Benefits of Career Planning

Career planning is the process by which one selects career goals and the path to these goals. Career development is those personal improvements one undertakes to achieve a personal career plan. Career management is the process of designing and implementing goals, plans and strategies to enable the organization to satisfy employee needs while allowing individuals to achieve their career goals. So, due to this career planning and development is necessary to each and every employee in an organization. The need of career planning and development is felt in each and every organization of today’s global world.

Need for Career Planning: –

Career Planning is necessary due to the following reasons:

1. To attract competent persons and to retain them in the organization.

2. To provide suitable promotional opportunities.

3. To enable the employees to develop and take them ready to meet the future challenges.

4. To increase the utilization of managerial reserves within an organization.

5. To correct employee placement.

6. To reduce employee dissatisfaction and turnover.

7. To improve motivation and morale.

Process of Career Planning : –

The following are the steps in Career Planning :

1. Analysis of individual skills, knowledge, abilities, aptitudes etc.

2. Analysis of career opportunities both within and outside the organization.

3. Analysis of career demands on the incumbent in terms of skills, knowledge, abilities, aptitude etc., and in terms of qualifications, experience and training received etc.

4. Relating specific jobs to different career opportunities.

5. Establishing realistic goals both short-term and long-term.

6. Formulating career strategy covering areas of change and adjustment.

7. Preparing and implementing action plan including acquiring resources for achieving goals.

Pre-requisites for the success of career planning.

1. Strong commitment of the top management in career planning, succession planning and development.

2. Organization should develop, expand and diversify its activities at a phased manner.

3. Organization should frame clear corporate goals.

4. Organization should have self-motivated, committed and hard working employees.

5. Organization’s goal in selection should be selecting the most suitable man and place him in the right job.

6. Organization should take care of the proper age composition in manpower planning and in selection.

7. Organization should take steps to minimize career stress.

8. Organization should have fair promotion policy.

9. Organization should publicize widely the career planning and development programmes.

Advantages of Career Planning:-

For Individuals:

1. The process of career planning helps the individual to have the knowledge of various career opportunities, his priorities etc.

2. This knowledge helps him select the career that is suitable to his life styles, preferences, family environment, scope for self-development etc.

3. It helps the organization identify internal employees who can be promoted.

4. Internal promotions, upgradation and transfers motivate the employees, boost up their morale and also result in increased job satisfaction.

5. Increased job satisfaction enhances employee commitment and creates a sense of belongingness and loyalty to the organization.

6. Employee will await his turn of promotion rather than changing to another organization. This will lower employee turnover.

7. It improves employee’s performance on the job by taping their potential abilities and further employee turnover.

8. It satisfies employee esteem needs.

For Organizations: –

A long-term focus of career planning and development will increase the effectiveness of human resource management. More specifically, the advantages of career planning and development for an organization include:

i. Efficient career planning and development ensures the availability of human resources with required skill, knowledge and talent.

ii. The efficient policies and practices improve the organization’s ability to attract and retain highly skilled and talent employees.

iii. The proper career planning ensures that the women and people belong to backward communities get opportunities for growth and development.

iv. The career plan continuously tries to satisfy the employee expectations and as such minimizes employee frustration.

v. By attracting and retaining the people from different cultures, enhances cultural diversity.

vi. Protecting employees’ interest results in promoting organizational goodwill.

Limitations of career planning :-

Apart from advantages, there are some limitations. So, let us have a look at the limitations of career planning. Despite planning the career, employees face certain career problems. They are:

Dual Career Families: –

With the increase in career orientation among women, number of female employees in on increase. With this, the dual career families have also been on increase. Consequently, one of those family members might face the problem of transfer. This has become a complicated problem to organizations. Consequently other employees may be at disadvantage

Low ceiling careers: –

Some careers do not have scope for much advancement. Employees cannot get promotions despite their career plans and development in such jobs.

Declining Career Opportunities: -Career opportunities for certain categories reach the declining stage due to the influence of the technological or economic factors. Solution for such problem is career shift.

Downsizing/Delayering and careers: – Business process reengineering, technological changes and business environmental factors force the business firms to restructure the organizations by delayering and downsizing. Downsizing activities result in fixing some employees, and degrading some other employees.

Review of literature

(Bardsley 1987) IBM’s career planning workshop focuses on the interests, skills, and contributions inherent in the individual’s current job. Employees study their jobs’ components and learn how to make the work more challenging. In addition, participants learn how jobs evolve from business needs

Leibowitz, Farren, and Kaye (1985) it has been present a model for designing and implementing a career development system. Their guidelines include the following: o State specifics o Tie the program to overall human resource development o Tailor the program to the culture o Build from a conceptual base o Plan long-term approaches, short-term payoff o Design multiple approaches o Co-design and manage the project o Ensure top management support o Publicize accomplishments

Slavenski and Buckner (1988) it conclude their paper with a list of recommendations garnered from the literature and from their own experiences with career development in the workplace. Among their recommendations for persons designing and implementing career development are the following: o Link new programs to other parts of the career development system o Design the program in terms of the specific organizational culture o Think of career development as a process, not a program o Involve line management.

Choong Kwon Lee (2010) It has been described that agency theory is proposed as a framework for explaining the design of IT jobs and career paths. To support this theory, data about knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) were gathered and analyzed from Fortune 500 job listings for the Programmer/Analyst Systems Analyst IT Manager career path. The results indicate that agency theory has significant predictive power over the type and importance of IT KSAs for job sequences along IT career paths. The results have implications for both researchers who are looking for theories that explain IT job design and career path development and managers who are challenged with decisions about how to design IT jobs and manage IT career paths.

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Workspan (sep 2010) According to a recent study, 60% of the 382 polled companies have a career development program in place, and 41% of those use in-house coaches and/or mentors to drive development. The study suggests that people who want coaching and mentoring are better off working in the rich and diverse villages of large corporations. Of the companies that do not have such programs, four-fifths plan to implement one within the next two years.

Joann S. Lublin (Dec 2009) About 44% of individuals age 50 or older plan to postpone retirement, with half of those planning to work at least three years longer than previously expected, concluded a February poll of more than 2,200 U.S. employees by consultants Watson Wyatt Worldwide Inc. “The postponed promotion phenomenon is a reality” in the heavy-manufacturing, media, retailing, financial-services and medical-supply industries, says John Beeson, a principal of Beeson Consulting, which specializes in succession planning and executive development. The assistant director of a midsize nonprofit group expected to snare the executive director’s spot after the executive director retired next January, says Katy Piotrowski, the assistant director’s career counselor in Fort Collins, Colo.

Kimberly A. Eddleston (2003) it has been described that research has uncovered important predictors of managerial career success, the causal relationships between these predictors has not been fully explored. Accordingly, we propose and test a model that establishes a link between individual differences, salient career-related beliefs, career enhancing outcomes and managerial career success. Using path analysis, we found that education and career impatience directly affected willingness to relocate and perceived marketability, which in turn led to more promotions offered and greater exposure to powerful networks. Finally, the number of promotions offered directly affected management level, which in turn affected compensation level. With respect to gender differences, we found that beliefs regarding the efficacy of mentoring positively influenced a woman’s sense of marketability, and like her male counterpart, exposure to powerful networks. However, we also found that for women managers, unlike men, such exposure did not affect the number of promotions they were offered.

Cathleen Benko, Managing Principal of Talent USA (2007) This article introduces mass career customization, a system that encourages a continuous collaboration between employer and employee to design customized career paths, taking into account both the changing needs of the business and employees’ changing lives. Mass career customization is an adaptive model of career progression that offers employees career-long options for keeping their work and personal lives in sync and employers the long-term loyalty of their best and brightest. MCC was first introduced through a 120-participant implementation pilot that began within Deloitte Consulting LLP in 2005 and then continued through a year-long second round pilot with approximately 300 participants in 2006. Findings – Satisfaction with career-life fit improved, in some case sharply. Nearly 90 percent said MCC positively influenced their decision to remain with the organization. Team leaders said the ongoing MCC process was an advantage in staffing new projects with top talent. Client service standards were maintained. Significant savings were achieved, primarily driven by positive impact on retention and associated revenue.

COMPANY – IBM (CAREER PLANNING)

IBM Global Business Services organization offers numerous paths to career success. While most traditional consulting firms offer a single route to a leadership position, they have four career paths that focus on our consulting, sales, project management and technical competencies. This allows their people to succeed by focusing on their strengths and interests in one or more disciplines.

Partner – client management, practice development, engagement sales and delivery

Sales Executive – client relationship and sales

Delivery Executive – project management

Distinguished Engineer – technical capabilities

In addition, as part of a large global organization with multiple business units, our consultants gain access to career opportunities throughout IBM in strategy, marketing, sales, finance and human resources, among many others-something our competitors simply cannot match. In fact, many of our most successful executives have had roles in several organizations within IBM.

A guide for new hires

An early start at career success begins with IBM, their new-hire training program. They make learn how IBM works, how to maximize the contribution to the company, how to successfully navigate within IBM and connect with the colleagues – and have fun in the process.

Planning the career

To help to identify opportunities, construct a skills road map and mark their progress, IBM offers easy-to-navigate career Web sites and tools:

Job role and technical training – In addition to top-notch professional skills, IBM focuses on in-depth industry and technical training to keep you up to date on emerging technologies and skills valued in the marketplace.

Academic learning assistance program – IBM provides assistance for external education in addition to our internal training offerings to help you keep your skills aligned with our business goals.

Learning@IBM Explorer – The Academic Learning Assistance Program is intended to meet identified business needs by paying for many educational expenses for employees at universities and colleges. Participation is limited and selective. Management may limit whether the plan is available to their employees given business needs. If it is available, management may specify additional requirements for their employees to participate.

Tution fee

All three plans under the Academic Learning Assistance Program (DWSP, ICP, SSP) are funded by the business units. Participation is limited and selective. Management may limit whether the plan is available to their employees given business needs. The education expense is charged to the education minor code 0330 and the employee’s division and department. However, each IBM division decides whether to hold the funding at the department, functional, or divisional level.

IBM expects you to apply for all other financial assistance to which you are entitled. Financial assistance includes student aid programs, scholarships, grants, fellowships, Veteran’s Administration benefits, etc.

IBM reserves the right to discontinue any of the Plans in the program or discontinue the program should there be significant business changes.

IBM Foundational Competencies

We identify core competencies that provide the foundation for employee professional growth at IBM. These include:

Adaptability

Client focus

Taking ownership

Communication

Drive to achieve

Teamwork and collaboration

Creative problem solving

Passion for the business

Trustworthiness

IBM’s commitment to people development sets us apart from other employers. From Web applications to mentors to global e-learning to classroom training, IBM’s learning environment enables you to take charge of your skills and knowledge from day one, empowering you to expand your expertise throughout your career.

Analysis

As we know that IBM (International Business Machines) is is a multinational computer, technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, North Castle, New York, United States. IBM is the world’s largest technology company and the second most valuable by global brand (after Coca-Cola). IBM is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software (with a focus on the latter), and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.

IBM company provide Base pay, performance bonuses, awards, commissions and other forms of earnings comprise the cash compensation for employee career planning. It Includes healthcare benefit such as- vision, dental, with two plan options and medical for which there are three plan options. They also provide Sickness & accident income plans, long-term disability plan, travel accident insurance, long-term care insurance and group life insurance plans are available. IBM offers a leading-edge 401(k) plan where employees can contribute up to 80% of eligible compensation each pay-period before taxes and for eligible employees IBM will match up to the first 6% of pay. Employees are eligible for this match after 1 year of service.

Additional program – The employee purchase program allows employees to purchase IBM products at significant discounts off of the suggested retail price. Many IBM locations have special programs like fitness centers, educational courses, career planning centers and award programs.

Conclusion

As per the study we came to know that Career planning is an important step to success in the workplace. Through career planning one selects career goals and the path to these goals which incorporates short-term and long-term career goals,personal goals and constraints.

Short-term planning

Assess your skills, knowledge, values, constraints and interests

Long-term

planning

Identify which new skills and knowledge you want to develop

Research career opportunities

Formulate a careers action plan with contingencies

Up to 5 years ahead

Check the careers action plan for realism

From 5 to 10 years ahead

As we have taken example of career planning in IBM Company, we have seen that the company provides special programs like fitness centers, educational courses, career planning centers and award programs. Through these planning program the employee of the company get the opportunities to have the knowledge of various career opportunities, his priorities etc. They also able to select the career that is suitable to his life styles, preferences, family environment, scope for self-development etc.

So, Career planning program is being designing and implementing goals, plans and strategies to enable the organization to satisfy employee needs while allowing individuals to achieve their career goals. So, due to this career planning and development is necessary to each and every employee in an organization. The need of career planning and development is felt in each and every organization of today’s global world.