Preparing a Career Development Plan

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Chapter 5: Expanding the Talent Pool: Recruitment and Careers: 5.4a The Goal: Matching the Needs of the Organization to the Needs of Employees Book Title: Managing Human Resources Printed By: Cedric Turner ([email protected]) © 2016 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

5.4a The Goal: Matching the Needs of the Organization to the Needs of Employees

A career development program should be viewed as a dynamic process that matches the needs of the organization with the needs of employees as those needs change. Each party has a distinct role to play in the process.

The Employee’s Role

Because having a successful career involves creating your own career path—not just following a path that has been established by the organization—employees need to take an active role in planning their careers, especially in light how fast the world of work is changing. This includes identifying their knowledge, skills, abilities, interests, and values and seeking out information about career options in conjunction with their managers. Managers can help with the process by offering their subordinates continual feedback about their performance and providing them with self-assessment tools, training, and information about the organization and possible career paths within it. General Motors, for example, has prepared a career development guide that groups jobs by fields of work such as engineering, manufacturing, communications, data processing, financial, HR, and scientific. These categories give employees an understanding of the career possibilities in the various fields and logical ways to move from one area into another.

The Organization’s Role: Establishing a Favorable Career Development Climate

Ideally, senior line managers and HR department managers should work together to design and implement a career development system that reflects the goals and culture of the organization. Says Karyn Maynard of the Container Store: “There is constant, consistent communication with management on growth opportunities. Rather than follow one career path, the company works to leverage employees’ talents for new and different roles, as well as giving them as much exposure as possible to other positions and responsibilities in the company to ensure they’re challenged.”

Blending the Goals of Individual Employees with the Goals of the Organization

As Figure 5.8 shows, the organization’s goals and needs should be linked with the individual career needs of its employees in a way that improves the effectiveness of workers and their satisfaction as well as achieves the firm’s strategic objectives. For example, if the technology of a business is changing and new skills are needed, will the firm retrain its employees to meet this need or hire new talent? Is there growth, stability, or decline in the number of employees needed? If employees don’t have a good understanding the goals of their firms, they could end up setting career goals that are a poor match for the firm.

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Figure 5.8

Blending the Needs of Individual Employees with the Needs of Their Organizations

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Chapter 5: Expanding the Talent Pool: Recruitment and Careers: 5.4a The Goal: Matching the Needs of the Organization to the Needs of Employees Book Title: Managing Human Resources Printed By: Cedric Turner ([email protected]) © 2016 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

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