MSDM: Developing Employees

Defining Career Development

            Career development is not a one-shot training program or career-planning workshop. Rather. It is an ongoing organized and formalized effort that recognizes people as a vital organizational resource. An organization must make career development a key business strategy if it intends to survive in an increasingly competitive and global business environment.

Career Development: A Consideration of Challenges

Although most businesspeople today agree that their organizations should invest in career development, it is not always clear exactly what form this investment should take. Before putting a career development program

in place, amangement needs to consider three major challenges.

Who Is Responsible?

             The first challenge is deciding who will be ultimately responsible for career development activities. In traditional, bureaucratic organizations development was something done “for” individual employees. For instance, the organization might have an assessment center to identify employees who have the characteristics necessary to hold middle- and upper-management positions. Once identified, these individuals would be groomed through a variety of programs: special project assignments, positions in international divisions, executive training programs, and so on. The individual employee, although certainly not kept in the dark about the company’s plans, would not actively participate in the development decisions.

What’s the Right Amount?

            So far, we have presented career development as a positive way for companies to invest in their human resources. However, too great an emphasis on career enhancement can be detrimental to organizational effectiveness. Employees with an extreme careerist orientation can become more concerned abouttheir image than their performance.

            Managers should also be aware that a career development program can have serious side effects if it fosters unrealistic expectations for advancement.

Diversity and Development

            To meet the career development today’s diverse workforce, companies need to break down the barries to advancement that some employees may face. Another employee group that may need special consideration is dual-career couples. Nearly 80 percent of all couples are working couples. The two-income family is replacing the single-incomefamily as the norm.

            Both couples and organizations can take steps to help deal with dual-career issues. Rather than waiting until a crisis point, it is better if the couple resolves competing career issues by planning their careers and discussing how they will proceed if certain options become available.

Effective Career Development

Creating a development program almost always consist of three phases:

·         Assessing Needs

The assessment phase of career development includes activities ranging from self-assessment to organizationally provided assessment. This kind of clarification helps employees (1) to choose a career that is realistically obtainable and a good fit and (2) to determine the weaknesses they need to overcome to achieve their career goals.

·         Provididng Direction

The direction phases of career deveopment involves determining the type of career that employees want and the steps they must take to realize their career goals. Appropriate direction requires an accurate understanding of one’s current position. Unless the direction phase is based on a through assessment of the current situation, the goals and steps identified may be inappropriate. The two major approaches to career direction are:

ü  INDIVIDUAL CAREER COUNSELING Refers to one-on-one sessions with the goal of helping employees examine their career aspirations.

ü  INFORMATION SERVICES As their name suggests, information services provide career development information to employees. Determining what to do with this information is largely the employee’s responsibility.

Development Phases

The development phases, which involves taking actions to create and increase skills to prepare for future job opportunities, is meant to foster this growth and self-improvement. The most common development programs offered by organizations are:

·         MENTORING is a developmentally oriented relationships between senior and junior colleagues or pears.

·         COACHING Employee coaching consists of ongoing, sometimes spontaneous, meetings between managers and their employees to discuss the employee’s careeer goals and development.

·         JOB ROTATION assigns employees to various jobs so that they acquire a wider base of skills.

·         TUITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS Organizations offer tuition assistance programs to support their employees education and development. Tuition and other costs of educational programs may be entirely covered, partially covered, or covered contingent upon adequate performance in the program.

Employee Respnsibility: Self-Development

We conclude this chapter by examining how to manage your personal career. The new reality is that workers will have to take responsibility for their own careers, or risk obsolescence and stagnation. An initial step in career self-management is determining how you define personal success.

Development Suggestions

These development suggestions can help you and your workers make sure that you are ready for future work-place challenges.

1.      Identify your mission

2.      Keep learning

3.      Develop competencies

4.      Find a mentor

Advancement Suggestions

The development suggestions are fundamental and provide the necessary base, but the advancement suggestions provide the necessary attitudes and organizational presence.

1.      Market yourself

2.      Understand business trends

3.      Keep your resume up to date

4.      Improve your communication skills