Career Management
Career Management is strategic planning and active management of an individual’s activities and engagements in the jobs one undertakes within the course of his or her life for better fulfillment, growth and financial stability.
What is Career Management?
Career management is a process of planning which enables employees to plan, understand and develop their personal goals, career skills and interests, and to implement these skills and interests both effectively and efficiently within the organization as well as outside the organization (i.e. when they leave the firm or company).
Career Management can also be defined as the combination of structured planning and the active management choice of one's own professional career
Objectives of Career Management
Career Management programs are surrounded by a number of below human resource management activities with subsequent objectives:
1. Helping employees to improve their performance – Career Management programs aim to encompass employees in setting their goals and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. It enables employers to provide necessary training to their employees. This is mainly accomplished by establishing a process of feedback and discussion into the performance management systems of organizations.
2. Clarifying available career options – Employees are informed about career options available within the organization through career management programs. It helps employees with the identification of their skills and other qualities that are needed for present and future jobs. Most of the career management programs focus on employees’ career plans upon the organization, thereby enhancing their commitment to the organization. While doing this, career paths are developed that indicate mobility in various directions in the organization for employees.
3. Orienting the aspiration of employees with organizational objectives – Through career management programs, many organizations strive to assist employees in their career planning. Furthermore, career management programs focus on improving the matching of right jobs with the right employees. An evaluation of the skillsets and competencies of employees could assist in allotting them the positions that suit them better. An organization’s operational effectiveness can be improved through the implementation of practices such as transfers and rotation. Career management programs can also result in depletion in the need to hire externally as employees with the needed skills and capabilities are revealed via their career planning activities.
Elements of Career Management
The 3 common elements of career management are listed below:
1. Career Planning – Career planning process of self-evaluating, becoming aware of opportunities, constraints, choices and consequences of career goals done by a person to have a strong career path. It is done in order to provide the direction, timing and sequence of steps to accomplish a particular career goal. This process is undertaken by both supervisors as well as their employees. Career Planning is a continuous process in which an employee is responsible for self-assessment, identifying career interests and development needs. As part of self-analyzing process, the employee analyzes his or her strengths, weaknesses, skills and experiences. The process of career planning can be more effective if done jointly the employee and the organization. The organization has an interest in successful career planning as it requires a constant supply of adequately trained employees to do jobs at every level of the organization.
2. Career Pathing – Career maps or paths are mapped out for the employees based on the career expectations of the employees which were identified in the previous step of career planning. Career paths arrange a sequence of posts to which employees are often promoted, transferred and rotated. Each employee may have loads of career pathing options. These career paths should be established by an organization’s career development system. These career paths communicate to employees specific step-by-step objectives and identify possible role models within the organization. While setting career paths in an organization, employees and their supervisors must be realistic in terms of their potential and the time frames in which the career goals captured in the career paths can be accomplished.
3. Career Development – The term career development refers to the process of matching the requirements of the business with the career goals of the employees. In other words, it is the process of helping individuals in planning their careers in relation with an organization’s strategic direction and business requirements. Career development is an ongoing process. One of the organization’s major roles is to provide training and development opportunities to their employees in order to meet the requirements for movement along the career path.
Benefits of Career Management in an Organization
1. Staffing inventories – Effective career management makes sure that there is a continuous supply of professional, technical and managerial talent for the fulfillment of organizational goals.
2. Staffing from within – Most organizations like to stimulate employees from within the institution for available positions because of many potential benefits. It requires a strong career management program that ensures effective performance of employees in their new jobs in order to recruit from within the organization.
3. Solving staffing problems –If the career management is done effectively, then it may serve as a remedy for certain staffing problems. Rate of employee turnover can be decreased because of the feeling that there is existence of opportunity within the organization. It might be easier to go for new recruitment as the organization develops its employees and provides better career opportunities to them.
4. Satisfying employees’ needs – The present generation of employees is very different from those of past generation in terms of their set of requirements or needs. Higher levels of education have raised the career expectations of employees and many of them hold their employers or supervisors directly responsible in providing better opportunities for realization of their career expectations.
5. Enhanced motivation – As development along the career path is directly related to job better performance, an employee is more likely to be motivated and perform better than before in order to achieve his or her career goals.
6. Employment equity or fairness – It is important to use fair practices in the organization while recruiting the employees. Effective career management in an organization maintains fairness and equity while recruiting, selecting and placing an employee in order to eliminate discriminatory practices concerning promotions and career mobility. This type of affirmative programs contains formal provisions that might be helpful for enhancement of the career mobility of women and other minorities groups emphasizing employment equity and fairness.
