People
development and growth is as important for individuals as it is for businesses.
Some individuals have an inborn talent, whereas some others do not.
Notwithstanding, also innate talent to be transformed in expertise, competence
and professionalism, needs to be nurtured and further developed.
The
harsh competition nowadays characterizing every market and the frequency
employers are confronted with financial downturn and slowdown periods have given
employers to understand that the qualities of their human capital are crucial
in order for these to gain competitive edge. To meet their ambitions and
expectations on the other hand individuals look for jobs enabling them to fully
express and use their capabilities, qualities and skills.
Especially when the labour
market circumstances are particularly adverse, individuals in general and young
generations in particular to dramatically increase their chances to find a job
enabling them to express their personal capabilities and meet their ambitions should
seriously consider expanding their knowledge and competency.
All
in all, it can be argued that talent, expertise, skills, capabilities and excellence
are and should indeed nowadays be regarded as extremely important qualities by both
individuals and employers; albeit more often than not the latter seem to be
more genuinely sensitive to the development of people filling management and executive
positions, rather than to the growth of the individuals filling other types of roles.
What career planning is
The
idea of career can effectively be expressed by means of the metaphor of career
as a ladder. The concept can be associated with the process of progressively and
constantly enhance and improve personal and professional abilities, skills and
capabilities in order to attain a pre-identified objective, which can be broadly
identified with self-advancement. Career planning can be defined as the
systematic and structured approach enabling individuals to accurately and
craftily plan, by their own initiative or by mutual agreement with their
employer, their professional progression, development and growth.
Individuals who have identified
clear personal career objectives, regardless of their current role but
preferably in line with it, are in a position to develop a specific plan of
action enabling them to attain or facilitate the attainment of their purpose. These
initiatives clearly need to be both consistent with and supportive of the
career path an individual aims at pursuing. A person aiming at embracing the HR
profession, for instance, should in the first instance try to gain the relevant
qualification and join the local accredited professional body.
In
some instances, this choice can prove to be rather challenging, but needs to be
invariably far-sighted. A doctor of medicine, for example, might aim at
becoming a paediatrician or an orthopaedic, a dentist or a cardiologist; whereas
a lawyer may orientate towards a specialization, for instance, in criminal, civil,
international, tax or employment law. Yet, a doctor of medicine still needs to
decide whether s/he wants to be a surgeon or a generalist, whereas a lawyer needs
to decide whether to point towards a barrister or a solicitor career. An
attorney in the US does not need to make such a decision, but still needs to determine
whether s/he wants to become, for instance, a judge or a district attorney.
Individuals
who have decided to pursue a career in HR may aim at specializing, for example,
in reward, learning and development, employee relations, talent management or
change management. In the event these should also aim at filling a management
or business partner role, these should also seriously consider investing in,
for instance, project or risk management and gaining a relevant qualification. Negotiations
and communication abilities and the art of being persuasive can be nowadays
regarded as particularly important qualities of modern managers and HR
specialists; gaining or enhancing these personal qualities may hence prove to
be extremely significant. Regrettably, not many people are approaching their
career planning in such a structured fashion, but doing it may prove to be particularly
productive.
When making such decisions,
notwithstanding, individuals should not only consider their ambitions and
preferences, but should also try to objectively pinpoint whether they genuinely
have the potential, strength and features necessary to attain their desired career
objectives.
In
those cases in which career planning is activated on an employer initiative,
this should be developed so as to balance individual aspirations and career
objectives with organizational needs. This clearly entails an employer investment
so that organizations should take extra care when assessing and identifying the
people on which focusing their resources and efforts. To assess individual potential
and aptitudes employers habitually seek external professional advice; internal managers’
and colleagues’ feedback, however, may also help them to make accurate
predictions as to the likeliness that an individual may succeed.
Individuals
usually aim at filling management or highly specialized positions; notwithstanding,
people are genuinely satisfied when performing compelling jobs giving them the
opportunity to express their ability and the required latitude to make
decisions.
Career
planning developed within organizations is not necessarily, and let alone
exclusively, intended to develop individuals already holding management
positions. It is, more in general, aiming at identifying, according to
individuals aptitudes, aspirations and disposition, the most suitable
initiatives enabling them to meet their desired career objectives.
Individuals
are no more longing for just a job, but rather for compelling, absorbing and
interesting roles, whereas employers are growingly interested in accomplished
and assertive people capable to properly and effectively fill a whole range of
positions considered of paramount importance for the success of their business.
Career planning essentially enable both employers and employees to fulfil their
expectations. Irrespective of the circumstance that plans may lead or otherwise
to a management position, career planning unquestionably is a process providing
individuals practical opportunities to higher levels of responsibility.
Career
planning can indeed prove to also be a powerful means to an end, namely that of
retaining and engaging individuals. In fact, in addition to its contribution to
employer branding, by contributing to provide individual intrinsic benefits from
the job itself it also proves to be an effective component of non-financial
reward. The plan of action developed by employers and individuals, to ensure that
the latter attains the desired objectives, should imply a series of practical
activities, aiming at reinforcing individual sense of belonging, participation
and ultimately loyalty.
Career
planning can be in many respects regarded as a pre-stage of succession
planning. Despite it is not necessarily intended to nurture managerial
capabilities and help employer to fill future executive positions, its early
implementation could reveal tremendously important also to this extent.
Organizational approach to career planning
design and development
Career planning can and has
to be essentially intended as a systematic and structured approach to people development.
Without an accurate and meticulous preparation, it is highly unlikely that the intended
objectives might be attained in practice. Yet, since the process typically
unfolds over a great length of time, it can be said that career planning can be
in many respects tantamount to business strategy.
Direction
The
first stage of the process is in fact concerned with the direction the
individual and the employer are expected to go to. Both organizations and
individuals need to have crystal clear ideas as to their expectations and of how
these will be met, whereas it is a precise employer responsibility to ensure
that the identified final goal is consistent with the business aim and that the
organizational context can actually enable the individual to develop and attain
the objective agreed.
Timescale
Once
the direction has been identified it is crucially important to determine the timescale,
that is to say the different stages of the path and the deadline by which each
stage of the programme should be completed.
Assessment
and check
The
assessment and check activity is basically concerned with ensuring that throughout
the process the barriers eventually arising are timely removed. This activity
is extremely significant in that it is aimed at averting later disappointment.
In the event, for instance, some barriers should actually require additional
efforts, resources and time to be removed, this may imply the initial schedule to
be modified or the overall process to be reviewed and amended accordingly. This
phase is also particularly beneficial in that it practically enables employers
and individuals to regularly assess the technical and behavioural improvements
made by the employees concerned.
Evaluation
of final result
The
final stage of the process is represented by the assessment of the final
results achieved. Albeit the necessary adjustments have been timely introduced
and implemented throughout the process, it might still be possible that the
final result does not exactly coincide with that initially planned. This stage enables
thus employers and individuals to identify what eventually went wrong and what
should have been done to avert the identified problems to arise. A typical
side-activity of the final stage is represented by the compilation of a lessons
learned log and of a final report.
Assign
each individual a mentor
Each
development programme should be supervised by one or more individuals appointed
by the employer. The individual identified to closely look after the employee should
act as a mentor and coach and should hence be able, also from the technical
viewpoint, to understand whether the employee actually points in the right
direction. This role is particularly important to secure the successful outcome
of the overall process. In addition to provide support throughout the programme
and constantly assess individual achievements, the person in charge of coaching
employees also needs to provide employees feedback and identify the most
suitable opportunities available within the firm for the individuals’ development.
Does career planning pay off?
Carefully
prepared career planning definitely enables employers to gain a whole range of advantages.
One of them is definitely represented by the massive savings employers attain
in terms of sourcing talents.
Once
the need for some positions emerges, employers can post jobs internally and reach
with the interested individuals, according to their personal aspirations, goals
and interests, a win-win agreement enabling employees to pursue meaningful career
objectives, whilst ensuring employers to properly fill key positions. Employers
would also derive a considerable benefit sensibly enhancing their attraction
and retention practices.
Leibowitz et al (1986)
identified seven different categories of mutual benefits for employees and employers:
improved skills in career management, retention of quality staff, enhancement
of communication between managers and direct reports, increased effectiveness
of performance appraisal meetings, deepened individual understanding of the
business and enhanced employer branding.
Introducing
these programmes within organizations can help employers to foster a culture
based on excellence and self-advancement and to convey the message that
employers identify and offer individuals opportunities for development and
growth by virtue of their qualities, commitment and behaviour, that is to say whether
and only whether these have showed to have what it takes to deserve the employer’
trust and confidence.
Employers
should clearly get the message across that this opportunity can only be offered
to individuals really keen to grow and ready to take responsibility. Developing
and sustaining a corporate culture endorsing these values may also enable
employers to establish an even clearer and more transparent psychological
contract: we promote and favour personal and professional growth but you have
to show that you deserve it, have what it takes and are ready to make the extra
efforts this requires.
What employers need to do for the process to
be flawless
The
successful outcome of career planning is essentially based on the mutual
efforts of employees and employers. Notwithstanding, there are a number of
activities that employers can perform to favour the positive outcome of the process.
First
and foremost, organizations should put individuals in a position to cover
demanding jobs and experience different types of situations and challenges; to
this extent job rotation can absolutely help. This will clearly contribute to
expand, in a relatively short period of time, individuals experience and help them
to develop a better understanding of how complex a role can prove to be and of how
important is for people holding responsibility within an organization
frequently and promptly trying to come up with different, new and sometime even
original solutions.
The
business management clearly also plays a particularly significant role.
Individuals, especially in their first work experience, tend to model
themselves on their managers so that the circumstance these need to have good
leadership skills and abilities can be taken as axiomatic. Managers also need
to have excellent communication skills and be able and willing to provide
constant feedback, counsel and positively influence individuals’ career.
By
contrast, employers should utterly avert making to employees promises they will
not be able to keep. The downsides this irresponsible behaviour is likely to
cause may prove to be severe and irreversible.
Posting
jobs internally definitely represents a practice enabling individuals to pinpoint
the types of roles, requirements and qualifications the employer is interested in.
Is career planning worth the efforts?
Career planning clearly represents
for employers a demanding activity. The involvement of managers and specialists
and, before that, ensuring that these have all of the skills and abilities necessary
to effectively contribute to the growth of other individuals clearly represent
a daunting feat for employers. Analysing the return obtained by the execution
of such a process is hence particularly important.
The
reporting activity carried out at the end of each process can actually enable
employers to assess the value of the final results obtained, also against the direct
and indirect costs incurred to implement it.
Individuals approach to career planning
development
Individuals
aiming at developing a career planning by themselves need a fortiori to scrupulously
follow a methodical and systematic approach. To this extent, these can have
recourse to a series of online services, self-assessment exercises and tools,
or benefit of the careers advice service offered by local universities.
As
suggested by Merrison (2012), the process of planning for self-development and advancement
should be mainly based on three crucial tenets, which need to be considered
throughout the process: informed, systematic and realistic. The approach
proposed by the Open University to career planning is based on the DOTS model
developed by Law and Watts (1977) and is composed of four stages: know
yourself, explore opportunities, decide what to do and take action. All of
these activities need to be carefully and accurately performed.
Know yourself
Once again, the metaphor of
career planning as business strategy can help to explain the correct approach
to it. The first stage consists in determining and hence comparing where you
are now with where you would like to be. As for business strategy, everything
starts with this type of gap analysis. This is clearly also the time when
individuals have to define how to get where they would like to go.
This
phase of the process is essentially concerned with the definition of what individuals
like and enjoy, what skills these would like to use and what type of employer may
be interested, insofar as paying them, in all of that. It is crucially
important being both realistic and focused on the identified goal and
objective.
At this
stage, individuals also need to objectively take heed of the constraints which may
prevent them attaining their desired goal, such as the impossibility to:
relocate, travel too far or work during unsocial hours (Merrison, 2012).
Explore opportunities
This phase basically
requires individuals to match their interests and wants with those of a
potential employer. Safe in the knowledge that their skills and expectations should
be regarded as useful by an employer and help this to achieve its intended
objectives. Professional bodies, job centres and job sites can definitely help
in the process.
Decide what to do
When deciding what really an
individual would like to do, this should take into consideration that Rome was
not built in a day. Should hence be adopted the jigsaw approach; before
hopefully having the full picture every piece is added at a different time.
This clearly requires efforts and sacrifices, such as working on a voluntary
basis, filling entry level positions in different environments and under
different circumstances.
Take action
This
stage is directly linked to the previous one in that it aims at underscoring
the importance of work experience, which in some cases is considered as a
mandatory prerequisite, whereas in some others as a distinct advantage. Working
experiences also enable individuals to find out whether they are comfortable in
a given working environment and whether the real reality matches their plans on
paper. Work experiences are indeed also important, for instance, to build up
contacts and receive advice, reference letters and information about different
opportunities.
Career
planning developed on individual initiative is not that different in scope from
that agreed between an employer and an employee. The main difference being that
what an individual plans by him/herself may not necessarily meet employers
demand. That is why individuals aiming at planning for their future career and
development need to be focused and concentrated on their objective and gather
as much information as they can.
Could
not be more appropriate what Alessandro Manzoni (1806) wrote in the poem In morte di Carlo Imbonati: “from your
final aim never turn your eyes.”
Longo, R., (2012), How to develop career planning programmes; Milan: HR Professionals [online].
Useful links for self-assessment
Windmills
Life Fitness Check - http://www.windmillsonline.co.uk/interactive/
National
Career Service - https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/tools/Pages/default.aspx
Prospects planner (for
graduate) - http://www.prospects.ac.uk/links/Pplanner
