Abstract

All employees are career conscious. Organizations, however, need to answer: 'Is employee career development a part of their HR vision?' If yes, the organizations will be able to drive performance, retain people and breed contentment.

What is career development?

In simple terms it means 'Providing opportunity especially employees performance. Growth means, to an employees to to who an grow', those deliver

employee, one or more of the following: 1. Climbing up the ladder in the organizational hierarchy. On-going increase in remuneration. Acquiring higher level skills & competencies. Occupying higher level Job positions. Having an opportunity to avail of some exclusive benefits (perks & privileges).

2. 3. 4. 5.

Career development is not a mere management It is a organizational which involves their them their their to growth addresses assigns with & responsibility. composite process people, roles ambitions,

responsibilities evaluates positions

commensurate potential, Job

performance, and creates accommodate

ambitions of employees. In the have below: career to development place at cycle, a number of actions take different levels as outlined

Employees
Decide what they want from their careers now and in the future. Examine individually, or along with their their Supervisors, Create Plans' inputs

interests & ambitions. 'Development by obtaining the of the term the and from

Supervisor, to meet the requirements for Work the job the current Job and to cater long with learning perspectives. Supervisor to identify on training professional development. opportunities

and other avenues for

Managers/ Supervisors
Identify the job-related knowledge, competencies experience an Help needed to employee skills, and for be to

effective in that position. subordinates define their short and long term development needs and which support career organizational objectives employee's goals.

Support Development

Employee Plans by

indicating specific steps that need to be initiated to Help accomplish the employee the in learning goals. understanding the type of Jobs which will be best suited for his/ her career growth.

Organization/ Management
Provide that a job and the &

compensation

structure

support growth

organization's as well as individual's development perspectives. Enrich in job-positions the to create more challenges workenvironment. Provide time and funds for Create utilize skills fully Undertake meet needs. Evaluate lines for employees vital in & job the create succession pipepositions organization. Identify & nurture talent and reward performance in a transparent manner. future employee processes the and abilities to to of the pro-active staffing development activities. knowledge,

each employee, aligned organizational goals. man-power planning to

Systems Approach
Career requires approach. a development systems

This processes automatically essential data

implies of to capture about

Institutionalization

each employee at the time of recruitment or induction. It also includes over of the the maintenance, employment,

service span history of following details:

training details, performance statistics, awards & recognitions, special skills & competencies, promotions, pay increments and many other fields which depict the capability profile of an individual. details to on are the an

If

these

available management 'Employee

Dashboard',

career planning can be managed as a part of the HR Vision.

Implementing a career development program in a company involves much more than just hiring a few coaches to work with select groups of employees (though thats a start!). A better approach is to view this program as a new element of the organizational culture and systems. Using a multifunctional team, an analysis and evaluation of what is really needed

in that organization for career development, as well as a thoughtful approach to how best to provide it, are keys to success. Our approach at our CareerNiche Coaching Division, when working with an organization that wants to begin a career development program is to first work with the management team in this evaluation process, and then either provides or assist with the implementation process when phase 1 is complete. Basic benchmarks would include:

A. Evaluation Phase 1. Define what career development means for the organization, including the multiple points of view of various groups within the organization (e.g. management vs. employees vs. supervisors and HR) 2. Determine the organizations needs for career development,whether a full-scale approach or one which simply augments what is already being done by OD or HR; can include a company-wide survey 3. Identify goals to be achieved through the program including baseline productivity loss or lost income due to low morale or bad job fit (for later evaluation of ROI) 4. Design a program to fit the identified needs, including contracting or hiring coaches if need be, arranging implementation of a virtual or live career center, benchmarking job competencies, training supervisors in coaching techniques, and the like B. Implementation Phase 1. Pilot the program with a specific team or department, evaluate results, and revise if necessary 2. Launch and promote the program to employees throughout the organization (in a planned sequence if the organization is large or has multiple locations) 3. Continue to evaluate results and, if a survey was done at the beginning of the program, survey again in 6-12 months to measure results

As the implementation is being done, both at the pilot level and at the organization-wide level, following are some of the steps that will often be taken with each employee:

1. Assessment: of skills, values, interests, and work style 2. Exploration of options: promotions, transfer and enrichment comparing results of #1 to competencies of jobs within the organization 3. Identification and resolution of barriers: if the employee or client seems to lack education or training or have other barriers to their desired career development within the company, coaching addresses those 4. Goal setting and planning: specifying what the employee wants to achieve and helping them get there through a Career Development Plan, often working with their direct supervisor 5. Strategizing: support systems, mentoring, informational interviewing intracompany, training, available resources, and timelines