HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMANT

CAREER PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION:The term career planning is frequently used in relation young boys and girls studying at the college level. College students are expected to consider their qualities (physical and mental), psychological make-up, likes and dislikes, inclinations, etc. and decide what they want to be in their life. In other words, they should decide what they want to achieve in their life and adjust their education and other activities accordingly. This means they have to plan their career. In such career planning, parents, family members and college teachers offer helping hand and guide young boys and girls in selecting the most suitable career. Lot of literature, psychological tests etc. are also available on career planning. Even lectures, workshops and TV programmes are arranged for guiding students on career selection (particularly after the declaration of HSC results). Career planning enables them to use their abilities/qualities fully and make their life happy, prosperous and rich in quality. At present, even experts are available to help youth in their career planning. IQ and other tests are also conducted for this purpose. The term career planning and development is used extensively in relation to business organizations. It is argued that if the organizations want to get the best out of their employees, they must plan the career development programmes in their organization effectively. Such programmes offer benefits to employees and also to the organizations. The employees will develop new skills will be available to the organization. This type of career planning can be described as organizational career planning.

MEANING OF CAREER (WHAT IS CAREER?):A career is a sequence of positions/jobs held by a person during the course of his working life. According to Edwin B. Flippo a career is a sequence of separate but related work activities that provide continuity, order and meaning to a persons life. Career of an employee represents various jobs performed by him during the course of his working life. This is described Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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as career path. In the case of an ordinary worker, the career path includes the following job positions: Unskilled worker Semi-skilled worker Skilled worker Highly skilled worker Assistant foreman Foreman.

Employees (of all categories) want to grow in their careers as this provides more salary, higher status and opportunity to use knowledge, education and skills effectively. An individual with potentials joins a firm not for job but for career development. An organization has to provide better opportunities to its employees in their career development and also use their efficient services for the benefit of the organization.

MEANING OF CAREER PLANNING (WHAT IS CAREER PLANNING?):Career planning is one important aspect of human resource planning and development. Every individual who joins an organization desires to make a good career for himself within the organization. He joins the organization with a desire to have a bright career in terms of status, compensation payment and future promotions. From the point of view of an organization, career planning and development have become crucial in management process. An organization has to provide facilities/opportunities for the career development of individual employees. If the organizations want to get the best out of their employees, they must plan regularly the career development programmes in their organizations. In brief, career planning refers to the formal programmes that organizations implement to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the human resources available. Career planning and development is the responsibility of the HR department of the organization. As already noted, every person joining an organization has a desire to make career as per his potentiality, ability, skills and so on.

Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMANT NEED/PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES OF CAREER PLANNING:1) To map out careers of employees as per their ability and willingness and to train and develop them for higher positions. 2) To attract and retain the right type of persons in the organization. 3) To utilize available managerial talent within the organization fully. 4) To achieve higher productivity and organizational development. 5) To provide guidance and assistance to employees to develop their potentials to the highest level. 6) To improve employee morale and motivation by providing training and opportunities for promotion.

SCOPE OF ORGANISATIONAL CAREER PLANNING:The following activities/areas are covered within the scope of organizational career planning: a) HUMAN RESOURCE FORECASTING AND PLANNING:Here, efforts will be made to identify the number of employees required in future. In addition, the selection procedure will be adjusted with the overall strategic goals of the organization. b) CAREER INFORMATION:Here, information relating to career opportunities (promotions, training for self development, etc) will be supplied to employees. Supplying career information/opportunities has special significance as this motivates employees to grow and reach to higher position. c) CAREER COUNSELLING:Such counselling is next to supplying career information. Career counselling is possible by senior executives through periodic discussions with their subordinates. Such career guidance encourages subordinate employees to take interest in certain areas where suitable opportunities of career development are available. It is a type of internal guidance and motivation of employees for the selection of possible career paths. Such counselling is needed when employees have to plan their own careers and develop themselves for career progress. Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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d) CAREER PATHING:Management now plans job sequences for transfers and promotions of their employees. This makes transfers and promotions systematically with advance information to employees. Career pathing creates suitable mental make up of employees for self development. e) SKILL ASSESSMENT TRAINING:Training is essential for career planning and also for manpower development. Along with job analysis, organizational and job manpower requirement analysis should be undertaken by the management. This prepares proper background for the introduction of career planning programmes for employees.

ADVANTAGES OF CAREER PLANNING:A properly designed system of career planning can provide the following benefits: i. ii. Career planning helps an employee to know the career opportunities available in an organization. Career planning encourages him to avail of the training and development facilities in the organization so as to improve his ability to handle new and higher assignments. iii. Career planning involves a survey of employee abilities and attitudes. It becomes possible, therefore to group together people talking on a similar wavelength and place them under supervisors who are responsive to that wavelength. iv. Career planning anticipates the future vacancies that may arise due to retirement, resignation, death, etc. at managerial level. Therefore, it provides a fairly reliable guide for manpower forecasting. v. Career planning facilitates expansion and growth of the enterprise. The employees required to fill job vacancies in future can be identified and developed in time.

Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMANT DISADVANTAGES/LIMITATIONS OF CAREER PLANNING:The main problems in career planning are as follows: i. Career planning can become a reality when opportunities for vertical ability are available. Therefore, it is not suitable for a very small organization. ii. In a developing country like India, environmental factors such as government policy, public sector development, growth of backward areas, etc. influence business and industry. Therefore, career plans for a period exceeding a decade may not be effective. iii. Career planning is not an effective technique for a large number of employees who work on the shop floor, particularly for illiterate and unskilled workers. iv. In family business houses in India, members of the family expect to progress faster in their career than their professional colleagues. This upset the career planning process. v. Systematically career planning becomes difficult due to favouritism and nepotism in promotions, political intervention in appointments and reservations of seats for scheduled castes/tribes and backward classes.

HOW TO INTRODUCE CAREER PLANNING PROGRAMME? (PROCESS OF CAREER PLANNING):It is not easy to introduce career development programme at the level of an organization. Moreover, such career development planning is a continuous activity. What is happening in most of the organizations is that this concepts is given only lip service and theoretical importance. If the organization wants to get the best out of their employees, it must plan the career developments programmes continuously and effectively in its organization. DETAILS OF THE STEP IN CAREER PLANNING:1) ANALYSIS OF PERSONEL SITUATION:This is the first step which needs to be completed before the introduction of career planning programme. This relates to a time from which career planning is to be introduced. Here, the base line will be Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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prepared to help the planners to make projections for the planning period and to help in the evaluation of plans. In order to analyze the present career situation, the following information will be required: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. Total number of employees their age distribution, qualifications, positions, specializations, etc. Structure broad as well as detailed and the qualifications required for each grade. Personnel need of the organization. (Category wise) Span of control available within the organization. Field staff at head office with necessary details, and Facilitates available for training and development within and outside the organization. The information collected on these aspects serves as the base for the preparation of career development plan for the future period. 1. ANALYSIS OF PESONNEL SITUATION

2. PROJECTION OF PERSONNEL SITUATION 3. 4. 5. IDENTIFYING CAREER NEEDS SELECTION OF PRIORITIES DEVELOPMENT OF CAREER PLANS

6. WRITE UP OF FORMULATED CAREER PLANS 7. 8. 9. 10. MANAGERIAL PLANNING IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW AND EVALUATION FUTURE NEEDS

Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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2) PROJECTION OF PERSONNEL SITUATION:In this second step, an attempt is being made to find out the situation likely to develop after the completion of career development plan. This can be done on the basis of assumption which can predict what is likely to happen at the close of the career development plan. 3) IDENTIFYING OF CAREER NEEDS:In this third step of career development plan, efforts are made to find out precisely the career development needs of the future period. It is possible to identify the scope and limitations of career development needs on the basis of the data collected (through personnel inventory of the organization, employee potentials, and appraisal of employees). 4) SELECTION OF PRIORITIES:It is rather difficult to meet all the needs of the employees and the organization for career development immediately i.e. through one career development plan. Naturally, there is a need to select the pressing and urgent problems of employees and organization. In addition, other factors such as technical, financial and administrative must be taken into consideration while finalizing the priorities. 5) DEVELOPMENT OF CAREER PLAN:This is the most important step in the whole process of career developing plan. Such plan must describe the following in concrete form/forms: a. What is to be attained/achieved? b. The extent to which it is to be attained, c. The employees involved, d. The department in which the proposed plan will operate; e. The length of time required the achieving the goals. In order to execute the career development plan, the organization should: a) Introduce systematic policies and programmes of staff training and career development for all categories of employees so as to enable them to: I. Improve their level of skill and knowledge; Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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II. Gain wider experiences; and III. Assume higher responsibilities. b) leave; c) d) such as: I. Providing within the organization; II. Giving priorities in the filling of vacancies in the following order for: 1. 2. 3. III. IV. promotion within the organization; Transfer within the organization; Outside recruitment. Develop the experience of the employees by encouraging their rotation from one region to another; Take positive steps to encourage career development, Establish and effectively implement a system of study

Removing artificial barriers to promotion; Establishing a register of employees for promotion on meritcum-seniority basis;

6) WRITE-UP OF FORMULATED PLAN:After deciding the priorities of career development plan, the next major step is to prepare a write up (brief report) of the career plan. This writup should contain all necessary details such as schedule (time sequence of plan), procedures and other details so that the evaluation of the plan will be easy and meaningful. 7) MONITORING PLANNING i.e. MONITORING OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN:Monitoring of the plan is essential for its effective execution. Expected results/benefits will be available only when the plan is implemented properly. Planned (expected) targets and targets actually achieved can be compared through suitable monitoring of the plan. The gap between the two (i.e. short falls) can be located quickly. In addition, suitable remedial measures can be taken to rectify the shortfalls. 8) IMPLEMENTATION (OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN):Implementation/execution of the plan is an integral aspect of planning process itself. For effective implementation, co-operation and coSubmitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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ordination at all levels is necessary. The implementation needs proper monitoring so as to avoid possible shortfalls. 9) REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF CAREER PLANS:A plan needs periodical review. Such evaluation avoids mistakes, deficiencies, etc during the implementation stage. It is built-in device to measure the effectiveness of the plan. Actual benefits available will be known only through such review and evaluation. Such evaluation should be done by experts. It should be conducted systematically and also impartially. 10)FUTURE NEEDS:This is the last step/stage of the current career development plan and the first step/stage of the next plan. Here, on the basis of the achievements of the current plan, the career needs of the future period (of employees and also of the organization) are estimated. The new priorities are decided and the details of the new career development plan are prepared. Planning is a continuous process/activity. This rule is applicable to career development plans of an organization.

CAREER STAGES:Education is thought of in terms of employment. People go for school and college education and prepare for their occupation. Very few people stick to the same job throughout their life. Most of them switch job either within the organization or in some other organization. Chances are they change jobs, depending on available opportunity, several times before retirement. Where opportunity is restricted they continue with the same job. They go through the following stages: 1) EXPLORATION:Almost all candidates who start working after college education start around mid-twenties. Many a time they are not sure about future prospects but take up a job in anticipation of rising higher up in the career graph later. From the point of view of organization, this stage is of no relevance because it happens prior to the employment. Some candidates who come from better economic background can wait and Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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select a career of their choice under expert guidance from parents and well-wishers. 2) ESTABLISHMENT:This career stage begins with the candidate getting the first job getting hold of the right job is not an easy task. Candidates are likely to commit mistakes and learn from their mistakes. Slowly and gradually they become responsible towards the job. Ambitious candidates will keep looking for more lucrative and challenging jobs elsewhere. This may either result in migration to another job or he will remain with the Same job because of lack of opportunity. 3) MID-CAREER STAGE:This career stage represents fastest and gainful leap for competent employees who are commonly called climbers. There is continuous improvement in performance. On the other hand, employees who are unhappy and frustrated with the job, there is marked deterioration in their performance. In other to show their utility to the organization, employees must remain productive at this stage. climbers must go on improving their own performance. Authority, responsibility, rewards and incentives are highest at this stage. Employees tend to settle down inn their jobs and job hopping is not common. 4) LATE CAREER:This career stage is pleasant for the senior employees who like to survive on the past glory. There is no desire to improve performance and improve past records. Such employees enjoy playing the role of elder statesperson. They are expected to train younger employees and earn respect from them. 5) DECLINE STAGE:This career stage represents the completion of ones career usually culminating into retirement. After decades of hard work, such employees have to retire. Employees who were climbers and achievers will find it hard to compromise with the reality. Others may think of life after retirement.

Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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HIGH EXPLORATION ESTABLISHMENT MID-CAREER LATE CAREER DECLINE

LOW

25

35 AGE

45

55

60

STAGES IN CAREER DEVELOPMENT

CONCEPT/INTRODUCTION TO CAREER DEVELOPMENT:Career development consists of the personal actions one undertakes to achieve a career plan. The terms career development and employee development need to be differentiated at this stage. Career development looks at the long-term career effectiveness of employees where as employee development focuses of effectiveness of an employee in the immediate future. The actions for career development may be initiated by the individual himself or by the organization.

INDIVIDUAL CAREER DEVELOPMENT:Career progress and development is largely the outcome of actions on the part of an individual. Some of the important steps that could help an individual cross the hurdles on the way up may include: I. PERFORMANCE:-

Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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Career progress rests largely on performance. If the performance is sub-standard, even modest career goals cant be achieved. II. EXPOSURE:Career development comes through exposure, which implies becoming known by those who decide promotions, transfers and other career opportunities. You must undertake actions that would attract the attention of those who matter most in an organization. III. NETWORKING:Networking implies professional and personal contacts that would help inn striking good deals outside (e.g., lucrative job offers, business deals, etc.). for years men have used private clubs, professional associations, old-boy networks to gain exposure and achieve their career ambitions. IV. LEVERAGING:Resigning to further ones career with another employer is known as leveraging. When the opportunity is irresistible, the only option left is to resign from the current position and take up the new job (opportunity in terms of better pay, new title, a new learning experience, etc.). however, jumping the jobs frequently (job-hopping) may not be a good career strategy in the long-run. V. LOYALTY TO CAREER:Professionals and recent college graduates generally jump jobs frequently when they start their career. They do not think that careerlong dedication to the same organization may not help them further their career ambitions. To overcome this problem, companies such as Infosys, NIIT, WIPRO (all information technology companies where the turnover ratios are generally high) have come out with lucrative, innovative compensation packages in addition to employee stock option plans for those who remain with the company for a specified period. VI. MENTORS AND SPONSORS:A mentor is, generally speaking, an older person in a managerial role offering informal career advice to a junior employee. Mentors take Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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junior employees under their protg and offer advice and guidance on how to survive and get ahead in the organization. They act as role models. A sponsor, on the other hand, is someone in the organization who can create career development opportunities.

ORGANISATIONAL CAREER DEVELOPMENT:The assistance from managers and HR department is equally important in achieving individual career goals and meeting organizational needs. A variety of tools and activities are employees for this purpose. a) SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOLS:Here the employees go through a process in which they think through their life roles, interests, skills and work attitudes and preferences. They identify career goals, develop suitable action plans and point out obstacle that come in the way. Two self-assessment tools are quite commonly used in the organizations. The first one is called the careerplanning workshop. After individuals complete their self-assessment, they share their findings with others in career workshops. These workshops throw light on how to prepare and follow through individual career strategies. The second tool, called as a career workbook, consists of a form of career guide in the question-answer format outlining steps for realizing career goals. Individuals use this company specific, tailor-made guide to learn about their career chances. This guide, generally throws light on organizations structure, career paths, qualifications for jobs and career ladders. b) INDIVIDUAL COUNSELLING:Employee counselling is a process whereby employees are guided in overcoming performance problems. It is usually done through face-toface meetings between the employee and the counselor or coach. Here discussions of employees interests goals, current job activities and performance and career objectives take place. Counselling is generally offered by the HR department. Sometimes outside experts are also be called in. if supervisors act as coaches they should be

Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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given clearly defined roles and training. This is, however, a costly and time-consuming process. c) EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES:These consist of skill assessment and training efforts that organizations use to groom their employees for future vacancies. Seminars, workshops, job rotations and mentoring programmes are used to develop a broad base of skills as a part of such developmental activities. d) CAREER PROGRAMMES FOR SPECIAL GROUPS:In recent years, there is growing evidence regarding dual career families developing tensions and frictions owing to their inability to reconcile the differences between the family roles and work demands. When we talk of dual career couples (a situation where both husband and wife have distinct careers outside the home) certain puzzling questions arise naturally: whose career is important; who takes care of children; what if the wife gets a tempting promotion in another location; who buys groceries and cleans the house if both are busy, etc. realizing these problems, organizations are providing a place and a procedure for discussing such role conflicts and coping strategies. They are coming out with schemes such as part-time work, long parental leave, child care centers, flexible working hours and promotions and transfers in tune with the demands of dual career conflicts.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT ACTIONS:a) JOB PERFORMANCE:Employee must prove that his performance on the job is to the level of standards established, if he wants career progress. b) EXPOSURE:Employees desire for career progress should expose their skills, knowledge, qualifications, achievements, performance etc., to those who take the decision about career progress. Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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c) 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. d) CHANGE THE JOB:Employees who put organizational loyalty above career loyalty may change the job in the same organization are better than those in the present job. e) CAREER GUIDANCE:And counselling provides information, advice and encouragements to switch over to other career or organization, where career opportunities are better.

Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
--- N. G. KALE --- M. AHMED

2)

PERSONNEL

AND

HUMAN

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
--- P. SUBBA RAO 3)

HUMAN
--- SANTOSH GUPTA --- SACHIN GUPTA

RESOURCE

DEVELOPMENT

Submitted By :Suhas S. Dhage. Dnyanasadhana College,Thane.

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