In What Ways Can a Human Resources Department Assist in Career Planning?
A career is not something that should be left to each employee; instead it should be managed by the organization to ensure efficient allocation of human and capital resources.
The HR department must take an active role in employee career planning through career education, information and counseling.
These are discussed next.
Career Education
Many employees know very little about career planning. Often they are unaware of the need for and advantages of career planning. And once made aware, they often lack the necessary information to plan their careers successfully.
Personnel departments are suited to solve both of these shortcomings, and they can increase employee awareness through a variety of educational techniques.
Workshops and seminars on career planning increase employee interest by pointing out the key concepts associated with career planning. Workshops help the employees set career goals, identify career paths, and uncover specific career development activities. These educational activities may be supplemented by printing information.
The goals of career information seminar are to help employees better understand how their jobs and careers can contribute to their goals and to identify the roles of employees, their supervisors, and the personnel department in career planning and personal development.
Information on Career Planning
Regardless of the educational strategy the personnel department selects, it should provide employees with other information they need to plan their careers.
Much of this information is already a part of the personnel department’s human resource information system.
For example, job description .and job specification can be valuable to someone who is trying to estimate reasonable career goals at a firm.
Personnel department can identify future job openings through the human resource plan. Personnel specialists can also share their knowledge of potential career plans. The personnel department can also encourage career planning by providing information about alternative career paths.
Career Counseling
To help employees establish career goals and find appropriate career paths, some personnel departments offer career counseling. The career counselor may simply be someone who listens to the employee’s interest and provides the specific job-related information.
Or the counselor may help employees uncover their interests by administering and interpreting aptitude and skill tests.
Regardless of the match between one’s skills and the organization’s career paths,, counselors need to inform employees of likely changes that will affect their occupational choices Career counseling is available to all personnel, especially those who are being moved up, down, or out of the organization.
Career Development
The implementation of career plans requires career development. Career development comprises those personal improvements one undertakes to achieve a career plan. The personnel department may sponsor these actions.
That is career development may be organizational and individual career development.
From an organizational career standpoint, career development involves tracking career paths. In contrast, individual career development focuses on assisting individuals to identify their major career goals and to determine what they need to do to attain these goals.
Each person must accept responsibility for his own career; assess his own interests, skills and values and take the step required to ensure a happy and fulfilling career. It is unwise to leave these jobs to others.
In the case of individual career development, the focus is entirely on the individual and includes his career outside the organization as well as inside.
So while organizational career development looks at individuals filling the needs of the organization, individual career development addresses each individual’s personal work career irrespective of whether this work is performed.
Career development is different from management development. Career development looks at the long term career effectiveness and success of organizational personnel. In contrast, management development focuses on work effectiveness or performance in the immediate time frame.
These two have a common element; management development effort should be compatible with an individual’s career development in the organization. But a successful career program should look forward to developing people for the long-term needs of the organization.
