CAREER PLANNING

Introduction

Career: Herbert Simon defines career as an honourable occupation with one normally takes up during his/her youth with the expectation of advancement and pursues it until retirement Career planning and development is a means by which an organisation can sustain or increase its employees productivity and at the same time preparing them for a changing world.
According to Milkovich and Boudreau Career development

Career management + Career planning

Objective of career planning

Identifying and making clear opportunities available. To reduce employee turnover. To Increase productivity. To identify the career stages and enhance the motivational level. To achieve the organisations goal by providing the employees paths to reach higher order needs.

Need for Career Planning

Career Planning is necessary due to the following reasons:
1. To attract competent persons and to retain them in the organization. 2. To provide suitable promotional opportunities. 3. To enable the employees to develop and take them ready to meet the future challenges. 4. To increase the utilization of managerial reserves within an organization. 5. To correct employee placement.

6. To reduce employee dissatisfaction and turnover.

7. To improve motivation and morale.

Career Planning Flow & Stages

Career Planning Career Paths Career Goals

Career
Feed Back

Career stages and Important needs Needs Safety, Security Physiological 20 Safety, Security 25 Achievement esteem, autonomy 30 Self Esteem actualization actualization 45 55 65

Age Career Stages

Exploration

Establishment Advancement Maintenance

Retirement

Traditional Career Stages

Traditional Career Stages

Exploration Includes school and early work experiences, such as internships. Involves:
trying out different fields discovering likes and dislikes forming attitudes toward work and social relationship patterns

Traditional Career Stages

Establishment Includes:
search for work getting first job getting evidence of success or failure

Takes time and energy to find a niche and to make your mark.

Traditional Career Stages

Mid-Career (Advancement) Challenged to remain productive at work. Employee may:
continue to grow plateau (stay competent but not ambitious) deteriorate

Traditional Career Stages

Late career
Successful elder states persons can enjoy being respected for their judgment. Good resource for teaching others. Those who have declined may experience job insecurity. Plateauing is expected.

Traditional Career Stages

Decline (Late Stage) May be most difficult for those who were most successful at earlier stages. Todays longer life spans and legal protections for older workers open the possibility for continued work contributions, either paid or volunteer.

Types of Career Test

Career Interest Test Personality Test Skill Test

CAREER ANCHORS

Technical Competence Managerial competence Stability and Security Creativity and Challenge Freedom and Autonomy Dedication to a cause Lifestyle

Why a career plan could fail !

Efforts are insincere Look for immediate benefits Lack of interaction with hired agencies Impracticability in introduction No system to evaluate Bureaucratic model of organization

Importance of career planning

Involvement of the employer and employee Employees need to be aware of the organizational opportunities.

Case Study Colgate Palmolive

Employees fill the IDP Form The form is sent to the managers Employees and managers discuss Employees interests Strengths Trainings HR arrange for the training

The 6 Stages of Modern Career Development

Career experts say that people will change careers (not jobs) 5-7 times in a lifetime. This being true, career management is an important life skill to develop and cultivate. There are six stages of modern career development: Assessment, Investigation, Preparation, Commitment, Retention, and Transition.

Learning the characteristics of each stage will empower you to navigate through each stage easily and with more confidence.

1. Assessment Stage

In the Assessment Stage, you are getting ready for your lifes work. This stage is characterized by unawareness, in that you are not sure what your values, strengths, and weaknesses are. You start to feel like you want to know more about yourself and make a conscious effort to get in touch with who you really are. Key characteristics:

Taking assessment instruments Working with a career counselor or career coach

2. Investigation Stage

In the Investigation Stage, you are researching what work exists in the world. This stage is characterized by feelings of confusion, in that you are not sure what career options exist for you. You may feel overwhelmed with all of the different jobs and opportunities that exist as you begin the process of researching the modern world of work. But if you approach this stage with a positive frame of mind, you will find that you will learn about many possibilities you may have never considered. Key characteristics: Researching the world of work Conducting informational interviews with people in your chosen field

3. Preparation Stage

In the Preparation Stage, you are still getting ready to do your lifes work. This stage is characterized by feelings of excitement, as you think of how wonderful it will be to perform meaningful work. However, there is still much work to be done, and in order to be successful, you have to be prepared. Key characteristics: Gaining knowledge and experience Setting goals and adopting a success-oriented mind-set.

4. Commitment Stage

In the Commitment Stage, you will feel confident, in that you have figured out what you are meant to do. Sometimes people have known all along what they were meant to do, but were not able to commit to the process of making it happen, for whatever reason. At this stage, more than ever, you must focus your energy and keep your eye on the target.

Key characteristics: Conducting a job search Negotiating and accepting a job offer

5. Retention Stage

In the Retention Stage, you will feel comfortable in your career field, as you will now have figured out how things work in your industry. You will want to remain committed to your career by continually updating your skill set and staying current with industry standards. Key characteristics: Providing first-class customer service skills Building a professional network

6. Transition Stage

The Transition Stage is characterized by feelings of discomfort, in that you are unsure of what you will be doing next (and/or if you will be happy). In this stage, you will learn to make conscious changes in your career direction.

Key characteristics: Making career changes Developing resiliency No matter what career stage you find yourself in now, you can be sure that you will enter and reenter through these six stages many times though out your lifetime.

Steps in Career planning (Employee perspective)

Make Career Planning an Annual Event Map Your Path Since Last Career Planning Reflect on Your Likes and Dislikes, Needs and Wants Examine Your Pastimes and Hobbies

Look Beyond Your Current Job for Transferable Skills

Review Career and Job Trends

Set Career and Job Goals Explore New Education/Training Opportunities Research Further Career/Job Advancement Opportunities

Advantages of Career Planning and

For Individuals:

Development

1. The process of career planning helps the individual to have the knowledge of various career opportunities, his priorities etc. 2. This knowledge helps him select the career that is suitable to his life styles, preferences, family environment, scope for self-development etc. 3. It helps the organization identify internal employees who can be promoted. 4. Internal promotions, upgradation and transfers motivate the employees, boost up their morale and also result in increased job satisfaction. 5. Increased job satisfaction enhances employee commitment and creates a sense of belongingness and loyalty to the organization. 6. Employee will await his turn of promotion rather than changing to another organization. This will lower employee turnover. 7. It improves employees performance on the job by taping their potential abilities and further employee turnover. 8. It satisfies employee esteem needs.

For Organizations: A long-term focus of career planning and development will increase the effectiveness of human resource management. More specifically, the advantages of career planning and development for an organization include: i. Efficient career planning and development ensures the availability of human resources with required skill, knowledge and talent. ii. The efficient policies and practices improve the organizations ability to attract and retain highly skilled and talent employees. iii. The proper career planning ensures that the women and people belong to backward communities get opportunities for growth and development. iv. The career plan continuously tries to satisfy the employee expectations and as such minimizes employee frustration.

v. By attracting and retaining the people from different cultures, enhances cultural diversity.
vi. Protecting employees interest results in promoting organizational goodwill.

Limitations of Career Planning

1.

Dual Career Families: - With the increase in career orientation among women, number of female employees is on increase. With this, the dual career families have also been on increase. Consequently, one of those family members might face the problem of transfer. This has become a complicated problem to organizations. Consequently other employees may be at disadvantage.

2. Low ceiling careers: -Some careers do not have scope for much advancement. Employees cannot get promotions despite their career plans and development in such jobs. 3. Declining Career Opportunities: -Career opportunities for certain categories reach the declining stage due to the influence of the technological or economic factors. Solution for such problem is career shift.

4. Downsizing/De-layering and careers: - Business process reengineering, technological changes and business environmental factors force the business firms to restructure the organizations by de-layering and downsizing. Downsizing activities result in fixing some employees, and degrading some other employees.

Thank You