What do we mean by Career Management?
Arnold (1997) defines it as all “attempts made to influence the career development of one or more people” (this may include various formal/informal activities such as, training and development courses, assessment centres, coaching, mentoring, career counselling etc.)
What is the effect of changes in career management on HR planning?
Career management can be handled as a form of partnership between the organization and the employee. It seems important to underline here that organizational career management and career self-management are not mutually exclusive; indeed the former may help to promote the latter (Preston & Sturges, 2003). However, it is argued that this balance between organizational and individual responsibility for career management has NOW shifted to a position where the onus for managing the career now rests with the individual (Preston & Sturges 2003). So, employees are the ones mainly responsible for their continuous improvement through various activities, which will promote their career. Yet, my question is, how will this be achieved, without the appropriate resources? How can employees enrich their knowledge, attend training programs, get career-related information or even labour market information? If the organization is not “near by” to support these efforts, how will employees pursue their career path, or ever be loyal/committed to their employer? So in my point of view HR planning must provide the required resources for career self-management and reward the employees who actually succeed to further their own careers. Employees will definitely appreciate the organization’s guidance but still feel autonomous and free to pursue certain personal goals – always supporting the organization’s best interest.
How has HR planning in these areas (employee assignments and opportunities, competencies, employee behaviours, motivation) changed to take into account changes in the concept of careers then?
Organizational career management activities are currently different in that employers have stepped away from the “career for life” perspective and are now more inclined to provide employees with skills and experience which are “transferable” to other work settings.
What may have nowadays changed in terms of organizational career management is the emphasis of its activities, in that many employers claim that they are now offering their staff ‘employability’, rather than a career for life, in other words the acquisition of skills and experience which will enable them to move jobs as and when necessary (Preston & Sturges 2003).
So, first of all HR planning, shall adopt recruitment and selection (internal and external) strategies that taking under consideration the “employability” tendency in the labour market; potential and existing employees will be attracted to fill in a job vacancy that suits their “ideal” career path and organizations shall select candidates that are aware of the fact that skills and experience are no longer static, they are transferable form one work setting to another instead. When it comes to Training & Development, again the principle of “employability” is of crucial importance. There is a huge debate in this area; is training supposed to fulfil individual learning needs or organizational goals? The ideal would be to have a merge between these two aspects, but in order to keep this in a realistic frame, organizations may not be able to afford training programs that are not directly related to organizational goals!
In terms of performance management, H/R planning shall measure and manage performance not exclusively based upon the organizational goals but also take into account the contextual aspects of each job. Finally in terms of rewards, H/R planning can facilitate the achievement of the desired “employability” by providing facilitators of career self-management. Such “rewards” could motivate more and more employees to self-manage their careers, always supported by their organization.
Even though “employability” implies that at a certain stage, employees will leave the organization, they stand a better chance to stay in the organization that promotes “employability,” and keeps the up to date market wise. Further “employability,” if actually promoted by most organizations, this means more and more qualified employees in the labour market.
