Career Planning within Organizations |
Career planning is now one of the most important elements of human resource management. Paradoxically, it is also among the most neglected and least developed in many companies.
The initial idea sounds convincing. Outline a path that tracks the progress of all the organization’s professionals, enabling them to be fully aware of current opportunities and future growth possibilities that can be attained within the organization.
This strategy has proved successful in retaining high potential individuals whose future appears to lie within the organization. Once employees have a clear idea of the rules of the game, they will be prepared to invest in the development that best suits their purposes with a view to moving up the career ladder.
Career planning also creates a climate of transparency and impartiality for all. A well-structured plan should strive to maintain a philosophy of fairness and equality of opportunity.
STRUCTURING THE CAREER PLAN
The cornerstone of any career plan is a competency model that will be used to shape the job profile. Competencies are those observable and habitual characteristics shown by individuals who successfully perform their responsibilities.
Competencies comprise two principle components: knowledge and behavior. No job profile can be effectively drawn up without the key technical knowledge for each position being defined. The resulting technical profile is then complemented with those behaviors that each particular company wishes to emphasize, thereby giving the “ideal” profile.
The next step is to structure an evaluation process for the respective competences. This serves to identify those competencies already held by employees and highlight any breaches between the current occupant’s profile and the ideal version.
The results not only help employees compare themselves against the profile for their current job, but also to gain a clear perspective of what is sought further up the hierarchy as well as in other horizontal positions.
A key factor behind the success of this program is the undertaking of a completely objective evaluation process. However, once discrimination enters the equation or the misrepresentation of information in the belief that subsequent pay increases can be manipulated, the system is doomed to failure.
The next challenge is to establish the means of working with employees in the development of their competencies to ensure the continuance of their career plan and, ultimately, its success. Various options are available, including coaching, feedback, training, etc.
Companies need to pay particular attention as to how they manage career plans. Each development curve is different. Young professionals, for example, need continuous feedback as a consequence of the high expectations usually harbored at that age. But challenges and rewards for achievements also need to be incorporated.
On the other hand, their more mature colleagues seek greater responsibility and financial stability.
CONCLUSIONS
Guidelines can be of great help in steering employees along their career plan and towards professional growth. Nevertheless, individual responsibility should not be overlooked. No success can be achieved without the required drive and capacity. The company’s contribution consists of clear definitions and transparent rules of play.
The mere fact of having a career plan brings a series of benefits for the organization (and its employees) such as those analyzed above. While it would be a mistake to think that setting up career planning will ensure the long-term retention of human talent within an organization, it does at least ensure that while talent remains within the company, their skills are fully exploited for the benefit of all.
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