Career Management

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Career Management Career: Career can be defined as a general course of action a person chooses to pursue throughout his or her working life We may define career as the "occupational positions a person has had over many years." Many people look back on their careers, knowing that what they might have achieved they did achieve, and that their career goals were satisfied. Others are less fortunate and feel that, at least in their careers, their lives and their potential went unfulfilled. Employers have a big effect on employees’ careers. Some institute formal career management processes, while others do little. We can define career management as a process for enabling employees to better understand and develop their career skills and interests and to use these skills and interests most effectively both within the company and after they leave the firm. Specific career management activities might include providing realistic career-oriented appraisals, posting open jobs, and offering formal career development activities. Career development is the lifelong series of activities (such as workshops) that contribute to a person's career exploration, establishment, success, and fulfillment. Career planning is the deliberate process through which someone becomes aware of his or her personal skills, interests, knowledge, motivations, and other characteristics; acquires information about opportunities and choices; identifies career-related goals; and establishes action plans to attain specific goals. Definitions: Career Management is the combination of structured planning and the active management choice of one's own professional career. "Lifelong, self-monitored process of career planning that involves choosing and setting personal goals, and formulating strategies for achieving them". ----businessdictionary.com Career management as a process for enabling employees to better understand and develop their career skills and interests, and to use these skills and interests most effectively both within the company and after they leave the firm. Benefits to the organisation Well-planned and executed career programmes will benefit both the organisation and the employees in a number of ways. These include the following:




Staffing inventories. Effective career management will help ensure a continuous supply of professional, technical and managerial talent so that future organisational goals may be achieved. Staffing from within. Because of the many potential advantages of promotion from within, most organisations like to promote employees when positions become available. But recruitment from within requires a strong career management

programme to guarantee that employees can perform effectively in their new jobs. Promoting employees before they are ready to assume their new jobs will result in unsatisfactory performance, as predicted by the Peter Principle. Peter Principle: Observation that in an hierarchy people tend to rise to "their level of incompetence." Thus, as people are promoted, they become progressively less-effective because good performance in one job does not guaranty similar performance in another. Named after the Canadian researcher Dr. Laurence J. Peter (1910-90) who popularized this observation in his 1969 book 'The Peter Principle.'








Solving staffing problems. Certain staffing problems may be remedied through effective career management. First, a high rate of employee turnover may be caused, at least in part, by a feeling that little opportunity exists within the organisation. Second, recruiting new employees may be easier if applicants realise that the company develops its employees and provides career opportunities. Satisfying employee needs. The current generation of employees are very different from those of generations past. Higher levels of education have raised career expectations. And many workers hold their employers responsible for providing opportunities so that those expectations may be realised. Enhanced motivation. Because progression along the career path is directly related to job performance, an employee is likely to be motivated to perform at peak levels so that career goals may be accomplished. Employment equity. Guidelines demand fair and equitable recruiting, selection and placement policies and the elimination of discriminatory practices concerning promotions and career mobility- Many affirmative action programmes contain formal provisions to enhance the career mobility of women and other formerly excluded groups, including the development of career paths and the design of formal T&D activities.

Career Management Best Practices Providing Employee Assessment and Career Planning Workshops. Companies such as Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems hold on-site workshops where employees learn to take charge of their careers, beginning with assessing their abilities, interests, and values. They then engage in a planning process where they explore the organization's needs to determine possible future options and how to prepare for them. Then they are ready for productive career discussions with their managers. Conducting Career Coaching Workshops for Managers. While employees are learning to take charge of their careers, managers are learning how to support their efforts by becoming familiar with the career assessment and planning process, practicing career coaching techniques, preparing for various types of employee-initiated career discussions, and giving honest feedback. Establishing Employee Career Centers. Companies such as Advanced Micro Devices,

IBM, and Motorola, to name a few, have set up internal career centers where employees can come for self-assessment. Services may include computerized programs that incorporate 360-degree feedback, competency assessment, confidential counseling, career management and resilience training, lunch-and-learn seminars, and information, sometimes through an intranet system, about internal opportunities. Giving Open Business Briefings. To meet employees halfway in planning their careers inside the organization, companies such as Sun Microsystems, 3Com, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, and Microsoft openly discuss strategic decisions and plans that may impact jobs or skills that will be required in the future. At 3Com, most departments hold weekly discussion sessions on the status of the business and what it may mean to employees. IBM has a national website for employees that provides information about the strategic direction of the company. Managers are also expected to provide strategic information to their people. Sun's management has promised workers that it will make employees aware of a strategic decision that will affect staffing, such as plans to outsource a function. "As soon as we've decided something, you'll know," Sun says. Then it follows through on its promise. Sharing such information would be frowned upon by many companies. But the companies that practice such openness believe they are simply treating their employees as respectworthy adults rather than perpetuating the outdated parent-child relationship. Andy Grove, chairman of Intel, is a strong believer in giving employees the information they need to stay resilient, or, as he calls it, "owning your own employability. "Every quarter," he says to his employees, "I give you a two-hour dump of what's happening to us. You have to figure out what that means to you” Creating an Internal Network of Information Providers. Raychem, for example, has set up a network of more than 400 people throughout the organization who are willing to take the time to talk with employees who want to learn about the nature of their work and job qualifications. Called "I.I.I.N.siders" (for Insiders Information Interview Network), the computerized database houses the names and backgrounds of volunteers. Chase Manhattan Bank maintains a list of employees who are willing to be shadowed by those interested in moving into their line of work. An employee who wants to be a derivatives trader, for example, can spend the day with an actual trader, learning about the challenges of the job, and come away with a realistic understanding of the work. Maintaining Internal Job and Talent Banks. Microsoft has created an on-line service where employees can learn about open positions and the skills required for them. Microsoft also places large amounts of career information on what it calls its "electronic campus," including a "resource and referral" section with lists of books, professional associations, conferences, courses, articles, and other information recommended by coworkers. In its Career Partnership Center, Advanced Micro Devices maintains a data bank of employee skills that can be accessed by managers looking for internal talent. The company

also integrates the career development plans of all employees into its long-range workforce planning process. Many other companies are moving to implement virtual career centers that feature on-line computer platforms that show various career paths and allow employees to benchmark their skill levels against those required for desired jobs so that they can make plans to close the gaps. Establishing Individual Learning Accounts. As more and more employees seek opportunities for customized and self-directed development, some progressive companies have created individual learning accounts, providing designated amounts of time and money that employees may "spend" on classes, internships, or other learning opportunities of their choice. While giving employees more freedom to select personalized learning experience, this concept also helps companies save money previously spent on large-scale, "one-size-fits-all" training programs. Starting a Mentoring Program. Formal mentoring programs have grown in popularity in recent years. The list of companies who have launched mentoring programs includes Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, Charles Schwab, Ford Motor Company, Ernst & Young, Quaker Oats Company, IBM, Georgia-Pacific, Ceridian, J. C. Penney, PriceWaterhouse-Coopers, 3M, and General Mills. In one study, mentoring programs were found to be effective in increasing employee retention by 77 percent within companies that implemented them.11 There are three main goals for most mentoring programs—to increase opportunities for women and minorities, to develop leaders, and, increasingly, to enhance performance and increase the retention of employees at all levels. Companies with successful mentoring programs report that having the CEO and senior managers actively involved in mentoring and supporting the programs is important. When the practice of mentoring cascades through the organization from the top, it becomes a prestigious thing for managers to take part. Some companies expect all managers to become mentors, to the point that they include mentoring as an item to be reviewed on performance appraisal. Current mentoring programs have become highly structured. Hewlett-Packard maintains an on-line mentor database that mentees can use to search for mentors with specific areas of expertise. They can even interview potential mentors and submit their choices in order of preference. Hewlett- Packard's program uses written mentoring agreements that establish the ground rules for the partnership, and the company conducts half-day training sessions for mentors and mentees. Other companies have appointed internal human resources staff as "retention managers" or "career management representatives" to act as consultants to all employees, especially the difficult-to-replace talent, such as software engineers.

Career planning

Career planning is an individual’s lifelong process of establishing personal career objectives and acting in a manner intended to bring them about. Career Management
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Career Management Introduction Career Management Best Practices Career planning o Elements of Career Planning Programs Career Paths Career Development Meeting the Challenges of Effective Career Development Career-Impacted Life Stages

Are you not satisfied with the way your career is moving? Don't know in which way you should direct your career? Long past are the days of lifetime employment and now you need to plan careers as how to shift from one organization to another for gaining maximum industry experience. The task of career planning is quite a laborious one and it requires systematic planning of every step and a calculated execution. Take the onus of planning your own career. The Concept of Career The tern 'career denotes all the jobs that are held during one's working life. It is viewed as a sequence of positions held by an individual during the course of his lifetime. Edwin B. Flippo defined a career as a sequence of separate but related work activities that provide continuity, order and meaning in a person's life. This is the objective career. A career may be viewed as amalgam of the changes in values, attitudes and motivation that occurs as a person grows older. This is a subjective element in the concept of a career. Career Planning Introduction In each of us rests the power to shape our future and it will be shaped by our action or inaction- Kate weldelton you should control your career for your own advantages. for controlling your career, you make effective planning for your future and implementation it practically. because you are the only one who has the right about your decision of future planning, before you start your career planning, first ask yourself:
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Who are you? Where are you now? what do you want? (Develop your 1-2-3-5-10....year vision) How can you get there?

"Effective career planning is about finding a job that works for you, matching who are to the life you are are going to lead"-----John Lees Definitions of Career Planning Career planning is an ongoing process through which an individual sets career goals and identifies the means to achieve them. The process by which individuals plan their life’s work is referred to as career planning. "Career planning is a process of systematically matching career goals and individual capabilities with opportunities for their fulfillment."(Schermerhorn: 2002) "Career Planning is a deliberate process of becoming aware of self, opportunities, constraints, choices, and consequences; identifying career-related goals; and "career pathing" or programming work, education, and related developmental experiences to provide the direction, timing, and sequence of steps to attain a specific career goal." {McMahon and Merman: 1987)
Career Anchors

Career anchors denote the basic drives that create the urge to take up a certain type of a career. These drives are as follows:










Managerial Competence: Person having this drive seek managerial positions that provide opportunities for higher responsibility, decision making, control and influence over others. Technical Competence: People having this anchor seek to make career choices based on the technical or functional content of the work. It provide continuous learning and updating one's expertise in a technical or specialised area such as quality control, engineering, accounting, advertising, public relations etc. Security: If one's career anchor is security than he is willing to do what is required to maintain job security (through compliance with organisational prescriptions), a decent income and a stable future. Creativity: This drive provides entrepreneurial and innovative opportunities to the people. People are driven by an overwhelming desire to do something new that is totally of their own making. Autonomy: These people seek a career that provides freedom of action and independence.

Career is viewed as a sequence of position occupied by a person during the course of his lifetime. Career may also be viewed as amalgam of changes in value, attitude and motivation that occur, as a person grows older. The implicit assumption is that an invididual can make a different in his destiny over time and can adjust in ways that would help him to enhance and optimize the potential for his own career development. Career planning is important because it would help the individual to explore, choose and strive to derive satisfaction with one’s career object. Nature of Career Planning The following are the salient features of career planning:
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A Process: Career planning is a process of developing human resources rather than an event. Upward movement: It involve upward movement in the organisational hierarchy, or special assignments, project work which require abilities to handle recurring problems, human relations issued and so on. Mutuality of Interest: The individual's interest is served as his needs and aspirations are met to a great extent and the organisation's interest is served as each of its human resources is provided an opportunity to develop and contribute to the organisational goals and objectives to the optimum of its ability and confidence. Dynamic: Career planning is dynamic in nature due to an ever changing environment.

Objectives of Career Planning Career Planning seeks to meet the following objectives:
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To provide and maintain appropriate manpower resources in the organisation by offering careers, not jobs. To provide environment for the effectiveness, efficiency and growth of its employees and motivating them to contribute effectively towards achieving the objectives of the organisation. To map out careers of various categories of employees suitable to their ability, and their willingness to be 'trained and developed for higher positions.

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To have a stable workforce by reducing absenteeism and employee turnover. To cater to the immediate and future human resourcesss need of the organisation on a timely basis. To increase the utilisation of managerial reserves within organisation.

Steps in Career Planning Process

Step 1: Self-Assessment The first and foremost step in career planning is to know and assess yourself. You need to collect information about yourself while deciding about a particular career option. You must analyse your interests, abilities, aptitudes, desired lifestyle, and personal traits and then study the relationship between the career opted for and self. Step 2: Goal Setting Set your goals according to your academic qualification, work experience, priorities and expectations in life. Once your goal is identified, then you determine the feasible ways and objectives how to realize it. Step 3: Academic/Career Options Narrow your general occupational direction to a particular one by an informatory decision making process. Analyse the career option by keeping in mind your present educational qualification and what more academic degrees you need to acquire for it. Step 4: Plan of Action Recognize those industries and particular companies where you want to get into. Make the plan a detailed one so that you can determine for how many years you are going to work in a company in order to achieve maximum success, and then switch to another. Decide where you would like to see yourself after five years and in which position. Step 5: Catch Hold of Opportunities Opportunity comes but once. So, whenever you get any opportunity to prove yourself and get into your desired career, try to convert it in every way for suiting your purpose. Remember, a successful professional is also quite opportunistic in his moves, examining every opening to turn to his favour. Advice on Career Planning 1. Try not to waste much time and wait too long between career planning sessions. 2. Don't ever judge and analyse yourself, like your likes and dislikes, abilities, etc. by listening to what people around you say. Be your best judge. 3. Be open to constructive criticisms. Career planning is a very important step that needs to be considered in totality. If need be, you should not be hesitant to take the help of professional guidance and find out the best career planning for yourself. Different phases in the career of an employee:

Most working people go through career stages and it has been found that individual’s needs and expectations change as the individual moves through these stages. 1. Exploration Stage: This is the stage where an individual builds expectations about his career. Some of them are realistic and some are not. But the fact is that these could be a result of the individual's ambitions. 2. Establishment Stage: This could be at the stage where the individual gets his first job, gets accepted by his peers, learns in this job, and also gains the first tangible evidence of success or failure. The establishment/advancement stage tends to occur between ages 25 and 44. In this stage, the individual has made his or her career choice and is concerned with achievement, performance, and advancement. This stage is marked by high employee productivity and career growth, as the individual is motivated to succeed in the organization and in his or her chosen occupation. Opportunities for job challenge and use of special competencies are desired in this stage. The employee strives for creativity and innovation through new job assignments. Employees also need a certain degree of autonomy in this stage so that they can experience feelings of individual achievement and personal success. 3. Mid-Career Stage: The individual's performance levels either continue to improve, or levels, or even deteriorates. 4. Late Career: This is regarded as a pleasant phase, where one is allowed to relax and play the role of an elderly statesman in the organization. 5. Decline: The stage, where the individual is heading towards retirement.

Career Paths
Career Management Career paths have historically focused on upward mobility within a particular occupation. One of four types of career paths may be used: traditional, network, lateral, and dual.

a. Traditional Career Path—An employee progresses vertically upward in the organization from one specific job to the next. b. Network Career Path—A method of career pathing that contains both a vertical

sequence of jobs and a series of horizontal opportunities. c. Lateral Skill Path—Traditionally, a career path was viewed as moving upward to higher levels of management in the organization. The availability of the previous two options has diminished considerably in recent years. But this does not mean that an individual has to remain in the same job for life. There are often lateral moves within the firm that can be taken to allow an employee to become revitalized and find new challenges. d. Dual-Career Path— A career-path method, that recognizes that technical specialists can and should be allowed to continue to contribute their expertise to a company without having to become managers. e. Adding Value To Retain Present Job—Regardless of the career path pursued, today’s workers need to develop a plan whereby they are viewed as continually adding value to the organization. If employees cannot add value, the company does not need them, and much of the evolving work environments cannot use them either. Workers must anticipate what tools will be needed for success in the future and obtain these skills. These workers must look across company lines to other organizations to determine what skills are transferable, and then go and get them. Essentially, today’s workers must manage their own careers as never before. f. Demotion—Demotions have long been associated with failure, but limited promotional opportunities in the future and the fast pace of technological change may make them more legitimate career options.

Career Development
Career development is the process of improving an individual’s abilities in anticipation of future opportunities for achieving career objectives. A formal approach taken by an organization to help its people acquire the skills and experiences needed to perform current and future jobs is termed as career development. Company’s policies especially policies regarding promotion, counseling the employees, opportunities to excel in future help employees to develop their career. Career development consists of skills, education and experiences as well as behavioral modification and refinement techniques that allow individuals to work better and add value. Career development is an ongoing organized and formalized effort that recognizes people as a vital organizational resource. It differs from training in that it has a wider focus, longer time frame, and broader scope. The goal of training is improvement in performance; the goal of development is enrichment and more capable workers. Recently, career development has come to be seen as a means for meeting both organizational and employee needs, as opposed to solely meeting the needs of the organization as it had done in the past. Now, organizations see career development as a

way of preventing job burnout, providing career information to employees, improving the quality of work lives and meeting affirmative action goals. That is, career development must be seen as a key business strategy if an organization wants to survive in an increasingly competitive and global business environment. In simple terms it means 'Providing employees an opportunity to grow', especially to those employees who deliver performance. Definitions Followings are the main definitions of career planning:


According to Schuler, "It is an activity to identify the individual needs, abilities and goals and the organization’s job demands and job rewards and then through well designed programmes of career development matching abilities with demands and rewards".



In the words of Mansfield, "Career development is a process in which personnel experience, concept and publicly observable aspect of career interact to precipitate each successive stage of occupational statuses". According to Middlemist, Hill and Greer, "Career development is a process of planning the series of possible jobs one may hold in an organization over time and development strategies designed to provide necessary job skills as the opportunities arise".



Career development helps you take stock of who you are and where you want to go in life. In order to achieve growth, continue learning, and achieve momentum in your career you must assess your situation and your goals frequently, otherwise you doom yourself to the fate of a robot working a daily routine. Here are a few career development questions you can ask yourself:






Where do I want to be in my career at the end of this year? What job would I like to retire from? It’s O.K. to think about next month or even 30 years from now. You can’t achieve career development without having a goal. Do I like the field I’m working in? Career development doesn’t mean you have to develop the career you currently in, but can also mean changing careers, even changing environments. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to work in the big city. You can start thinking now about finding jobs in New York or jobs in Philadelphia. Remember, it is your career, your life, your choices. Answer your questions honestly (there are no rights or wrongs!) and reconsider the questions from time-totime as your desires may change. What would I like to learn more about? If you have strong interests in a particular area, you also probably have strengths and talents in that area. Your desire to learn

more about a certain subject or field will propel you faster in your career. Find your niche! Growth means, to an employee, one or more of the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Climbing up the ladder in the organizational hierarchy. On-going increase in remuneration. Acquiring higher level skills & competencies. Occupying higher level Job positions. Having an opportunity to avail of some exclusive benefits (perks & privileges).

Career development is not a mere management responsibility. It is a composite organizational process which involves people, addresses their ambitions, assigns them roles & responsibilities commensurate with their potential, evaluates their performance, and creates Job positions to accommodate growth ambitions of employees. In the career development cycle, a number of actions have to take place at different levels as outlined below: Employees 1. Decide what they want from their careers now and in the future. 2. Examine individually, or along with their Supervisors, their interests & ambitions. 3. Create 'Development Plans' by obtaining inputs from the Supervisor, to meet the requirements of the current Job and to cater for the long term perspectives. 4. Work with the Supervisor to identify on the job learning and training opportunities and other avenues for professional development. Managers/ Supervisors 1. Identify the job-related knowledge, skills, competencies and experience needed for an employee to be effective in that position. 2. Help subordinates to define their short and long term development needs which support organizational objectives and employee's career goals. 3. Support Employee Development Plans by indicating specific steps that need to be initiated to accomplish the learning goals. 4. Help the employee in understanding the type of Jobs which will be best suited for his/ her career growth. Organization/ Management 1. Provide a job and compensation structure that support the organization's as well as individual's growth & development perspectives. 2. Enrich job-positions to create more challenges in the work-environment. 3. Provide time and funds for employee development activities.

4. Create processes to utilize the knowledge, skills and abilities of each employee, aligned fully to the organizational goals. 5. Undertake pro-active man-power planning to meet future staffing needs. 6. Evaluate employees & create succession pipe-lines for vital job positions in the organization. 7. Identify & nurture talent and reward performance in a transparent manner. Systems Approach Career development requires a systems approach. 1. This implies Institutionalization of processes to automatically capture essential data about each employee at the time of recruitment or induction. It also includes maintenance, over the service span history of employment, of the following details: a) training details, b) performance statistics, c) awards & recognitions, d) special skills & competencies, e) promotions, f) pay increments and g) Many other fields which depict the capability profile of an individual. 2. If these details are available to the management on an 'Employee Dashboard', career planning can be managed as a part of the HR Vision. Conclusion: Employee career development cannot take place without support from the top management. Commitment of top management is crucial. Employees also need to be given feedback about their career development efforts. It is difficult for an employee to sustain years of preparation to reach career goals unless they receive feedback. Career development does not guarantee success but without it employees would not be ready for a job when the opportunity arises.

Meeting the Challenges of Effective Career Development
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:
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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.

Career-Impacted Life Stages
Each person’s career goes through stages that influence an individual’s knowledge of, and preference for, various occupations. People change constantly and, thus, view their careers differently at various stages of their lives. Some of these changes result from the aging process and others from opportunities for growth and status. The main stages of the career cycle include the growth, exploration, establishment, maintenance, and decline. a. Growth Stage: The growth stage is roughly from birth to age 14 and is a period during which an individual develops a self-concept by identifying and interacting with other people. Basically, during this stage an individual establishes his or her identity. b. Exploration Stage: The exploration stage is the period roughly from ages 15 to 24, during which an individual seriously explores various occupational alternatives. The person attempts to match these occupational alternatives with his or her own interests and abilities resulting from education, leisure activities, and work. c. Establishment Stage: The establishment stage is roughly from ages 25 to 44 and is the primary part of most people’s work lives. Hopefully, during this period, a suitable occupation is found and the person engages in those activities that help earn a permanent career. During this period, the individual is continually testing personal capabilities and ambitions against those of the initial occupational choice. d. Maintenance Stage: Between the ages of 45 to 65, many people move from the stabilization sub stage into the maintenance stage. During maintenance, the individual has usually created a place in the work world, and most efforts are directed at maintaining the career gains earned. e. Decline Stage: As retirement becomes an inevitable reality, in the decline stage, there is frequently a period of adjustment, where many begin to accept reduced levels of power and responsibility.

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