Till recently, employees expected to join an organisation and stay with it throughout their career period or for a longer duration. However, this is history now. Some employees (particularly, young entrants) still assume to be away from being ever affected by attritions as they are performing well and adding value to the organisations they are working with. However, this is a big misbelieve in today’s competitive world. The rising competition, technological advancements, persistent restructuring and downsizing have rather become common phenomena today; high performance can no longer protect an employee from being dismissed. People instead have begun to move on whenever an opportunity arises, instead of considering the traditional job boundaries. Experts foretell that full-time careers will not be the norm any longer. Often career planning insists employees to become proactive by anticipating both problems and opportunities and establishing their career objectives, whilst also examining them thoroughly.
Career planning and progression encompasses two processes, namely, career planning and career management. While career planning is employee-oriented, career management is organisation-oriented. Though career management is considered an integral part of HR planning, both do not exist or are incorporated in many organizations. Career planning and progression should be referred to as a procedure through which the skills and interests of employees can be aligned with the needs of the organisation. The career management should be designed in a strategic manner that it is able to understand the demand of skill set needed by the strategic business objectives of an organisation. Career planning and progression also helps in ascertaining that the organisation has a competitive and educated team force. Today, organisations and employees pay more attention to career planning and progression simply because of the following reasons
- Employees are more concerned about the quality of their life
- AA pressures and Equal Employment Opportunity legislation
- Rising employee needs and level of education
- Transition of workers from vertical to lateral careers
- Responsibility of organisations to give it back to its employees
Career Stages
The needs and expectations change as an individual moves through different stages of his or her career.
Following are the five stages of career in an individual’s life.
Apprenticeship Stage
When young professionals holding technical knowledge enter an organisation without knowing the organisation’s demands and expectations, they need to work closely with senior level of managers. Subsequently, the relationship that develops between the two is an Apprenticeship stage.
Advancement Stage
This stage arrives when the employees turn 30 until 45 years of age. Employees are less bothered about safety and more about their achievements, esteem and autonomy in the advanced stage.
Maintenance Stage
This stage is marked by employees’ efforts to balance out their achievements of the past. They are expected to mentor the employees under apprenticeship. Therefore, a mentor relationship is the relationship an experienced employee has with the junior employee, and this relationship further contributes to effective job performance as well as retention.
Strategic Thinking Stage
This stage involves giving a shape to the direction of the organisation. This may not necessarily be undertaken by the Chief Executive of the organisation alone, but can also be a joint initiative of a set of employees.
Retirement Stage
This stage offers an opportunity to a high-level senior employee to experience self-actualisation by pursuing those activities which were impossible to pursue during their career period, such as painting, gardening, etc.
When we talk about individual career planning, it basically indicates that an employee should be able to critically assess his or her vocational or personal interests, personal objectives, career objectives, and personal ability levels.
Not just the employees, but it also becomes the responsibility of the HR department in every organisation to acknowledge the significance of career planning and progression to satisfy both individual and organisational requirements. If the HR department understands and recognises the organisation’s future needs of manpower and training and development avenues, it can effectively promote career planning and progression for the employees in the organisation.
Career Progression Factors
An individual employee should own the responsibility of his or her own career progression, to enjoy smooth and optimal career headway. Factors, if considered, can lead to successful career growth and progression include performance, exposure, qualifications, employer reputation, favouritism, mentoring, ingratiation, development, international experience, language skills, computer skills, networking, objective setting, financial planning skills, golf and appearance.
Poor performance of employees rarely make them considered for any kind of training and development opportunities, promotions or international assignments. If the employee wishes to succeed in his or her career, he or she should become known to top management or key decision makers through best performance, presentations, report writing and active involvement in training and development programs. There exists a strong correlation between the employee’s earnings and the university he or she attended. Some employers assign a ‘star’ reputation to high potential employees; getting the right job at the right organisation is very crucial to achieving success and long-term employability in career. Favouritism is another component found in many organisations where a majority of board of directors are either family members or known people. Successful managers generally have a mentor who helps them advance their career by advising them periodically, instructing them and opening career opportunities for them. With the help of mentoring, the manager develops better skills, self-confidence and gives an exemplary performance to the organisation. Mentoring encourages organisations to capitalise and indulge in diversity by looking in for talent, in addition to providing a structure for the development and progression of all employees. Besides, not only does it help employees to imbibe corporate values but mentoring also enriches employee job satisfaction. It also acts as a safeguard for women against gender discrimination and are treated equal to men at all levels.
However, even today in many organisations, women and minorities are not included in mentoring relationships, as the latter is recurrently based on personal relationships developed outside office. Ingratiation, on the other hand, is perceived as an effective strategy for career boost, particularly when it is linked with competence. Development refers to the extension of knowledge and skills that makes employees more important and needed to the organisation. Even international experience adds to success in one’s career, especially in cases of one’s aspiration to acquire a position in top management.
The globalisation of business and its further development seeks managers to have a good command over English and a couple of more languages as competency requires. In order to attain a competitive edge, having computer knowledge is very essential and therefore, high skilled employees need to be wary of technology. Networking is again a very important element for employees to be able to build a good network who can help them advance their career. In order to be a successful career planner, the manager should be focused on its objectives and the approach towards achieving those objectives; they are self-motivated and self initiators. Employees are aware of job insecurity in today’s rapidly changing environment and hence hold the sense of financial planning. Golf course is at the epicentre of business where a majority business deals come to a conclusion, and hence is rather used as the board room in today’s era. Also appearance plays a very key role in compensation and success in career to the employees.
