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

What is Career Development?

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:

1. Performance: Career progress rests largely on performance. If the performance is sub-standard, even modest career goals can’t be achieved.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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

This is a long term process basically involving the following steps:

1.) Discovering the child’s interests, abilities, personality traits and aptitudes.2.) Building a strong educational foundation by matching interests to curriculum.

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The Career Planning Process

3. Exploring careers through various activities such as work-based learning, clubs, community volunteer.

4. Creating and maintaining a “Career Plan template” from grades 5 through 12.

Need for Career Planning

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

3. when recognition does not come in time for meritorious performance and a certain amount of confusion prevails in the minds of employees whether they are ‘in’ with a chance to grow or not, they look of greener pastures outside.

4. Key executives leave in frustration and the organization suffers badly when turnover figures rise. Any recruitment effort made in panic to fill the vacancies is not going to be effective.

5. New employees mean additional selection and training costs. Bridging the gaps through short-term 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.

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

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