Career planning

Career planning is a process whereby an individual sets career goals and identifies the means to achieve them. It is an ongoing process which explores persons interests and abilities, strategically plan career goals. According to Schermerborn, Hunt and Osborn,Career planning is a process of systematically matching career goals and individual capabilities with opportunities for their fulfillment.

Process of career planning:The career planning process involves the following steps: 1. Preparation of human resource inventory: It is essential to know the types of existing employees, their status, duties, qualification, age etc. to shoulder the added responsibility and their acceptability to their colleagues. This

information would reveal whether the existing manpower is short of or is in surplus to requirements. If there is a shortage, how many more persons are required and for what positions. 2. Identifying individual career needs: A persons career is highly personal and extremely important element of life. The human resource manager may assist an employees decision-making process. For rendering such help some big organizations provide formal assessment workshops. The objective of this workshop is to help individual to find their career path.

3. Analyzing career opportunities: Knowing that employees have definite career needs, there naturally flows the obligation of specifically charting career paths through the organization and of informing the employees. For identifying the career paths, the job analysis technique may help in discovering multiple lines of advancement to several jobs in different areas. 4. Matching of employees needs with career opportunities: When employees have their career needs and have become aware of organizational career opportunities, the next step is one of alignment of matching the career needs of employees to opportunities offered by the organization, special training and development techniques such as special assignment, planned position rotation and supervisory coaching may used.

5. Formulation and implementation of training and development programme: Methods of training and nature of skills and knowledge to be imparted are generally different, for different classes of employees. The emphasis may be on improving leadership qualities, human rotations and conceptual skills for semi-skilled workers or supervisors, executives and managers. 6. Review of career plan: For effective career planning, a periodical review should be undertaken so that the employees may know in which direction the organization is moving, what changes are likely to take place and what

resources and skills he needs to adapt the changing organizational requirements.

Career stages
Donald E. Super has suggested 5 stages also known as career development cycle or career life cycle, through which individual go:

Exploration Stage

Establishment stage

Mid-career stage

Late-career stage

Decline Stage

1. Exploration stage: This is the career stage that usually ends in ones mid twenties as one makes a transition from college to work. In the exploration stage, a person forms his attitudes towards work. At this stage, the person develops some perceptions about the nature of work and work environment.

The decisions regarding career choices are influenced by a number of factors such as social influence, financial resources, interest of teachers, parents. 2. Establishment stage: Establishment stage of career is the period in which one begins to search for work and gets ones first appointment. This period is characterized by making mistakes, learning from those mistakes and assuming increase responsibilities. One does not reach the summit at this stage, as he rarely gets a chance to handle powerful assignments. It is like going uphill, spending lot of time and energies all the while.

3. Mid-career stage: Mid-career stage is a stage that is typically reached between the age of 35 and 50. This stage is marked by a continuous improvement in performance, leveling off in performance depending on the nature of the individual and the organization. Many people do not face their first secure career dilemma until they reach the mid-career stage. 4. Late career stage: In this stage one relaxes a bit and plays the part of an elder states person. Person becomes experienced one who can train to younger employees. For those who have stagnated during the previous stage they face reality that they are no longer required to run the race, it is betterto redirect the energies to family friends and hobbies.

5. Decline stage: It is the last phase of career in which an individual thinks of retiring from the job. The achievements of a long career and the frustrations that go along with that phase are left behind and one has to make adjustments and get along with people and things. All these stages represent different career needs and interests of individual.