CAREER PLANNING PROCESS

It is obvious from the foregoing analysis that individuals differ a great deal in terms of their career orientation. The career orientation is influenced by the preference for a particular career anchor, the life-cycle stage one is in and individual differences in values, goals, priorities and aspirations. Organizations also differ in terms of the career paths and opportunities that they can provide given the reality of their internal and external environments. The career systems available in organizations also depend on their value system, growth potential, goals and priorities. The difference between what the employees look for in terms of their career progression and what career growth opportunities the organization is able to provide, gives rise to a situation of potential conflict between the individual aspiration and organizational opportunities. If the con­flict is allowed to persist, the employees will experience dissatisfaction and withdraw from being actively engaged in the productive pursuits. They might even choose the option of leaving the organization. In either case, the organization is not able to op­timally utilize the potential contributions of its employees towards the achievement of its goals.

The possibility of conflict between the individual and organization objectives calls for career planning efforts which can help identify areas of conflict and initiate such actions as necessary to resolve the conflict. Career planning, thus, involves matching of rewards and incentives offered by the career path and career structure with hopes and aspirations of different categories of employees regarding their own concept of progression. A general approach to career planning would involve the following steps:

(i) Analysis of the characteristics of the rewards and incentives offered by the prevail­ing career system needs to be done and made known to employees. Many individuals may not be aware of their own career progression paths as such information may be confined to only a select group of managers.

(ii) Analysis of the characteristics of the hopes and aspirations of different categories of employees including identification of their career anchors must be done through objective assessment. Most organizations assume the career aspirations of individual employees which need not be in tune with the reality. The individuals may not have a clear idea of their short and long-term career and life goals, and may not be aware of their aspirations and career anchors.

(iii) Mechanisms for identifying congruence between individual career aspirations and organisational career systems must be developed so as to enable the organization to discuss cases of mismatch or incongruence. On the basis of above analyses, it will be necessary to compare and identify specific areas of match and mismatch for dif­ferent category of employees.

(iv) Alternative strategies for dealing with mismatch will have to be formulated. Some of the strategies adopted by several organizations include the following:

(a) Changes in the career system by creating new career paths, new incentives, new rewards, by providing challenges through job redesign opportunities for lateral movement and the like.

(b) change in the employees' hopes and aspirations by creating new needs, new goals, new aspirations or by helping the employees to scale down goals and aspira­tions that are unrealistic or unattainable for one reason or the other.

(c) seek new basis of integration, compromise or other forms of mutual change on the part of both employees and organization through problem-solving, negotiations or other devices.

The Need for Career Planning

Organizations can hope to achieve high quality of work from their employees and foster positive attitudes and loyalty among workers through career planning. Career planning ensures that goals of individuals and organizations are in synergy and consequently tries to keep the motivation of managers high. This implies that once the individual becomes aware of his capabilities and opportunities within the organization, he chooses to develop himself in a direction that improves his chances of being able to handle new responsibilities.

Organizational Career Planning

Following activities should be included:

I. Human Resource Forecasting and Planning

This helps in identifying the number of people to be hired. Second. the organizations will be able to coordinate their selection procedure with the overall strategic goals.

2. Career information

This should he shared with employees and includes promotional policy and career paths. Role directions and critical attributes could he made available to employees for identifying possible career paths and competency requirements.

3. Career Counselling

Senior executives should have periodic discussions with their subordinates and offer career counselling to them.

4. Career Pathing

Organizations nowadays plan job sequences for their employees by which transfers and promotions are done more systematically.

5. Skill Assessment Training

Three types of analyses should be performed—organizational analysis, job analysis and job manpower requirement analysis. Organizational analysis and job analysis are the first steps in the training process.

6. Succession Planning

Here organizations assure that competent candidates are available in succession for critical positions. HR subsystems like promotions, terminations, transfers, retirements, etc. also make succession planning necessary.

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 arc:

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 organizat ion. 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

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.

Merits of Career Planning

The merits of career planning are quite a few. Some of these have been listed as follows:

· 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.

· Ti 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 attract the best talents with ease.

Objectives of Career Planning

The primary purpose 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 svell-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. We shall now see the important objectives of career planning.

· 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 upgrad­ing 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.

Career Planning ----- Meaning Features

MEANING AND DEFINITION

A career can be defined as a sequence of separate but related work activities that provides continuity, order and meaning in a ^person's life.'

Career planning and development is a deliberate process through which a person becomes aware of personal career-related attributes and lifelong series of stages that contribute to his or her career fulfillment. Career planning and development is not a one-shot training programme. It has longer time frame and wider focus. It is an ongoing organised and formalized effort that recognizes people as a viral organisational resource.4

Features of Career Planning

Based on the interpretation of the definitions in Box 9.1, the following features of career planning have been developed:

· Career planning normally follows a bottom-up approach in which the process begins

with the individuals, works upwards, and ends with organizational intervention

· It is not a one-time affair but an ongoing process by which an employee identifies the needs and also the methods to fulfill those needs on a regular basis.

· It aims at matching the individual's career goals with the 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 and supply of labour, the characteristics of labour, technology, competitive conditions and market strategies are rapid and often radical.

Performance Appraisal

MEANING AND DEFINITION

1. Performance appraisal is the periodic, formal evaluation of employee performance for the purpose of making career decisions.'

Performance appraisal is a formal, structured system of measuring and evaluating an employee's job related behaviours and outcomes to discover how and why the employee is presently performing on the job and how the employee can perform more effectively in the future so that the employee, organisation and society all benefit.'

3. Performance appraisal involves the identification, measurement and management of human performance in organisation.3

USES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

Performance appraisal serves several purposes of the organisations. The main uses of performance appraisal are as follows:

1. Administrative use

Performance appraisals arc used administratively whenever they are the basis for the personnel decisions like promotions, transfers, demotions, terminations and rewards.

2. Developmental use

Performance appraisal helps to identify the need and areas for further training and development of the employees.

3. Compensation use

Performance appraisal provides a rational basis for constructing a system of rewards, benefits or bonus.

4. Feedback use

It provides feedback to the employees and informs them where they can improve their performance.

5. Reduce grievances

With the help of proper feedback, the employees receive information about their performance thus reduces the grievances among the employees.

6. Improvement in supervision

A systematic performance appraisal system in organisation makes supervisor always aware and alert about their subordinate performance, as they have to fill the rating forms periodically.

7. Database

Performance appraisal documents and records protect the employer from the charges of discrimination, hiasness and favouritisim. These documents may be needed for legal defense.

8. Effectiveness of earlier stages

Performance appraisal acts as mean of evaluating the effectiveness of recruitment, selection, placement and induction systems in an organisation.

9. Career planning

Performance appraisal records provide a systematic and rational base for management in the career planning of its employees.

10. Motivation

Fair performance appraisal systems help in the assessment and recognition of performance levels of employees. This motivates employees to improve their performance.