Career Development Planning: Muhammad Saleem Raza
Career Development Planning: Muhammad Saleem Raza
Career Development Planning: Muhammad Saleem Raza
JHANG
Department of Computer Science
CAREER
DEVELOPMENT
PLANNING
ABSTRACT
Here we will discuss the various aspects of career development planning
such as:
Career Development Planning – Introduction
Career Development Planning ─ Stages
Impact of Technology on Career Planning
Giving Career an Organic Growth
Organizational Needs for Career Growth
Mentoring as an Effective Tool
Downsizing and Lay-Offs
Managing Workforce Diversity
Succession Planning
Careers in a Global Environment
Retirement Planning
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CAREER DEVELOPMENT
PLANNING
INTRODUCTION
All organizations like to improve constantly. One of the biggest channels
to introduce improvements in any organization is through change. There can be
no improvements without change. The same thing goes for the employee too.
There can be no improvement in an employee’s career if he isn’t open to change.
STAGES:-
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Here , we will discuss regarding the elements which are involved in the
career development and the planning process. In general, career building
involves two acts:
While this is a great tool for exploring growth opportunities in one’s own
organization, job seekers can use it to look for opportunities among friends and
family, and in job fairs. This reality checking also helps in finalizing goals and
setting aims for the future.
FINDING CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
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After the self-assessment is done, the next step is to get a reality check on
what skills the person has and how they can serve him. In this step, the candidate
is supposed outline all the steps that he
needs to follow to reach a specific career.
This involves taking stock of technical
knowledge and whether it is sufficient to
guarantee a job opportunity.
Most of the organizations conduct annual appraisals that have many such
self-assessment questionnaires. This is where candidates can give themselves a
fair score and prove to the management, where all they have contributed in the
growth of the organization.
SETTING GOALS IN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL
LIFE
In this phase, the candidate checks a range of career opportunities
available to him and determines which of his skillsets and knowledge levels will
be needed in the job of his
choice. In this step, the
candidate does research and
information-gathering from
multiple sources like friends,
colleagues, co-workers, etc. and
tries to find the best way that works for him.
In this stage, many potential job-seekers also post their profiles in job
placement centers, who in turn, provide them with a list of qualifications that
employers seek in a candidate’s profile. A similar situation is found inside the
organization as well, where possible options for a position are asked to brush up
their skills.
GOAL SETTING
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The third step in the process of career planning is that of goal setting,
where a person undergoes a period of self-assessment and investigates his career
opportunities to decide his long-term prospects in an organization. It is important
for the candidate to keep checking all his options for a viable future.
This habit of self-assessment helps people keep their priorities in check and keep
evolving their skills as a continuous process, not an isolated, one-time effort.
Also, self-assessment helps in getting knowledge on different functionalities in
the working sphere.
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that provides learning opportunities to motivated people which makes them more
marketable.
These careers have been termed as Protean Careers because the candidates
are now seen to change their career
from time to time to fit their personal
needs. The major characteristics of
these protean careers are Portable
Skills, Multi-Cultural Working
Experience, Learning on the Job, and
Constant Networking.
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Department of Computer Science
This is the reason people are no longer exhibiting linear career changes that
were observed with a stable and highly-structured working environment, but
more organic and adaptive, spiral career patterns.
These scholars emphatically stress that the skill-set that a person needs to
be successful in his career depends on the organization’s structure. If the
organizational structure promotes venturing into new markets, then he will
certainly find success in learning new things.
TRANSITORY CAREERS
Organizations expect their employees to possess the technical skills needed
to compete with the rest of the competition. But at the same time, the changes
that have come in today’s workforce
don’t allow the employees to be
satisfied with just possessing technical
skills. Those employees who possess
strong interpersonal skills and have a
collaborative mindset will be able to
survive in an increasingly inter-
departmental style of working.
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and portals.
The employees can now get a clearer idea of the areas they need to focus
on to get a wellrounded profile. It reduces their dependence on employers and
immediate supervisors to get a feedback on their performance in the form of
performance reviews. These employees also don’t need to rely upon counsellors
or on the human resources department to get their suggestions and to get their
questions answered.
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This is all possible due to the wide interconnectivity that Internet provides,
using which these employees can sign up for new programs and learning courses
through which they can add new skills to their resume. In addition to these, many
organizations have started giving internal training through online modules for
employees to improve their efficiency during their convenient hours.
The last point, particularly is an important one. Employees often make the
mistake of assuming that their strengths are the absolute ones. However, even a
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little change in the working environment could change their strengths into
unrequired or irrelevant skills. So, it is very important to keep a reality-check on
what new skills can be learnt, in tandem with the ones that an employee already
uses at work, so that the employee can be prepared for the future changes in the
market.
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ORGANIZATIONAL NEEDS
An important shift in career management has taken place in the recent
years. where a person gets all his instructions from the immediate supervisor.
Organizations now depend on their board only for the vision and mission of the
organization.
All the remaining crucial structures, like employee management, have been
given to the supervisors. This is done as such diverse cases can only be handled
by someone who has a history of working with these employees.
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Once the supervisors become the People’s Person that their company wants
them to be, they will be able to address some of the most pressing issues that
organizations predict they will face in the immediate future. Some of these issues
are:
ü The numerous strategic issues that organizations face over the next three years.
ü The organization’s most pressing needs and challenges within next three years.
ü The critical skills and knowledge needed to address these challenges.
ü The ideal staff capacity and qualification needed for this.
ü The capability of management to address the issues.
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careers because of all the guidance they got from the mentors. They develop a
sense of insight and understand the company’s vision and goals. They also
become aware of the different networks inside the organization. They feel like
getting new opportunities under the leadership of these veterans.
ü Organizational restructuring
ü Reengineering
ü Delayering
ü Economic downtrends
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PITFALLS OF LAY-OFFS
Layoffs were used as a way of increasing profits, but downsizing
employees alone itself does not yield profit. As per Wayne Casio’s Research,
companies which produce new revenue by expanding staff and other assets earn
more profit than those who follow the layoff strategy.
But, going for temporary workers makes us question what is the best way
to manage these employees' career in this 21st century. There are different
benefits given by the companies like lower labor costs or increase in staffing
flexibility might be tricky if the temporary employees are not skilled enough or
are less devoted towards their work.
In addition to this, benefits for skilled individuals like job variety and
personal growth might make the company run into losses, if the temporary
workers become wandering underclass in the labor pool.
ü Conflicts
ü Social Exclusion and
ü Job Mobility
This was the result of sustained global pressure because of the additional
Outsourcing and Off-shoring. Things have changed now, today companies opt
for sticking back with their core employees and limiting the recruitment of
people for some specific functions only. So, basically it means there are fewer
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Presently labor market has become the new workforce majority; issues of
equality and fair treatment have increased the responsibility of managing
diversity. However, some old stereotypes continue tagging “appropriate” work
roles for women and minorities, even among group members themselves,
because of which they have not been able to speed their movement into
management.
Very often it is seen how women and minorities can move upward, just so
high in the management, plateauing before they reach the senior levels. Even
though the reason behind this glass ceiling phenomenon is not completely
understood, but what we do get is, proper training and development for these
individuals should take their special needs into account.
GLASS CEILING INITIATIVES
Glass ceiling may occur due to highly subjective behavior of the top-level
management. As all the candidates are well qualified, selection is often based on
interpersonal skills and comfort, especially with people at the top not willing to
let others take hold of important responsibilities.
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Also, there are a few people who make certain groups or people feel
excluded and never truly accepted by the rest. The positive part here is, in every
organization people try to change or compromise with the existing organization's
culture, which will make them feel supported and encouraged. Companies which
accept these types of behavior yields the most profit.
SUCCESSION PLANNING
The firms interested in career development programs depend on the ups
and downs in the business cycle and the labor market. When there is a shortage
of manpower, skills etc., firms include career development programs to their
retention and recruitment strategies. But, when the business goes in a loss, there
is no recruitment. Large companies are the first ones to avail the latest
technology to internal staffing and career development.
As the companies are now becoming more data centric, they check their
own databases first, mining internal HR data for potentials, before looking
outside.
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Finally, the firm should do cost cutting, so it starts questioning the purpose
of these career development programs for now. Lot of convincing business care
is required to maintain these programs during these times. But even in the bad
phase, the high potentials group receive career development attention, the
exciting part is the method to select the high potentials have been changed.
Earlier, when managers were sent overseas for some projects, it was as if
their career has been sent into exile, if not over completely, but today, this is like
a step towards the top.
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ü Employees whose career will benefit and are willing to contribute the
knowledge gained to the organizations should be selected.
ü Selected employees should be groomed only for international assignments. Pre-
departure training should focus on the cross cultural differenced in social life,
political atmosphere, religion and language along with technical expertise
necessary.
ü Career planning is very important to direct how the overseas experience will
groom the potential of the employee. Having the big picture of where the
migration cycle will take you beyond the actual task is very important to success
and can help get over the feelings of abandonment.
ü It is very important for the employee to be updated about the country policies,
projects, plans and staffing changes via communication. This keeps the manager
in touch with the company and helps in re-entry.
ü The re-entry jobs should use the skills and experience the employee has gained
during the project. One way of doing this is by drafting recent migrants as
mentors or facilitating a forum for sharing their experience.
ü Training for home country managers should be an ongoing function. This
training will help to learn the value of international experience and the ways it
can be utilized within the organization.
However, these principles have not been executed yet. This often results in
migrant failures rate of up to 40% which have been reported, and 20%
employees leave their company after their overseas assignment. It is suggested
that people willing to opt for international experience should go through many
self-evaluation and planning steps, to ensure that international assignments will
not have a negative impact on their overall career objectives.
ü Geographical Location
ü Culture
ü Customs and
ü Political Status of the place
This is to make sure if you can adjust to the new place. However, there are
some contradictions regarding the international careers. As the demand for
managers understanding business from more than one national perspective
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increases, there has been a hesitance in sending U.S Citizens abroad because of
the terrorist attacks of 2001.
Just like high costs and struggles are linked with the uncertainties about the
migrant's ability to perform effectively after arrival have also led many nations
with international operations to develop local managers in the foreign countries
where they function. This would eventually limit the overseas developmental
projects for the future global manager.
RETIREMENT PLANNING
Planning for retirement is not a one-day deal; it should be done from the
early career stages, though young people often do not acknowledge it. The
retirement package should offer various benefits like –
ü Investment Counseling
ü Profit Sharing and
ü Deferred Compensation Plans.
But earnings today are not enough to lend some for retirement.
LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT
After the abolition of compulsory retirement and limitation of certain
benefit pensions, it has become a necessity to make employees think about their
future expense, or Life After Retirement. People today, do not believe in the
concept of retirement at 65, it may vary from 50-75 or even more, giving you
little more time to plan for retirement.
Say, allowing longer vacation for dedicated employees, which will give the
employees enough time to establish connections with outside peers and
reconnect with their friends and relatives. Starting preretirement program from
an early stage can ensure a kind of satisfaction of retirement for employees and
can also inculcate the feelings of goodwill towards their employer/company.
ALTERNATIVE WORK ARRANGEMENTS
People age at different rates. It has been observed that many of the best
performances are delivered by people during later stages of their career. Just
because an employee has crossed a certain age limit, it does not make them
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eligible for retirement. Age limits a person's visual acuity, response time, or
stamina, but gifts abundant knowledge and experience.
SHORT QUESTIONS
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Access
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SELF-ASSESSMENT.
Discover your desires and passions. What would you do if money were no
object? You may know exactly what you want to do. If so, move on to the next
step. If you're struggling with this, there are some free and fee-based self-
assessment tests available to help you.
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Department of Computer Science
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Department of Computer Science
"Best fit" and "best practice" - meaning that there is correlation between the
HRM strategy and the overall corporate strategy. As HRM as a field seeks to
manage human resources in order to achieve properly organizational goals, an
organization's HRM strategy seeks to accomplish such management by applying
a firm's personnel needs with the goals/objectives of the organization. As an
example, a firm selling cars could have a corporate strategy of increasing car
sales by 10% over a five year period. Accordingly, the HRM strategy would
seek to facilitate how exactly to manage personnel in order to achieve the 10%
figure. Specific HRM functions, such as recruitment and selection,
reward/recognition, an HR plan, or learning and development policies, would be
tailored to achieve the corporate objectives.
Close co-operation (at least in theory) between HR and the top/senior
management, in the development of the corporate strategy. Theoretically, a
senior HR representative should be present when an organization's corporate
objectives are devised. This is so, since it is a firm's personnel who actually
construct a good, or provide a service. The personnel's proper management is
vital in the firm being successful, or even existing as a going concern. Thus, HR
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can be seen as one of the critical departments within the functional area of an
organization.
An HRM strategy can be divided, in general, into two facets - the people
strategy and the HR functional strategy. The people strategy pertains to the point
listed in the first paragraph, namely the careful correlation of HRM
policies/actions to attain the goals laid down in the corporate strategy.
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Define Succession.
Best practice succession systems are also effective at spotting gaps in talent
and identifying important lynchpin positions – the select set of jobs that are
critical to the overall success of the organization. Succession planning does the
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job of monitoring the succession process, enabling the company to ensure that
the right people are moving into the right jobs at the right time and that gaps are
being spotted early on.
What are the requirement for building the managers for succession
management ?
Following are the requirement for building the managers for succession
management:
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the range in performance in key roles, minimize attrition among top performers,
and promote a high internal hiring rate.
Many senior managers think their company is adept at succession planning, and
they may be right. The problem is that although succession planning is essential,
it's just the first step. It's equally important to develop the leaders and managers so
they can execute the business strategy and deliver results. That's why companies
that succeed at finding and nurturing leaders who can grow their business do more
than plan.
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It is managements‘ responsibility to ensure that right people is hired for the right
job, at the right time for the right place