Career Planning

A career is a sequence of positions held by a person during the course of a lifetime. It comprises of a series of work related activities that provide continuity, order and meaning to a persons life.

Career Planning
Career planning is the process by which one selects career goals and the path to these goals. The major focus of career planning is on assisting the employees achieve a better match between personal goals and the opportunities that are realistically available in the organization.

Career planning is the process of identifying an individuals strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes, inclinations, aspiration and attitudes and designing his job responsibilities to take maximum advantages of positive traits and minimizing the effect negatives traits.

Objectives
Career planning seeks to meet the following objectives: Attract and retain talent by offering careers, not jobs. Use human resources effectively and achieve greater careers, not jobs. Reduce employee turnover. Improve employee morale and motivation.

Career planning process involves the following steps:

Knowing yourself: skills, likes/dislikes and values Exploring the options Making decisions: comparing options Taking actions: working towards your goals

Review from Time to time. After initiating these steps, it is necessary to review the whole thing every now and then. This will help the employee know in which direction he is moving, what changes and likely to take place, what kinds of skills are needed to face new and emerging organizational challenges. From an organizational standpoint also, it is necessary to find out how employees are doing, what are their goals and aspirations, whether the career paths are in tune with individual needs and serve the overall corporate objectives, etc.

Need for Career Planning

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Every employee has a desire to grow and scale new heights in his workplace continuously. If there are enough opportunities, he can pursue his career goals and exploit his potential fully. He feels highly motivated when the organization shows him a clear path as to how he can meet his personal ambitions while trying to realize corporate goals. Unfortunately, as pointed out by John Leach, organizations do not pay adequate attention to this aspect in actual practice for a variety of reasons. The demands of employees are not matched with organizational needs, no effort is made to show how the employees can grow within certain limits, what happens to an employee five years down the line if he does well, whether the organization is trying to offer mere jobs or long-lasting careers, etc.

5. New employees mean additional selection and training costs. Bridging the gaps through shortterm replacements is not going to pay in terms of productivity. 6. Organisations, therefore, try to put their career plans in place and educate employees about the opportunities that exist internally for talented people. Without such a progressive outlook, organizations cannot prosper.

What is Career Development?

Career development is an ongoing process, one that you should be focused on as you approach a career and progress through it. 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

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Career progress and development is largely the outcome of actions on the part of an individual. Some of the important steps that could help and individual cross the hurdles on the way up may include: Performance: Career progress rests largely on performance. If the performance is sub-standard, even modest career goals cant be achieved. Exposure: career development comes through exposure, which implies becoming known by those who decide promotion, transfers and other career opportunities. You must undertake actions that would attract the attention of those who matter most in an organization. Networking: networking implies professional and personal contacts that would help in striking good deals outside (e.g., lucrative job offers, business deals, etc.) For years men have used private clubs, professional associations, old-boy networks, etc., to gain exposure and achieve their career ambitions.

Succession planning
Succession planning is: The process of ensuring a suitable supply of successors for current and future senior or key jobs arising from business strategy, so that the careers of individuals can be planned and managed to optimize the organisations needs and the individuals aspirations.

A typical succession planning involves the following activities: 1. Analysis of the demand for managers and professionals by company level, function and skill. 2. Audit of existing executives and projection of likely future supply from internal and external sources. 3. Planning of individual career path based on objectives estimates of future needs and drawing on reliable performance appraisals and assessments of potential.

4. Career counseling undertaken in the context of a realist understanding of the future needs of the firm as well as those of the individual. 5. Accelerated promotions with development targeted against the future need of the business. 6. Performance related training and development to prepare individuals for futures roles as well as current responsibilities. 7. Planned strategic recruitment not only to fill short term need but also to fulfill long term needs

Need for succession planning

The purpose of succession planning is to identify and develop people to replace current jobholders in key positions. Through succession planning, compares assure a steady flow of internal talent to fill important vacancies. Succession planning encourages hiring from within and creates a healthy environment where employees have careers and not merely jobs.

It helps in identifying human resource shortages and skill shortages before openings occur. Thereafter, it becomes easy to groom qualified candidates for future vacancies. The organization is thus assured of continuity of operations and better-qualified incumbents. Preparing a schedule for succession is critical to the success of a company, especially at the top level. When change takes over a period of time, disruption and dislocation are minimized. Indeed, when a new CEO is meant to consolidate on past successes, a slow shift is ideal.

If qualified candidates are not available within the company, outsiders can be considered readily for possible openings. Complete dependence on succession from within or from outside is not desirable. Internal candidates require a pat on the back when they do well. External candidates are needed for injecting flesh blood into the company. The absence of a succession plan can seriously hamper the growth prospects of an organization. Imagine the disastrous consequences when there is a sudden vacuum at the top level. There is no one to steer the ship.

Critical plans needing immediate action get postponed. The organization remains headless and directionless for a while. Suitable candidates may not be available internally, as no one has been groomed in the past, keeping such an eventuality in mind. Bringing in outsiders may mitigate the crisis temporarily but the long-term impact is bound to be negative. Internal forces may start a rebellion and create tugof-war situations.

Globalisation Corporate reorganisation New organisational forms Changing demographics of workforce Changed employee expectations New industrial relations approach Renewed people focus Weaker sections interest Managing the manager contribution to the success of the organisation

Challenges of HRM in Indian Industry

Challenges faced by HR Manager

Retention of employee Selection of employees Managers need to change their attitudes Equity in rewards Meetings at least once a month Non poaching agreements Salary hike Work life balance Exit interviews