CAREER PLANNING

HRM, CAREER PLANNING, CAREER MANAGEMENT, ‎HRM, HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, ‎MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES, AIMS AND ‎OBJECTIVES OF CAREER PLANNING, CAREER ‎PLANNING PROCESS, CAREER PROGRESSION ‎CONSIDERATIONS, BENEFITS & LIMITATIONS OF ‎CAREER PLANNING, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, ‎MANAGEMENT SCIENCE, EDUCATION AND ‎LEARNING,‎

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CAREER PLANNING

Definitions:

Career is “The occupational positions a person has had over many years.” (Dessler, 2017)

Career planning is...
 “Process by which an individual formulates career goals and develops a plan for reaching
those goals. Thus, career development and career planning should reinforce each other.
Career development looks at individual careers from the viewpoint of the organization,
whereas career planning looks at careers through the eyes of individual employees.” (Byars &
Rue, 2004)
 “The deliberate process through which someone becomes aware of personal skills, interests,
knowledge, motivations, and other characteristics and establishes action plans to attain
specific goals.” (Dessler, 2017)


Overview:

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 is the process of deciding what
work opportunities to accept or reject, depending on their perceived value in helping achieve career
objectives. It includes not only decisions made by an individual but also those made about the
individual by managers and others who control what work opportunities can be made available.
Career development is the process of improving an individual’s abilities in anticipation of future
opportunities for achieving career objectives. Most importantly, a career consists of the organized
structure and sequence of patterns in an individual’s work life. Career planning is a continuous
process. Individuals are not satisfied solely by the job-specific feedback on performance they receive
through the performance appraisal process. They also want information that is more long-term.
For organizations, career-management must be a continuous process in the same way that career
planning is for individuals. Promotion and job transfer systems nurture talented employees,
motivating and developing them at the same time. Unless managers use these systems in some
coherent and unified way, the most promising people will leave. Career-management efforts are one
way to ensure that employees are being offered opportunities to develop themselves while, at the
same time, the organization is creating a pool of internal talent for managers to choose from for
promotions, transfers, and strategic changes. (Rothwell & Kazanas, 2003)

Different Views of Careers: Various signs indicate that the patterns of individuals’ work lives are
changing in many areas: more freelancing, more working at home, more frequent job changes, and
more job opportunities but less security. Rather than letting jobs define their lives, more people set
goals for the type of lives they want and then use jobs to meet those goals. However, for dual-career
couples and working women, balancing work demands with personal and family responsibilities is
difficult to do. Labels for different views of careers include the following:

 Protean career: assumes individuals will drive their careers and define goals to fit their life
 Career without boundaries: views a manager as having many possible trajectories for a
career, and many are across organizational boundaries
 Portfolio career: careers are built around a collection of skills and interests and are self-
managed

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 Authentic career: people achieve a high level of personal insight and use this to follow a
“true-to-self” career.

All these different views of careers have merit for different individuals, but they all show that an
organization-centred career planning effort will have to consider the unique needs of the individual
employee.

Organizational and Individual Career Planning Perspective

(Mathis & Jackson, 2011)

A typical career progresses through five stages:

i. Entry to the organisation when the individual can begin the process of self-directed career
planning;
ii. Progress within particular areas of work;
iii. Mid-career when people still hope to secure higher positions, while
others have already got;
iv. Later careers when people have settled in respective areas and are
planning post-retirement life;
v. End of career in organisations; rehired, if physically fit and willing, or lead retired life
dedicated to social and religious life. (Aswathappa, 2017)

Features of Career planning

 Career planning normally follows a bottom-up approach in which the process begins with the
individuals, works upwards, and ends with organisational interventions.
 It is not one-time affair but an ongoing process by which an employee identifies the needs and
also the methods to fulfil those needs on a regular basis.
 It aims at a matching the individual’s career goals with opportunities available.
 It is a means of achieving employee progression and organizational efficiency and not an end
in itself.
 It is the collective responsibility of both the individual employee and the organization.
 It is normally made in a dynamic environment where the changes in the demand for supply
and of labour, the characteristics of labour, technology, competitive conditions and market
strategies are rapid and often radical. (Durai, 2010)

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AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF CAREER PLANNING

Career planning seeks to meet the following objectives:
i. Attract and retain talent by offering careers, not jobs.
ii. Use human resources effectively and achieve greater productivity.
iii. Reduce employee turnover.
iv. Improve employee morale and motivation.
v. Meet the immediate and future human resource needs of the organization on a timely basis.
(Rao, 2005)

The primary purpose/aim of career planning by the employees is to develop their career goals
strategically and then achieve success by utilizing the available opportunities. The
individual employees attempt to achieve career success by employing relevant skills and knowledge.
In the case of organization, it is an opportunity to show its interest in and commitment to the well-
being and growth of the employees. Of course, the organization also seeks to achieve optimum
employee efficiency and loyalty. The primary responsibility for career planning tics with the
employees but the supervisors, the line managers and the HR department have a collective
responsibility in designing and developing realistic career plans. The important objectives of career
planning are:

 Career planning facilitates the employees to develop not only their career goals but also the
ways to achieve these goals.
 It helps individuals to remain competitive in the labour market by constantly upgrad-
ing competences as part of goal fulfilment efforts.
 It acts as the basis or standard for tracing the career progression achieved by an employee
throughout his work life.
 It forms the basis for succession planning in the organization. It helps the organization in its
preparation for the future by identifying and developing people for critical positions.
 Through career planning, an organization can attract and retain its best people for a relatively
longer period of time.
 Career planning is viewed as an effective technique by the organization to limit the labour
turnover and achieve better employee efficiency and commit went.
 It provides an opportunity for the organization to assess the strengths and weaknesses and
also the area of development of the employees for the purpose of career planning and
development.
 It forms the basis for determining the training and development requirements of each
employee in the organization.
(Durai, 2010)
Functions of Career Planning
The following are the functions performed by career planning:
 It helps in determining the career paths for different types of employees.
 Create positions of self-development for employees in an organisation.
 Provide such career planning information system which works as a database of career
path, promotions and replacement.
 To boost up morale of the employees and remove frustration from their minds.
 To develop such an internal environment in which employees can develop their talents and
give them a fair chance to go up and contribute the organisation.
 To establish such career paths on which employee can promote himself.
 To enable employees to discover, develop and use their full potential for the organisation.
(Durai, 2010)

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CAREER PLANNING PROCESS

Careers are different than they were in the past, and managing them puts a premium on career
development by both employers and employees. Effective career planning considers both
organization-centred and individual-centred perspectives.


 ORGANIZATION -CENTRED CAREER PLANNING

Organization-cantered career planning frequently focuses on identifying career paths that provide for
the logical progression of people between jobs in an organization. Individuals follow these paths as
they advance in organizational units. For example, the right person might enter the sales department
as a sales representative, then be promoted to account director, to district sales manager, and finally to
vice president of sales.

A good career planning program includes the elements of talent management, performance appraisal,
development activities, opportunities for transfer and promotion, and planning for succession. To
communicate with employees about opportunities and to help with planning, employers frequently use
career workshops, a career “centre” or newsletter, and career counselling. Individual managers often
play the role of coach and counsellor in their direct contact with individual employees and within an
HR-designed career management system. The systems that an employer uses must be planned and
managed to guide managers in developing employees’ careers. One such system is the career path, or
“map,” which is created and shared with the individual employee.

 Career Paths: Employees need to know their strengths and weakness, and they often
discover those through company-sponsored assessments. Career paths to develop the weak
areas and fine-tune the strengths are developed. Career paths represent employees’
movements through opportunities over time. Although most career paths are thought of as
leading upward, good opportunities also exist in cross-functional or horizontal directions.
Working with employees to develop career paths has aided employers in retaining key
employees.
 Employer Websites and Career Planning: Many employers have careers sections on their
websites. Such sections can be used to list open jobs for current employees looking to change
jobs. An employer’s website is a link to the external world, but should also be seen as a link
to existing employee development. Sites also can be used for career assessment, information,
and instruction. When designing websites, firms should consider the usefulness of the careers
section for development as well as recruitment.
 Accommodating Individual Career Needs: Everyone does not view a career the same way.
The way people view their careers depends upon the stage of the career. Some research
suggests that if employers expect employees to invest more of their personal resources of time
and effort in career self-management, they may find it causes conflict with efforts to balance
work and life off the job. Most people cannot both invest great amounts of time beyond their
job in career management and have a satisfactory work-life balance as well.
(Mathis & Jackson, 2011)



 Organization’s Responsibility in Career Planning

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Organizations, also have an important role to play in career planning and management. Organizations
should plan for their future talent needs, identify the competencies needed for success in all jobs and
at all levels, and then sponsor training, education, and development efforts to help individuals realize
their career goals while also meeting company needs. Managers who want to retain first-rate workers
must commit to a planned effort to do so. To establish an in-house career planning and development
system, the organization should take few important steps:

 Step 1: Clarify the organization’s career philosophy. What specifically does the
organization wish to achieve from career-related efforts? What is the philosophy on which
such efforts will rest?
 Step 2: Gain commitment and clarify goals and objectives. Identify what measurable
results are desired from the career program.
 Step 3: Design a program. Lay out a program that helps individuals meet their
responsibilities. But also plan for the organization’s future talent needs and make employees
aware of the competencies essential for success in the organization.
 Step 4: Build support for the program. Don’t expect everyone to greet a career program
with open arms. Establish a plan to communicate about the program, share successes, and tell
employees and managers alike what they stand to gain (and are gaining) from the program.
 Step 5: Roll out and implement the program. Pay attention to how the program is
implemented. Follow-through is key.
 Step 6: Evaluate program results. Periodically document the results, both financial and
nonfinancial, that the organization and its people have gained from the program. Then share
that information with leaders and employees.
(Lindholm, Yarrish & Zaballero, Eds., 2012)


 INDIVIDUAL-CENTRED CAREER PLANNING

Organizational changes have altered career plans for many people. Individuals have had to face
“career transitions”— in other words they have had to find new jobs. These transitions have identified
the importance of individual-centred career planning, which focuses on an individual’s responsibility
for a career rather than on organizational needs.

 Individual Actions for Career Planning: For individuals to successfully manage their own
careers, they should be able to perform several activities. Three key ones are as follows:

 Self-assessment: Individuals need to think about what interests them, what they do not
like, what they do well, and their strengths and weaknesses. Career advisors use a number
of tools to help people understand themselves. Common professional tests include the
Strong Interest Inventory to determine preferences among vocational occupations, and to
identify a person’s dominant values.
 Feedback on reality: Employees need feedback on how well they are doing, how their
bosses see their capabilities, and where they fit in organizational plans for the future. One
source of this information is through performance appraisal feedback and career
development discussions.
 Setting of career goals: Deciding on a desired path, setting some timetables, and writing
down these items all set the stage for a person to pursue the career of choice. These career
goals are supported by short-term plans for the individual to get the experience or training
necessary to move forward toward the goals.

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 Individual Career Choices: Four general individual characteristics affect how people make
career choices:
 Interests: People tend to pursue careers that they believe match their interests. But over
time, interests change for many people, and career decisions eventually are made based
on special skills, abilities, and career paths that are realistic for the individual.
 Self-image: A career is an extension of a person’s self-image. People follow careers they
can “see” themselves in and avoid those that do not fit with their perceptions of their
talents, motives, and values.
 Personality: An employee’s personality includes that individual’s personal orientation
(e.g., inclination to be realistic, enterprising, or artistic) and personal needs (including
affiliation, power, and achievement needs). Individuals with certain personality types
gravitate to different clusters of occupations.
 Social backgrounds: Socioeconomic status and the educational levels and occupations of
a person’s parents are included in an individual’s social background. Less is known about
how and why people choose specific organizations than about why they choose specific
careers. One obvious factor is timing- the availability of a job when the person is looking
for work. The amount of information available about alternatives is an important factor as
well. Beyond these issues, people seem to pick an organization on the basis of a “fit” of
the climate of the organization as they view it and their own personal characteristics,
interests, and needs. (Mathis & Jackson, 2011)


 Individual’s Responsibility in Career Planning

In The Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management there are ten key steps individuals should
follow for their efforts in career planning. These are...

 Step 1: Know yourself: Get clear what you like and don’t like—and know what you want.
 Step 2: Gather information: Find out what career options exist that may dove tail with what
you like.
 Step 3: Clarify what you know and establish clear career goals and milestones: Get clear
on your key talents and what background, education, experience, training, and other
characteristics may set you apart—and then leverage them.
 Step 4: Seek personal development, training, and education. On-the-job assignments give
you experience, and what you learn develops you for performing your current job better and
preparing for the future.
 Step 5: Network with others. There is some truth to the old saying that it is “who you know”
and not so much “what you know” that leads to success. Find people who share your
interests—and advertise your career goals so that others know what you want to do, why, and
how you are qualified to do it.
 Step 6: Gain experience. Try out opportunities to build your competencies in line with what
is needed for current and future success in your career.
 Step 7: Find a mentor or sponsor to help you. Go beyond networking to find individuals
who have already succeeded in the career path you wish to pursue. Ask their advice on how
you can prepare yourself. Then follow through and do what they tell you.
 Step 8: Decide how to pursue your career goals. Get the action steps that you will take very
clear.
 Step 9: Find jobs- and don’t be afraid to change jobs to build your competencies. Do not
expect others to open doors wide. If you can’t advance with your current employer, first talk

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to that employer about what you want to do to develop yourself in line with your career goals.
But if your employer can’t or won’t help, then try to find an employer who will help.
 Step 10: Maintain flexibility. Timing and luck are indeed part of career planning. Bear that
in mind. But recognize when opportunities arise and be bold enough to seize the advantage.
(Lindholm, Yarrish & Zaballero, Eds., 2012)

 CAREER PROGRESSION CONSIDERATIONS

The typical career for individuals today includes more positions, transitions, and organizations than in
the past, when employees were less mobile and organizations were more stable as long-term
employers. There are general patterns in people’s lives that affect their careers. The first half of life as
the young adult’s quest for competence and for a way to make a mark in the world. According to this
view, a person attains happiness during this time primarily through achievement and the acquisition of
capabilities. The second half of life is different. Once the adult starts to measure time from the
expected end of life rather than from the beginning, the need for competence and acquisition changes
to the need for integrity, values, and well-being. For many people, internal values take precedence
over external scorecards or accomplishments such as wealth and job title status. In addition, mature
adults already possess certain skills, so their focus may shift to interests other than skills acquisition.
Career-ending concerns, such as life after, retirement reflect additional shifts.



So, careers and lives are not predictably linear but cyclical. Individuals experience periods of high
stability followed by transition periods of less stability, and by inevitable discoveries,
disappointments, and triumphs. These cycles of structure and transition occur throughout individuals’
lives and careers. This cyclical view may be an especially useful perspective for individuals affected
by downsizing or early career plateaus in large organizations. Such a perspective argues for the
importance of flexibility in an individual’s career. It also emphasizes the importance of individuals’
continuing to acquire more and diverse knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Early Career Issues: Early career needs include finding interests, developing capabilities, and
exploring jobs. Some organizations do a better job than others of providing those opportunities.
Work-at-home programs, mentoring, performance bonuses, time with top executives, extensive
training, hiring interns, reimbursement for more education, and rich plans are some of the things
employers are doing to make jobs more attractive for early career employees.

Career Plateaus: Those who do not change jobs may face another problem: career plateaus. Many
workers define career success in terms of upward mobility. As the opportunities to move up decrease,
some employers try to convince employees they can find job satisfaction in lateral movement. Such
moves can be reasonable if employees learn new skills that increase individual marketability in case

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of future layoffs, termination, or organizational restructurings. One strategy for individuals to get off
career plateaus is to take seminars and university courses. This approach may reveal new
opportunities for plateaued employees. Rotating workers to other departments is another way to deal
with career plateaus. (Mathis & Jackson, 2011)


 CAREER PLANNING PROCESS IN SPARC

Referring to SPARC (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child) head office based in
Islamabad and managing multiple projects on child rights, juvenile justice, trainings and other areas
with multiple offices in different locations of Pakistan. Their workforce includes the professionals in
the specialised disciplines and professional volunteers in the fields based on the projects. They have
effective career planning process based on the capabilities and skills of the team members. They
provide specific professional trainings to their core and projects based team members quarterly to
enhance their skills, capabilities for the execution of certain projects. They do provide the
opportunities to skilful and competent team members to manage projects in different areas
individually with sole responsibilities to execute. For such opportunities they do provide the path to
team members who want to excel in the career with diverse opportunities. They do hire internees to
train them for specific projects and successful trainees to acquire some good positions in the team to
progress in their career path. They continuously focus on the following:

a) Career opportunities for internal and external candidates
b) Self-development for the team members in professional skills, capabilities and their learning
c) Job satisfaction for teams and help them to perform their jobs by providing trainings, benefits
and opportunities.
d) Promotions opportunities to capable and skilful team members in core positions and project
based positions.
e) Personal growth by providing teams professional specific trainings
f) Loyalty towards work and towards the organization emphasize the team to work efficiently
g) Achievements enable the teams to grow and to contribute efficiently

Additionally, they are also providing the professional trainings to different organizations to enable
them to execute their work responsibilities to the society effectively. This approach also enables those
teams to progress in efficient ways to fulfil their responsibilities and to build them for better
opportunities in their organizations.

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BENEFITS & LIMITATIONS OF CAREER PLANNING

Merits of Career Planning

 Career planning helps employees in developing career goals and also in accomplishing those
goals in a time-bound manner.
 It facilitates employees in identifying the career opportunities available within the
organization.
 It helps the employees determine their training and development requirements based on self-
assessment.
 It helps the organization in finding a fit between the job requirements and the employees’
knowledge, skill and abilities to choose the right persons for the jobs.
 It provides an occasion for the organization to identify the strengths and weaknesses of its
workforce.
 It assists the organization in HR policy formulation. For instance, it facilitates the HR
manager in deciding between internal and external sources of recruitment.
 It helps the organization in achieving enhanced job satisfaction, efficiency and commitment
for its employees.
 It aids the organization in controlling employee attrition and related hiring costs.
 It assists the organization in developing succession plans for the critical positions in the
organization. Thus, it enables the organization to make long-term investments on their
employees through succession plans.
 It provides an opportunity to the organization to express its interest in the well-being and
future of its employees.
 It enables the organization to achieve cordial industrial relations and thus ensure better
cooperation from trade unions.
 It helps the organization in building goodwill in the labour market and thereby attracts the
best talents with ease.
(Durai, 2010)

Limitations of Career Planning

Though career planning helps an organization in numerous ways, it has a few limitations that
undermine the importance and relevance of career planning. These are:
 Time Factor
Career planning is usually a long-term and time-consuming process. It is based on the logic of
suffering short-term pain to get long-term gains. However, organizations may not be ready to
spend a lot of time and resources on a process that would prove beneficial only in the long
term.
 Unsuitable for Large Workforce
It may not be possible for organizations with a large workforce to develop individual career
plans breach and every employee of the organisation. This is because the career plan process
requires an in-depth analysis of each employee's strengths and weaknesses on a sustained
basis.
 Lack of Objectivity
Only those organizations which believe in strict observance of objectivity in promotion and
transfers can succeed in career planning. In contrast, favouritism and nepotism in promotions
often make career planning an unsuccessful exercise.
 External Interventions

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Government rules and regulations can also affect the Greer planning options of an
organization. For example, the government may make it mandatory for the organization to
adopt reservations in promotions, especially iUl is a government organization or a public
sector enterprise.
 Lack of Knowledge and Awareness
Career planning by an employee is essentially a self-management process. It requires the
employees to be aware of the basics of career planning and management activities. However,
the employees at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy may not be familiar with the
career planning process.
 Lack of Flexibility
Many organizations treat career planning as a ritualistic, rigid exercise. They often fail
to consider the uncertainties caused to the career planning activities by the changes in the
situation. In fact, the absence of dynamic career planning programmes may limit the
applicability of the career plans in uncertain and changing situations.
 Difficulty in Measuring Career Success
Since career success is an abstract concept, it is interpreted differently by different
persons. Some may consider a good performance in the job as career success. Others may
consider the quality of life as an indicator of career success. Still others may consider the
vertical mobility in the organizational structure as career success. This divergence of opinions
may cause confusion and vagueness in interpreting career success.
(Durai, 2010)


CONCLUSION

Career issues are becoming more important in the interesting times in which we live. While
individuals have a responsibility in life and career planning, so do organizations and their leaders. One
major reason that organizations should provide such programs is to retain the best (high potential)
employees to meet future organisational talent needs.
For individuals, being with an organisation for a long time is just not enough to guarantee success.
Today’s employees must learn and prepare themselves constantly if they are to remain employable
and be considered for advancement opportunities in the future. And today’s best-practice
organisations commit to career development programs as a way to retain first-rate employees,
improve morale, and encourage people to develop themselves in line with the organization’s future
needs.



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