed.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS A CAREER?

The progress and actions taken by a person throughout a lifetime, especially those related to that
person's occupations. A career is often composed of the jobs held, titles earned and work
accomplished over a long period of time, rather than just referring to one position.
While employees in some cultures and economies stay with one job during their career, there is
an increasing trend to employees changing jobs more frequently. For example, an individual's
career could involve being a lawyer, though the individual could work for several different firms
and in several different areas of law over a lifetime.
For many people, career means the part of life that is concerned with employment. From an
occupational standpoint, it means the sum total of the various jobs you may hold during your
lifetime. However, these definitions do not fully capture the meaning of career. We would like
you to think of career in a broader, more life-encompassing way. Think of the decisions you
make about a job or a college major as valuable components of a lifelong process. When viewed
in this manner, career can be defined as the sum total of decisions that direct your educational,
social, economic, political, and spiritual endeavors and reflect your unique personality
characteristics and basic life values.
IS CAREER DEVELOPMENT?

Career development is the series of activities or the on-going/lifelong process of developing

one’s career. Career development usually refers to managing one’s career in an intra-
organizational or inter-organizational scenario. It involves training on new skills, moving to
higher job responsibilities, making a career change within the same organization, moving to a
different organization or starting one’s own business.
Career development is directly linked to the goals and objectives set by an individual. It starts
with self-actualization and self-assessment of one’s interests and capabilities. The interests are
then matched with the available options. The individual needs to train himself to acquire the
skills needed for the option or career path chosen by him. Finally, after acquiring the desired
competency, he has to perform to achieve the goals and targets set by him.

Career development, both as a concept and a concern is of recent origin. The reason for thislack
of concern regarding career development for a long time, has been the careless,unrealistic
assumption about employees functioning smoothly along the right lines, and the belief that the
employees guide themselves in their careers. Since the employees areeducated, trained for the
job, and appraised, it is felt that the development fund on is over.Modern personnel
administration has to be futuristic, it has to look beyond the present tasks,since neither the
requirements of the organisation nor the attitudes and abilities of employeesare constant. It is too
costly to leave 'career' to the tyranny of time and casualty of circumstances, for it is something
which requires to be handled carefully throughsystematisation and professional promoting.
Fortunately, there has lately been someappreciation of the value of career planning and
acceptance of validity of career developmentas a major input in organisational development.
Career development refers to set of programs designed to match an individual’s needs,abilities,
and career goals with current and future opportunities in the organization. Wherecareer plan sets
career path for an employee, career development ensures that the employee iswell developed
before he or she moves up the next higher ladder in the hierarchy.
CAREER PLANNING
Career Planning is a relatively new personnel function. Established programs on Career Planning
are still rare except in larger or more progressive organizations.Career Planning aims at
identifying personal skills, interest, knowledge and other features;and establishes specific plans
to attain specific goals.Aims and Objectives of Career Planning:Career Planning aims at
matching individual potential for promotion and individualaspirations with organizational needs
and oppurtunities. Career Planning is making sure thatthe organization has the right people with
the right skills at the right time. In particular itindicates what training and development would be
necessary for advancing in the career altering the career path or staying in the current position.
Its focus is on future needs andoppurtunities and removal of stagnation, obsolescence,
dissatisfaction of the employee.

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

IMPORTANCE OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT:

Until recently, workers will have access to the organization, his career in his career. Now past.
Steeds Employees still very popular because they naively believe that the continuity of work and
organizational values are well-immune Discounts added. However, increased competition, rapid
technological change, restructuring and dishonest means, not high performance protection
against dismissal of employees. More likely is the lack of a traditional business. Experts estimate
that popular that race is a rapid settlement

Realistic and orientation problems, prevention and active employees the opportunity to explore
power. The creation and career goals. Career Planning and Development two – processes career
employee (centered) and career management (organization center) is. Human resource
management task, but it is a planning, career planning and management of human resources is
part of, be state by many organizations is not included.
Ideally, a professional development and planning process, which met match interests and
organizational needs, must overcome. That the business skills for a career development.
Careered strategic objective, strategic and organizational planning and staff need the same
profile in competitive situations to get the skills to ensure development is an important element
of the organization and skilled workforce.

Human Resource Planning and Career Planning and Development

Employees are increasingly concerned about the quality of life

Battle of the lack of expertise in order to build talent worldwide

Trade unions focus more on career planning and development:

Higher levels of education and expectations of employees.

Institutions and the feeling of obligation to employees.

Employees Responsibility

Every employee Belgium honorable career planning and development should be more concern.
Unfortunately ignores the responsibility of individuals, I quickly left the organization. Passive
acceptance of the employees in D control of your career and your future career, employment
opportunities are aimed at reducing chance achieve.

Until recently, employees could join an organisation fully expecting to stay with it for their entire
career. Now, life-long careers are a thing of the past. Some naive employees still feel that they
are immune to the ongoing reductions because they are doing good work and adding value to the
organisation. However, increasing competition, rapid technological change, relentless
restructuring and downsizing mean that high performance no longer protects employees from
dismissal. People increasingly will move from opportunity to opportunity without regard for
traditional job boundaries. Some experts predict that soon full-time careerswill no longer be the
norm.Realistic career planning forces employees to be proactive and to anticipate problems and
opportunities. Itdoes this by making them establish and examine their career objectives. Career
planning and developmentinvolves two processes — career planning (employee centred) and
career management (organisationcentred). Career management is integral to HR planning, but
HR planning and/or career management do notexist or are not integrated in some
organisations.Ideally, career planning and development should be seen as a process that aligns
the interests and skills of employees with the needs of the organisation. This means that careers
must be managed strategically so theskills demanded by the organisation’s strategic business
objectives are understood and a work force with amatching profile of skills is developed. Career
planning and development play a major part in ensuring thatthe organisation has a competitive
and knowledgeable work force.

HR planning and career planning and development

 Employees and organisations are paying more attention to career planning and
development because:
 Employees are increasingly concerned about their quality of life
 There are EEO legislation and AA pressures
 Educational levels and employee aspirations are rising
 Workers are making the transition from vertical careers to lateral careers
 Organisations have an increasing sense of obligation to employees. ‘The most valuable
thing that a business can give its members,’ says Handy, ‘is no longer employment but
employability, thesecurity of a saleable skill.’

Shortages of skilled workers is producing a global talent war

ADVANTAGES OF CAREER PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

a. Career opportunities:
An individual should start career planning right from childhood. Nowadays lie has become more
competitive and complex. So there are quite lots of struggles waiting in the future. An individual
should learn to baffle so as to select the right profession.

Students or employees those who don’t have a proper career plan or career opportunity should
become aware of the career opportunity programs.

b. Self-development:
People who have robust health are dependent on the sense of strict discipline and even it matters
when the guidance of the mission occurs.

It has almost severe mental makeup, training, knowledge on aptitude, will-power and respective
skills. It depends on each profession that even may result in frustration and failure.

It helps one to take actions regarding the long-term goals. One cannot judge themselves in taking
right decisions. It can be achieved via experience.

c. Job satisfaction:
Job satisfaction has become a common issue among social workers which determines mental
stability, creative ideas, and recreational facilities.

It includes wealth, salary, necessities of basic living, working conditions and realistic
expectation. It becomes the cause for anxiety, depression, and nervousness etc.
It also improves their life quality. This is considered the final fact in achieving success. To
understand the different pros and cons of job satisfaction.

d. Promotions:
Promotions deals with the essential inducement of all the changes that are related to extra values.
Here one must try to accomplish and even quantify them. It is listed by sorting the negotiations,
threats and even the length of time. It is managed within the course of actions by the
organization.

e. Personal growth:
Personal growth is considered the biggest challenge in career development. Here people can be
effective.

It deals with most personal cases such as depression, stress management. It has to show the
maturity that is endowed with the detailed analysis of the growth of the organization.

f. Loyalty towards work and towards the organization:

It is gained when an employee has significant aspiration or commitment towards work. It
happens with the sense of loyalty and even as the management expects. It gradually changes the
globalization and harder to find.

It becomes harder when the employee does not meet the expectation of the organization. The
global environment is confronted as today’s loyalty of the employee towards the respective
organizations.

g. Achievements:
If the employees are hired for the organization then they keep a complete track of the terms and
process that are involved.

It also manages the downsizing, attitudes, and behaviours that are limited to self-psychological
attachments. It relates to the people striving for higher salaries.

h. Efficient career planning:

It ensures the availability of people with efficient skills and highly talented employees. Here the
organization concentrates more on promoting dataset resources. The employees are allowed to
face the dangers which are full of competition.
It has defined the quantity of the internal emotional components. It becomes a necessity for
management to understand the difficulties that the employee undergoes.

i. Assistance and guidance:

Career planning is one of the benefits of career development which aims at the development
system of the employee. This helps in the guidance and assistance of aspirations, desires and the
objectives of the growth. It has more goals that are to be accomplished.

It triggers communication between employee and manager. It has average calibre towards the
growth of each employee that is manually marked to pursue from greener pastures.

j. Feasible objectives:
It changes the rapid skills, knowledgeable workforce, focus etc. An organization will help an
employee’s career growth and development so as to set personal goals and opportunities to make
the employee undergo adequate training.

It recognizes the shared responsibility of the employee that ensures various policies and
programs within the training provided.

k. Job enrichment:
It can be managed through self-driven supports. It has an additional responsibility for higher
level employees.

It is important when the company has trusted resources and even the employees with various
natural tendencies.

Here the best thing to slack off starts where an individual is responsible for the outcome of the
project. It endures repetitiveness that maximizes the gap for learning.

l. Effective communication:
This deepens the ability to communicate so as to perform multitasking. It improves teamwork
and also neglects nonverbal signals, unhealthy patterns of behaviour.
It calms down the conversation between the speaker and the receiver. It also avoids interruptions.
This process helps in time management.

It also makes sure that the posture along with the facial expressions is identified within the
emotional nuances.

m. Understanding the hidden aspects:

Opportunities have surprised both the virtual conversations and direct conversations along with
the significant, power and to the extent of collaborating with the short-term and long-term
projects.

It helps in lively professional opportunities in the overall career based desires. One can access
the reputation of the organization so as to define about the direct conversations.

n. Boost productivity and engagement:

Improving employee engagement promotes good opportunities and a variety of outcomes. It
involves high turnovers and high-level engagements.

It compensates for the quality of work and business scoring. The defects that are spent has
bottom quartile analysis and lower scoring along with business lines. This is one of the best
advantages of planning.

o. Internal skills:
Skills that are developed to achieve the ambitions successfully are known as internal skills. It
ensures satisfactory results of the planning. It has its own scope.

Here the activities are designed in such a way to achieve the goals. It has upgrading and self-
improvement of each and every task. It revolves around the career development so as to use the
host and whole set of general information along with the respective practices that are to be
followed.
p. Positive branding:
Personal branding helps career planning for large companies and even the activities of a strong
personal brand are held.

To build up a career plan one has to mention that the strong brands involved are defined as per
the system that is followed earlier. Here one can give straight advice to control the business-
related brands.

DISADVANTAGES OF CAREER PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT:

a. Lack of objectivity:
Career planning has become the opportunity with the impossible small organization. It helps in
developing the defined targets.

It becomes the disadvantage if the goals are improperly set. The decisions are made so as to
check the deep understanding of the plans. It is not suitable for small-scale industries because of
vertical mobility.

b. Lack of awareness:
One should make decisions without fixing a proper goal. It affects communication that has an
impact on the ability to view decisions.

It has adverse effects on growth. It has short supply over the ruined items and more due to the
shortage of practices. It paves way for the rejections and disapproval of the involvements.

c. External intercession:
Here the government rules and regulations play a vital role. The goals have to be analyzed and
are to be designed within the given time.

It is to decide and change one’s nature of being. The Government rules are preferred as the
reservation systems are maintained. It intervenes with the desired data that are handled within the
short term.

d. Difficulty in measuring success:

It deals with one success strategy that is self-managed within a certain duration and even the
designed career plan process.

It establishes the large workforce that is handled within strict depth analysis process. This also
routes to different scenarios that lead to unsuccessful exercise.

e. No scope for advancement:

When a career path is selected it should not be chosen blindly instead one must analyze the
schedule within the state of long-term gains. Profound goals are enhanced by the current status
which will be validated.

If the career planning is completed and if suppose one is working towards it and if suddenly
there is a drop out in that particular sector, then that pre-planned career becomes invaluable.

f. Lack of flexibility:
Nowadays most of the organizations often fail during their uncertain activities. Many employees
are unaware of the career planning strategies.

It meets with the lower levels of programs that are considered in loss of pay. It motivates and
structures people with limits of applicability in uncertain situations. It has promotions on strict
observance of objectivity.

g. Time factor:
It has a sustained basis that tends to spend a lot of time and resources. It has beneficial long
terms career plans for a long-term goal that are set.

It may not be effective with career changes. It has advancement in the long-term and is the time-
consuming process. The logic sufferings based on ready to spend a lot of time would run
beneficial only in term of analysis.

h. Unsuitable for the workplace:

It has defined an undetermined plan towards the goals that are set. Here the career planning
process has a depth analysis of the long-term goals. Due to process analysis, the planning is
sustained for a longer run.

A large number of workforce is required to involve in developing it. The quality of the indicator
has been checked so as to ensure whether the designed plans are regulated.
Thus career plan development enhances a person’s career that in turn is reflected in proper
understandings and communications. Career planning also termed as succession planning
advantages and disadvantages have been mentioned above.

Career path is subjected to the sequence of work experience which an individual can gain if there
is proper implementation of plans. Hence the goals are to be set in a creative, broadminded
manner so as to encourage in achieving the goals.

CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER 4
CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROCESS:

Children and youth progress through a career development process as they mature. It consists of
four stages: Career Awareness, Career Exploration, Career Preparation, and Career Placement.
Adults also continue to grow and develop in their careers as they age, albeit at a slower rate than
children. Adults usually enter the final development process (the career placement stage) in the
latter stages of their secondary or post-secondary educational experiences. They then gradually
progress through an additional two stages: Career Maintenance and Career Mentoring.

However, adults who acquire a disability (e.g. adventitiously blinded adults) may need to cycle
back through some of the stages of the career development process. This is because they initially
progressed through the process as fully sighted people and may have many of the same
misperceptions as the general public about what a person can do with limited or no sight.

Following the acquisition of disability-specific skills, it’s important for adults who lose vision to
re-assess themselves in terms of the career development process. They will need time, in much
the same way that children and adolescents need time, to move through the six stages. The
difference is that adventitiously blinded adults will not need as much time to go through the first
four stages of the process as children do.

The six stages of the Career Development Process:

Career Awareness
Children experience the career awareness stage as they learn about themselves and what they
enjoy doing (interests), what they can do particularly well (abilities), and learn what’s important
to them (values or beliefs).
It’s during the career awareness stage that children also learn about the world of work: what jobs
are available in the community, what jobs their parents and other significant adults in their lives
are doing, and what tasks are inherent to these different types of jobs. For children who are blind
or partially sighted, it’s important to let them explore tools, materials, and activities associated
with domestic chores and to give them responsibilities when they are old enough to do tasks
around the house.

It’s also important to describe what others are doing outside of their visual or tactual range –
what tasks they are performing, what they are wearing, what tools they are using, etc. – so that
they can learn about jobs and job tasks though this kind of casual or "incidental" exposure.
Career Exploration
The next stage is career exploration and this is when children begin to investigate the careers that
are of interest to them. They learn the skills that are required and how to develop their
knowledge, skills, and abilities to enter career fields that appeal to them.

They read biographies or autobiographies of famous people and learn about their careers, watch
movies or television shows with characters performing in different jobs, observe adults doing
things that they’d like to be doing (e.g., performing music or competing in athletics), and ask
adults questions about jobs of interest and the careers associated with them. During the career
exploration stage, children are trying to sort the roles they see adults playing and determine
which of those roles might suit them.

This is the time that they explore their talents and determine how others are using similar skills
and abilities in careers. It’s important that children actively engage in community-based
functions such as field trips or “take your child to work” days to encourage them to investigate
topics and tasks related to career opportunities. They need to attend performances in areas of
interest, participate in recitals and competitions, or join teams to see how their performance
compares to their same-aged peers.
Career Preparation
In the career preparation stage, children and youth gather the knowledge they will need to
perform in their careers, including the basic literacy skills necessary to function in modern
society and work successfully in an information age. In addition, they continue to refine their
basic work competencies such as learning different organizational techniques and expected work
behaviours such as following instructions.
During the career preparation stage, they also refine their skills and abilities through participation
in school and community activities; as well as, at home with chores as they assume more and
more responsibility with age.

All children have areas of innate ability. It’s during the career preparation stage that they
determine which of their natural abilities or talents they want to strengthen through practice and
training to a point that they can compete with others whose talents are comparable. It’s during
this stage that adolescents decide whether to prepare for further academic training following their
secondary school programs, pursue vocational skills training, or go to work.

Through engagement at school, chores at home and activities in the community, such as
volunteer experiences, youth develop skills that will transfer to future work environments and
prepare them for their careers.
Career Placement
Career placement is the stage that is most often experienced during late adolescence and early
adulthood, when young adults land their first job outside of their homes for pay. They typically
work at a variety of jobs, “trying them on for size”. It’s through placement into jobs that young
people learn what employers expect of them, how to be responsible and contributing members of
society, as well as the value of doing work for remuneration (whether it’s money or the more
subtle benefits received through apprenticing such as skill development and gaining experience).

They also have the opportunity through such engagement to secure references from people
outside of their immediate families who can vouch for their ability to perform on a job. This
access to prospective references is a critical factor for youth with disabilities as employers tend
to pay more attention to references from other employers than to those received from friends and
family.
Career Maintenance
The career maintenance stage follows the successful landing of a job. During this stage, the
worker settles into a pattern, becoming comfortable with job duties and co-workers and finding a
balance between work and play. Adults who successfully manage their careers typically map out
where they’d like to be over time and strive to achieve those goals.

The skills required to maintain employment are largely social (learning to get along with co-
workers, customers or clients) and, to a lesser degree, vocational (learning the knowledge and
work-related skills to perform well and consistently meet productivity standards). Learning
social skills is critical for individuals because if their co-workers, customers or clients like them,
they will help them keep their jobs – if they don’t, they will work against them, either overtly or
covertly, and maintaining employment will be a challenge.

While adults may change jobs a number of times over the course of their working lives, it’s
imperative that those changes be as positive as possible (moving to a new job because of an
improved opportunity, a chance to assume more responsibility, or relocating to a new
community). To maintain a career, it’s important to consider how jobs people have had and are
doing relate to their overall career objectives and goals.

If an individual’s job doesn’t connect to their long-term career goals, it’s like starting over with
each move to a new job. If individuals must re-career due to downsizing or an injury or illness,
they need to be prepared to discuss how the work they’ve performed previously has
transferability to their new career goals.
Career Mentoring
When adults near the end of their working lives, they often have the opportunity to mentor other
workers and guide them in their career development process. This career mentoring stage can
occur while an individual is still working or following retirement. The career mentoring stage is
a time to prepare young people or people new to employment to the expectations and demands of
a career field.

It’s in the career mentoring stage where mature workers have an opportunity to share what
they’ve learned that has enabled them to be successful in their jobs and set the stage for others to
follow suit. Career mentoring may be thought of as succession planning: current workers teach
those who will take their positions in the future.
METHODS OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

On-the-job-mentoring: One of the most widely used and most efficient means of developing
employees is mentoring. It is the day-to-day responsibility of the manager or mentor to impart
skills and knowledge, to answer questions, to review work, to discuss progress or lack of
progress, and to provide general direction. Working through an actual problem as it develops
will increase insight into how to handle similar problems next time.
Guided experience: Similar to mentoring, it has an emphasis on the individual’s special
development needs. You need to provide accurate information on the developmental need and
someone, usually a manager, observes your interaction in the role while providing very specific
feedback as you go.
Understudy training: Preparation of a person to assume the responsibilities of another individual,
either as a substitute or replacement.
Job rotation: Job rotation offers an excellent opportunity to broaden knowledge and experience,
as well as to gain an appreciation of viewpoints and interrelationships of various organizational
groups.
Project, Committee, or Task Force Assignment: Giving an individual a problem to resolve is an
excellent developmental technique. Committee or task force assignments help to determine how
well an individual can work with others and identifies leadership and organizational skills.
Individual Assignments: Take the place of a manager on vacation, or on leave for an illness. You
might also know someone who is taking leave and ask to “fill the role” on a volunteer basis to
gain experience.
Management Development Programs: Formal development programs can augment by providing
both useful information and practice in a classroom setting.
Technical Education Programs: Formal professional programs may be available to you that are
tailored to your particular function.
Job Expansion: Expansion of the scope of your current job to include greater responsibility and a
wider variety of tasks will help you to acquire valuable skills and knowledge.
Attendance in Staff Meetings: For effective development to take place, attendance at such
meetings must occur. Such exposure will give you greater knowledge and perspective of the role.
Serving as an Instructor, Conference Leader, or Trainer: One of the most valuable ways to obtain
knowledge, broaden one’s scope, and clarify one’s thinking is to teach others. Such training
responsibility puts you in touch with many new operations, processes, and problems.
Help from Specialists in the Organization: Find opportunities to speak with knowledge experts
when additional information is needed.
Studying materials, books, and other documents: Seek out information to learn more about a
subject.
Formal Education: Pursuing formal education is also an excellent method if time and resources
are not constraints.

ESSENTIALS OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING

Essential #1: Develop a Complete Career Development Framework

As stated earlier, 70 percent of organizations use some type of career framework, although most
organizations are not using all elements of a framework. Creating a career framework that starts
with a specific job role and doesn’t take it through a job family, career level, and career stream is
like starting construction of a road and not completing it; it leads nowhere. It is just as important
for organizations that start a framework to complete it.
The process of building the framework is different for every organization. The key is to take a
wide lens and understand both organizational and employee goals for having a career
development structure and career paths. It is then critical to involve a wide variety of
stakeholders and make sure the framework aligns with the culture and there is governance in
place to guide the process.

Essential #2: Enable Career Development with Technology

As noted, career development is complex and involves a collection of conditions, strategies, and
processes that must work in harmony.

In even the simplest of organizations, there are many variables for creating a career development
architecture and career paths. Once you align career paths with competencies in different
business units and regions, and create vertical and horizontal career paths, those variables cannot
be well managed manually.

This is where the wheels come off for many organizations. The research shows only 23 percent
of organizations support competency development with technology and only 21 percent support
career development with technology. Comparatively, 60 percent of organizations support
performance management with technology, which is arguably far less complicated than career
and competency development.

Technology is readily available, both as part of a suite of talent solutions or as a point solution.
Organizations may think career development is important, but many look at it as a function itself
rather than a complex, interwoven set of processes that defy manual management.

The small number of organizations utilizing career and competency technology have a distinct
advantage over organizations that don’t. For example, we know organizations struggle to
develop clear, well-communicated career paths for most employees. There is also a strong
correlation between technology use for career development and increases in key business
metrics. Clearly, technology is a huge differentiator in successful career development. It helps
with all other elements of career development.

Essential #3: Develop Career Paths Aligned with Competencies

For career paths to resonate with employees and provide value to the employer, they must be
linked to an employee’s performance. While about half of organizations still primarily determine
promotions through annual performance reviews, 81 percent of organizations now align career
paths with at least one of five competency types.

Aligning competencies with career paths provides a clear roadmap for employees. They can see
skills they must master through experience, training, or both. They can understand whether there
must be external learning through universities or associations and whether internal or external
certifications are required. They can understand how long they are expected to stay in a role and
the expected level of performance before they advance.

As we will discuss later, more employees don’t want to follow traditional career paths and may
seek to change directions due to evolving personal or professional priorities. Seeing what that
requires can impact the decision, so having competencies in place and aligning them to career
paths is extremely important.

This requires wide collaboration among stakeholders and can be expensive. To make the
business case, it is important to note that our research shows a strong correlation between career
path-competency alignment and improved business metrics. For example, organizations with
career paths aligned with at least one competency type are twice as likely to see increased year-
over-year employee engagement compared to organizations without alignment.

Essential #4: Enable Employees to Change Career Streams or Levels Based on Changing
Personal or Professional Priorities

In our four-generation workforce, career paths often move in untraditional ways. Personal
interests affect career choices more often than previously. Organizations that design ways for
employees to change direction—horizontally, vertically, or into an entirely different career
stream or level—have a competitive advantage over other organizations.

Millennials often are presumed to be most likely to choose untraditional paths. But with
employees working longer, Baby Boomers who want to continue working—though perhaps not
at their current level, intensity, or job type—can continue to make meaningful contributions
when flexible opportunities are available. Job sharing also is becoming more popular, so
organizations that can identify job-sharing opportunities can gain a competitive advantage.
When designing career frameworks, it is important to avoid focusing only on the present and
consider how the workforce might look in the future.

Right now, organizations that designed ways employees can move into career streams or career
levels based on changing personal and professional priorities are still in the minority.

Again, developing this level of flexibility is not easy and requires resources, but there is a
correlation between this flexibility and key business metrics, particularly when it comes to
employee engagement.

Essential #5: Invest in Career Coaching

Our last essential is definitely not the least impactful. Research shows career coaching can have
enormous benefit across the career development spectrum. Coaching has a strong positive impact
in many areas: learning, performance management, leadership development, and even wellness
and well-being. It is not surprising that career coaching has an impact on career development, as
well. However, career coaching is not nearly as prevalent as other types. Almost one-third of
organizations (32 percent) do not provide any type of career coaching.

The data show the biggest benefit from career coaching comes when it is done informally
through in-the-moment and ongoing feedback, and formally, often through specially trained
career counselors (either internal or external), career development portals, and targeted career
development meetings.

There is a correlation between career coaching and increased business metrics, and career
coaching and the average tenure of employees.

The specific reason for the broad impact is unclear, but our hypothesis is that career coaching,
particularly in organizations that offer formal and informal assistance, reflects a strong cultural
focus on career development. It is not just the coaching that makes the difference but the overall
priority these organizations place on developing employees’ careers.
Coaching has shown to be a valuable tool in almost all areas of development, so organizations
would be wise to add career coaching to their repertoire.

ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING:

Creative decision making is a must in designing and implementing an effective development

program. The three phases of development often blend together in a real_life program. These
three phases include the assessment phase, the direction phase, and the development phase.

a. The Assessment Phase

The assessment phase involves activities ranging from self-assessment to organizationally
provided assessment. The goal of both of these types of assessment is to identify employees'
strengths and weaknesses.
b. The Direction Phase
This involves determining the type of career that employees want and the steps they must take to
make their career goals a reality. It involves:
Individual career counselling
Information services

c. The Development Phase

The development phase is taking actions to create and increase skills to prepare for future job
opportunities and is meant to foster this growth and self-improvement. The methods are

1. Mentoring & Coaching :

It has become increasingly clear over the years that employees who aspire to higher
management levels in the organization often need the assistance and advocacy of
someone higher up in the organization. When senior employee takes an active role in
guiding another individual, we refer to this activity as mentoring and coaching. This can
occur at any level and can be most effective when the two individuals do not have any
type of reporting relationship.

2. Job Rotation:
Involves moving employees from one job to another for the purpose of providing them
with broader experience.

3. Tuition Assistance Programs:

To help individuals plan their careers, organizations try to provide additional information
in order to have better choice of the career.
Creating a Career Development Plan
You can create career development plans with your employees by taking a few simple steps. For
career development planning to be effective, expand your view of development and that of your
employees. An outside training class is not the only way to develop employees. The development
that is provided in-house is often more effective. Here are some ways to create a plan:

 Tell the employee that you want to meet with him or her to discuss career development
plans and hopes. Ask the employee to think in advance about his or her options for
growth and development and how they see their career unfolding in your company.
Encourage the employee to think about how they’d like to see their careers progress.
 Suggest that the employee think about and come prepared to discuss these questions:
 What professional job or career growth goals does the employee hope to achieve within
three years? What would the employee like to accomplish this year? Offer opportunities
for the employee to consider as options to accomplish these goals.
 Prepare recommendations on what the employee can do to ensure that he or she is
making progress on his career path. Determine and discuss resources and support the
organization can provide so that the employee can accomplish his or her professional job
or career growth goals.
 Determine what professional and personal goals will help the employee improve or
develop great performance in their current job. What additional support can this
organization provide so that the employee can accomplish these goals?
  Hold a meeting with the employee to discuss these questions and formulate a plan with
the employee's involvement. Be flexible because the employee may have other avenues
that he or she wants to discuss. As a manager, your job is to know all of the options
available to the employee such as job shadowing, mentoring, and coaching on particular
skills.
 Make sure that you're up to speed and can talk knowledgeably about all of the training
and development options that exist for your reporting staff members. Many employees
don’t consider development in any other sense beyond taking a class, and it helps to share
with them all of the additional available options for training.
 Create and fill out a form that details the employee's career development plan and turn it
into Human Resources for review, additional input, and filing.

Carrying Out the Plan

Employee development is a great concept but is not without issues. The best plans keep the
responsibility for follow-through squarely on the shoulders of employees. Otherwise, if an
employee does not complete his development opportunities, he may choose to place blame on
management, which is counter-productive for all of the involved parties.

 Steer the employee in certain directions, but don't do the work for him. Make it the
employee's responsibility to find a great class in listening if he's a poor communicator. If
it turns out to be a poor choice, the employee’s responsible and if it doesn’t produce the
desired results, cannot place blame on anyone else. Both the Human Resources
department and a manager can help the employee explore his or her options, but the
employee is ultimately responsible for the choice and follow-through.
 If the employee finds what he thinks is a great development opportunity, he is responsible
for selling the company on the idea. Working with the experience of the HR staff to
select excellent vendors and avoid low-quality development opportunities is the
responsibility of the employee. HR has the experience the employee needs.

Things to Avoid in Career Development Planning

There are certain issues and statements that you would want to avoid as you and the employees
who report to you create career development plans. A few types of issues can get in the way of
an effective plan, such as:
  Guaranteeing or forming a contract with the employee by promising that the company
will provide training or any other promised benefit. The best that you can do is to say that
you will help however you can, but that the company growth, economic circumstances,
priorities, and goals will have an impact on the employee’s desired developmental path,
promotions, and career goals. Nothing is guaranteed.
 In states such as Michigan where laws are interpreted literally, you want to avoid
statements that over-commit the employer. For example, at a small manufacturing
company, HR put up a career opportunity bulletin board in the lunchroom. The company
attorney advised them that the board implied that employees were promised careers and
asked HR to call the board job opportunities board instead. Know your state and
international governmental laws.
 The manager owning or having responsibility for carrying out the plan. The career
development plan belongs to the employee. You can facilitate its pursuit, explore options
with the employees, provide opportunities for the employee when possible, encourage the
employee to have goals for growth and expansion of his or her career and skills, but you
cannot do it for them. The employees must own their plan.
 Over committing your time or resources. As much as you are devoted to helping the
employees who report to you grow, you have a limited amount of time available to help,
in addition to the rest of your job. For example, unless you are already aware of a great
class or resource, researching options for the employee to develop skills is not your job.

How to Create an Employee Development Plan

Do you know what the greatest asset is in your company? You might answer that it is yourcreate
employee development programs to further their growth company intellectual property or the
company’s dedication to customer service. Perhaps you believe that it’s somewhere in your
physical asset base or the value in the pension plan. Yes, you might think your company’s
greatest asset is any one of those things, but the truth is that your greatest asset is your
employees.

It’s one thing to “hire right”, but another thing altogether to recognize the inherent value in your
employee base and take advantage of that unique opportunity for growth in your company. After
all, who has better insight into where the company is going than you and the people you train to
create that growth?
Creating an Employee Career Development Program is a sure-fire way to provide growth
opportunities for your employees, driving retention and internal talent. When you create
employee career development programs, you build trust with your employees that helps to get
them to buy-in to your company goals and mission because they feel like an integral part of your
greater puzzle.

5-Step Plan for Creating an Employee Career Development Program

Get clear about the positions required to fill your employee roster –
One of the best strategies for understanding the organizational needs of your company, is to
create an organizational chart of each position and define the roles of each, including the
compensation plans for each position. Even if you’re just a small “mom and pop” operation
right now, there are a number of different duties and positions that must be handled in the
business. Making that org chart and defining the position will help you understand the
immediate needs of your business, and provide a glimpse of the areas that will scale the fastest,
so you can start planning on career development opportunities for your employees.

Develop Possible “Career Maps” –

Once you have created your org chart, start mapping out possible career paths for each position.
For example, could someone who starts as a receptionist but shows aptitude with financials train
as a bookkeeper or seek additional education to ultimately become the accountant or even CPA
within your company? Is it possible for an entry-level business development rep to move along a
path to become VP of Sales? Look at the possibilities and keep your mind open because you’ll
have a workforce of employees who are performing well and seeking advancement within your
organization.

Get Your Employees “Enrolled” in the Program –

With your basic plan in place, it’s time to get together with your employees to present your
ideas and foundational plan for Employee Career Development. Getting your employees
properly engaged in the program is like having a team of cheerleaders supporting your
program…but they’ll do more than cheer you on – they will want to be part of the process.
Remember, you are probably so close to your business (and seeing it from a bigger picture view)
that you may not be able to see the day-to-day challenges that your employees see. Get their
input. After all, in essence, this is their “benefit” and the plan affects them on a very personal
level. Your employees’ input can be invaluable in streamlining the details of your program.
Create an Action Plan –
With everyone on board and the basics of your plan in place, now it’s time to create the specific
action plan so your employee can advance and enjoy the benefits of your new Career
Development Program. What new training systems will have to be put into place? How will you
track and measure performance so you know when it’s time for advancement? Consider the
goal-setting concept of “start with the end in mind.” Look to the goal first; then plan backwards
from there.

Launch Your Plan in the Workplace –

You have charted the positions, mapped out the possible career paths, enrolled your employees
in the plan and set up the systems to train and advance your employees. Now it’s time to launch!
Put your plan into action, track your progress, get regular feedback from your employees on how
it’s working and streamline the process as you go so you can polish the details and create higher
levels of efficiency.

Creating and launching an Employee Career Development Program will help to motivate your
employees and provide them with a roadmap of available opportunities that they can grow
towards. By understanding your the goals of your employees, you can start to develop a career
path for them within your company to increase retention of your top talent. The bottom line for
you is a better trained workforce, more engaged employees who are invested in their own
success and higher retention rates, all of which contribute to a stronger company culture and a
greater chance of growth and success.
Career Development Program
Has your organization seriously considered implementing a career development program? If not,
perhaps this is a good time to do so. The following description of several, widely used career
development interventions and case studies can be used to stimulate discussion on various career
development practices.

Alternative Career Paths

One approach to alternative career pathing involves incorporating the skills employees already
have with what their hearts want to do. It can involve changing career and lifestyles for more
meaningful and fulfilling work arrangements. Creating alternative career paths often involves
incorporating other career development interventions, such as flexi-time or job enrichment.
Career pathing, also called career tracking, is a process of outlining an individual career plan,
usually within an organization. Career pathing is most often used as a part of management
training and development, although individuals may develop their own career track, either alone,
or in conjunction with a career coach.

Employees follow pre-determined steps along the career path to develop expertise in managing
different types of organizational situations and to reach their career goal. Periodic checks
evaluate progress, as well as determining what further training or experience is needed to move
to the next step. Career pathing often uses several other career development interventions as part
of the process. These include cross-training, job rotation, job enrichment or enlargement, and
temporary assignments.

Dual Career Tracks

Dual career tracks should not be confused with alternative career paths. Creating dual career
paths involves preparing employees to succeed and be rewarded without necessarily being on a
management or vertical organization career path. In other words, ``up'' is not considered the only
way employees can grow and advance within the company. The establishment of dual or
multiple career tracks has proven to be an effective way to retain and motivate valued
employees.
Management can be an attractive career alternative for many employees, but it is not for
everyone. This may be particularly true for many technical or creative workers. The number of
people managed often distinguishes managerial levels, but under the dual career track plan,
individuals apply their expertise (like managers) to tasks of greater complexity and impact within
their specialty field.

For example, they may make recommendations in a wide range of business areas, participate in
high level decisions, and act as mentors to other employees. The interest in dual or multiple
career tracks is likely to grow as more organizations do away with formal management titles and
establish team structures.

Career Coaching/Counseling

Career coaching frequently involves helping individuals prepare for a career change or helping
employees advance in their existing jobs. From the employee's view, career coaching consists of
evaluating interests, values, work styles, and skills. From the organization's view, it consists of
matching employee talents with organizational needs, recruiting and retaining talent in the
company, identifying training and development needs, and assisting employees in specifying and
locating new employment opportunities within the organization.

Cross-Training

Cross-trained workers are taught skills outside their current job assignment so they can be called
upon to perform a variety of tasks as the need arises. Many workers and supervisors find
themselves cross-training each other, just to make the day-to-day work life manageable. As a
career development intervention, however, companies put into place a formal program of cross-
training.

Cross-training helps organizations to balance workloads so everyone is busy, and allows the
company to respond quickly to employee absences. It also allows employees and departments
within an organization to gain a better understanding of the ``big picture'', and to improve
communications and relations. Employees who are cross-trained are more valuable to the
company, and more marketable in the work world overall.

Flexitime
Flextime is one of the most popular and most widely known career development interventions.
Flexitime gives employees the opportunity to balance their work and personal lives by
restructuring the typical workday to accommodate individual employee schedules. Employers
who offer flexitime often report decreased use of paid leave, decreased tardiness and increased
productivity. Other benefits for the employer include a low-cost method of providing personal
time off and extending service hours without overtime pay. This career development intervention
is popular with employees who have extended families or young children, who may be facing
``burn-out'', and those seeking further education or pursuing second careers.

Flexitime allows employees to set their own schedules, within limitations set by management.
For example, workers may adjust their starting and ending times, but are required to be at the
office during management specified core or peak hours. Working four ten-hour days is an
example of a compressed workweek form of flexitime. Flexitime may also be combined with
other interventions, such as job sharing, job rotation, and phased retirement.

Job Rotation

Job rotation is the systematic movement of employees from job to job within an organization, as
a way to achieve many different human resources objectives : for simply staffing jobs, for
orienting new employees, for preventing job boredom, and, finally, for training employees and
enhancing their career development.

Job rotation is often used by employers who place employees on a certain career path or track,
usually for a management position, where they are expected to perform a variety of duties, and
have a variety of skills and competencies.

Job rotation is often confused with crosstraining. While both interventions perform essentially
the same service of providing employees with a varied set of skills, job rotation goes beyond this.
Besides being used as a means of management training, job rotation can also be used as a form
of job enrichment, by adding increased responsibilities, increasing challenge, and reducing
boredom or burnout.
Job Enlargement

Job enlargement is defined as increasing the number of tasks a worker performs, with all of the
tasks at the same level of responsibility, and is also sometimes referred to as ``horizontal job
loading'' . Be careful not to confuse job enlargement with job enrichment, which will be
discussed later.

Job enlargement and job enrichment can both be used with plateaued workers or workers who
are experiencing burnout, and with especially high achievers. These two interventions may be
used in conjunction with each other, or with other career development interventions such as job
rotation and temporary assignments. Both interventions provide the employee with increased
skills, making him or her more valuable to the company, or more marketable in the job search.

Job Enrichment

Job enrichment involves increasing a worker's responsibility and control over his or her work,
and is also called ``vertical job loading''. Job enrichment allows you to expand your
responsibilities or change your role to develop new competencies without leaving your current
position or the organization altogether.

Job enrichment is also used as an effective motivational technique. According to this perspective,
if a job provides a sense of responsibility, a sense of significance and information concerning
performance, the employees will be internally motivated to high levels of performance. The key
to creating this situation is to enrich jobs so they provide five core characteristics: task variety,
task significance, task identity, autonomy and feedback..

Job Sharing

With job sharing, a full-time job is split between two employees. The two employees share the
duties and responsibilities, as well as the salary and benefits of the job. These two employees
must also work closely together, and with management, to co-ordinate hours, duties, and
communication among themselves and other departments in the organization. Most often, job
sharing is used by parents or adults caring for their parents, and affords employees a better
balance between their work and personal lives.
Employees pursuing further education or a second career may also use job sharing. Job sharing
offers advantages over part-time work in that employees are able to maintain their professional
status as well as some of their job benefits. One example of the advantage over flexitime
situations is that with flexitime, parents may still require extended day care hours. Benefits to the
employer include having ``two heads instead of one'', retaining valued and experienced
employees, and down time due to vacation or sickness is reduced, because the job share partners
cover for each other.

Phased Retirement

Organizations typically devote far more energy to recruiting and retraining than to phasing out
workers. Phased retirement is one intervention that workers and employers can use at the latter
end of the career cycle. During phased retirement, workers gradually taper their work schedules
until they reach full retirement. Other career development interventions such as flextime and job
sharing are typically incorporated into phased retirement arrangements. Retirees may work part
time and serve as mentors or trainers to their successors. Benefits to employees include a greater
sense of control over the transition from work to retirement, lowering the risk of economic
insecurity, and more social support. The employer benefits by retaining valued talent and
minimizing labor shortages.
HOW CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SUPPORT EMPLOYEE RETENTION:

High employee turnover should be worrisome to any employer. Simply consider the expense to
recruit, interview, and train new employees, not to mention that these employees may be less
adept at their jobs than the experienced workers they are replacing. And as the economy
improves and the job market grows, employees have more options—making employee retention
even more challenging.

When asked why they are looking for jobs at new companies, employees are most likely to
explain that they want better pay and benefits, are unhappy with their career prospects with their
current company, or want more challenges. Career development programs can address these
concerns to reduce turnover.

Develop specific career development strategies

Career development also can help with retention because employees can develop a sense of
loyalty for employers who are willing to invest in them. Likewise, when it is time to hire new
employees, career development programs can be attractive to job-seekers.

Your company can develop its own unique career development programs to increase employee
retention—and hopefully increase productivity and profits. Organization leaders can use the
following strategies to guide the development of its program.

Open the door to conversations about careers. Annual or other regular performance evaluation
talks can be the norm, and employees may be afraid to bring up the topic of career development
with their managers. However, such talks can be healthy. Encourage them by training managers
on how to handle these conversations in positive ways so that employees feel valued and
empowered.
Advertisement
Promote the idea of a career lattice. The idea of the career ladder is ingrained in company
culture, but it can stifle employees who want to explore different career paths. An alternative to
the ladder is a career lattice, which encourages sideways moves in addition to upwards
movement. Other characteristics of the career lattice include:

flexibility in progress, with any movement, whether up, sideways, or down, considered
successful
allowing faster or slower career progression according to the employee’s desires and current life
situation
evaluating performance in outcomes, not in hours spent at work.
Evaluate career development programs. As you build a career development program, include an
evaluation plan to make sure the outcomes are as you hoped they would be. You want a
favorable return-on-investment (ROI). If your goal is employee retention, you might measure
changes in employee retention after implementing your program. Keep track of costs so you can
determine whether the savings from reduced turnover outweigh the costs of the program.

Career development programs help employees shine

Talent management includes recognizing individual’s talents and putting employees in positions
that make the best use of their skills. Employees can feel more confident in their skills and enjoy
using their strengths every day at work.

When employees perceive that their organizations encourage career development, they feel more
confident about their long-term career path. Unfortunately, this is not the case in many
companies around the globe. Even a majority of employees in a large survey in Australia and
New Zealand by Right Management reported that their leaders did not “have the tools and skills
to promote career development.”

Employers can avoid this by integrating key features of career development support in the
workplace:
structured career mapping to put a tangible plan in place
leadership development to cultivate individuals to take charge of projects
succession planning, or prepping current employees to fill higher positions
online learning to offer skill development without placing extra pressure on employees to be
present at work.
According to the Right Management study, employees at a company with a favorable career
climate are four times less likely to say that they are planning to stay with the company for less
than one year than those at a company with a favorable career climate. Having these strategies
present at their companies will help employees feel encouraged to advance in their career.

FACTORS IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT:

Individual employees must accept the responsibility for their own career development. Failure to
do so will prevent smooth and optimal career progression. Factors that are important to
successful career developmentand growth include:
Performance -
Employees who perform badly are rarely considered for training and development opportunities,
international assignments or promotion.
Exposure -
If an employee is to succeed, he or she must become known to senior management. Employees
can become known to the organisation’s decision makers through superior performance, report
writing, presentations,; and involvement in company training and development programs and
social activities.
Qualifications
- US research indicates that a strong correlation exists between graduate earnings and thequality
of the university they attended.
Employer reputation -
Some organisations have a ‘star’ reputation as breeding grounds for high-potential employees.
Consequently, getting a job with the right company can be an important factor in career
successand long-term employability.
Nepotism -
Thirty per cent of publicly listed companies in Hong Kong have boards of directors on whichhalf
or more of the executive directors are related as family members
.Mentor - Successful managers usually have a mentor or sponsor who helps advance their career
by offering advice, giving instruction and opening up career opportunities. Benefits of mentoring
The protégé, by developing more skills and self-confidence, performs better and provides longer
service to the organisation.
Mentoring, by identifying talent, helps companies encourage and capitalise on diversity
 Mentoring provides a structure for the growth and development of all employees.

 Mentoring helps inculcate corporate values.

 Mentoring improves employee job satisfaction and motivation.

 Mentors can buffer women from discrimination and help them overcome gender-related
barriers toadvancement.
CAREER PLATEAU
A career plateau refers to that point in an employee’s career at which the probability of an
additional promotion is minimal. When this happens, employees find themselves blocked and
unable to achieve further advancement. If an employee is to avoid plateauing, it is critical that he
or she have the ability to adapt anddevelop in the face of change or transition. Employees are
now ‘reaching plateaus earlier in their careers than did their predecessors — and far earlier than
their own expectations — [so] it is important for organisations and individuals to prepare to cope
withthe phenomenon successfully, particularly when the signs of an impending plateau are
observed’. The risk of obsolescence is less if organisations accept responsibility for employee
development and if employees are prepared to invest time in their development.

DUEL CAREERS
s more women enter the work force, HR managers must develop specific policies and programs
designedto accommodate the dual career aspirations of employees and their spouses. HR
managers must be particularly alert to the implications of an employed spouse when providing
career counselling to employment.
CHAPTER 5:
CONCLUSION