PART THREE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER / T TenManaging Careers / 10
Lecture Outline
Strategic Overview
The Basics of Career Management
Careers Today
Career Development Today
Roles in Career Planning and Development
The Employee’s Role
The Employer’s Role
Innovative Corporate Career Development Initiatives
Managing Promotions and Transfers
Making Promotion Decisions
Handling Transfers
Enhancing Diversity Through Career Development
Sources of Bias and Discrimination in Promotion Decisions
Taking Steps to Enhance Diversity
Career Management and Employee Commitment
The New Psychological Contract
Commitment-Oriented Career Development Efforts
Retirement
APPENDIX FOR CHAPTER 10
Making Career Choices
Finding the Right Job
/ In Brief: This chapter gives good advice and tools for managing careers. It also covers the issue of building communications with employees through guaranteed fair treatment programs and employee discipline. Proper handling of dismissals and separations, including retirement are explored.
Interesting Issues: In recent years, many employees have taken early retirement, but many experts believe that the next generation will have to retire later in order to continue to fund the retirement of those retiring now. Social Security has already increased the ages at which future generations will be eligible for benefits. Management will need to find ways to stimulate career interests of older employees to keep them motivated and productive. Firms will also need to find ways to ease labor shortages by attracting those who may have already retired.
ANNOTATED OUTLINE
I. The Basics of Career Management
A. Careers Today
Career planning and development is emphasized more strongly today than in the past. Values have changed; there are more two-career families. These employees often seek work alternatives with more opportunities for living a balanced life. Table 10-1 outlines the differences.
B. Career Development Today
Career development used to focus on the employee’s future with that firm. The emphasis now is on facilitating self-analysis, development, and management.
Ø / NOTES / Educational Materials to UseII. Roles in Career Planning and Development
A. The Employee’s Role - An individual must accept responsibility for his/her own career; assess his/her own interests, skill, and values; and take the steps required to ensure a happy and fulfilling career. Finding a mentor who can be a sounding board is often helpful. Mentoring programs can be informal or formal.
When You’re On Your Own, HR for Line Managers and Entrepreneurs: Employee Career Development – There are several things that the manager can do to support his or her subordinates’ career development needs.
B. The Employer’s Role - Employers can support career development efforts in many ways. Table WW suggests several organizational career planning practices. The means for helping to further an employee’s career depends on the length of time the employee has been with the firm. Life cycle career management stages include:
1. realistic job previews that describe both the attractions and possible pitfalls to help candidates gauge whether the job is indeed for them.
2. challenging initial jobs
3. career-oriented appraisals to help employees review and practically channel their careers.
4. job rotation, formal job postings, promotion from within policies and training so that employees can experience a selection of challenging jobs.
5. pre-retirement counseling and transition policies to aid those at the end of their careers
6. Mentoring Programs – Mentoring can have positive effects on employees’ careers, including faster promotions and salary progression and reduced anxiety; but it can be a two-edged sword.
C. Innovative Corporate Career Development Initiatives - The author provides a list of 8 innovative initiatives which include provide each employee with an individual budget, offer on-site or online career centers, encourage role reversal, establish a corporate campus, help organize “career success teams,” provide career coaches, provide career planning workshops, and computerized on- and offline programs.
D. Improving Productivity Through HRIS: Career Planning and Development – Career planning should not be isolated from performance appraisals, training and other HRIS activities. Integration of career planning with development allows both employees and supervisors to get an overview of employee strengths, weaknesses and interests.
Ø / NOTES / Educational Materials to UseIII. Managing Promotions and Transfers
A. Making Promotion Decisions – Promotions usually provide opportunities to reward the exceptional performance of tested and loyal employees. However, unfairness, arbitrariness, or secrecy can diminish the effectiveness of the promotion process for all concerned.
1. Decision 1: Is Seniority or Competence the Rule? Today’s focus on competitiveness favors competence. However, union agreements and civil service regulations often emphasize seniority.
2. Decision 2: How Should We Measure Competence? Define the job, set standards, use one or more appraisal tools to record the employee’s performance, and use a valid procedure for predicting a candidate’s potential for future performance.
3. Decision 3: Is the Process Formal or Informal? Each firm will determine whether the promotional process is formal or informal.
4. Decision 4: Vertical, Horizontal, or Other? Promotions can be vertical (within the same functional area) or horizontal (in different functional areas).
B. Handling Transfers – Transfers are moves from one job to another, usually with no change in salary or grade. The frequent relocating of transfer employees has been assumed to have a damaging effect on transferees’ family life. Transfers are also costly financially.
Know Your Employment Law: Establish Clear Guidelines for Managing Promotions – To avoid discrimination lawsuits, employers need to have clear guidelines for promotions.
Ø / NOTES / Educational Materials to UseIV. Enhancing Diversity Through Career Management
A. Sources of Bias and Discrimination in Promotion Decisions – There are many sources and types of bias. Women and minorities tend to face more hurdles and obstacles in their career development.
B. Taking Steps to Enhance Diversity: Women’s and Minorities’ Prospects – The career interests of women and minorities must be taken seriously. Steps to increase diversity include:
1. Eliminate Institutional Barriers – Many processes may seem gender neutral, but may disproportionately affect women and minorities.
2. Improve Networking and Mentoring – to provide opportunites to meet and forge business relationships.
3. Eliminate the Glass Ceiling –a subtle pattern of disadvantage that blocks women
4. Institute Flexible Schedules and Career Tracks – these may put women- who often have more responsibility for child raising duties at a disadvantage.
V. Career Management and Employee Commitment
A. The New Psychological Contract – Yesterday’s contract was “do your best and be loyal to us and we will take care of your career.” Today it is “do your best and be loyal to us as long as you are here, and we’ll provide you with the developmental opportunities you’ll need to move on and have a successful career.”
B. Commitment-Oriented Career Development Efforts
1. Career Development Programs – Many firms support their employees’ professional and career development through various company-sponsored developmental activities.
2. Career-Oriented Appraisals provide potential useful opportunities for the supervisor and employee to meet and to link the employee’s performance, career preferences, and developmental needs into a career plan.
The HR Scorecard Strategy and Results: The New Career Management System – By implementing a career management system, the Hotel Paris was able to noticeably improve various measures of employee commitment and guest services.
Ø / NOTES / Educational Materials to Use
VI. Retirement
Some employers are instituting formal pre-retirement counseling aimed at easing the passage of their employees into retirement. A large majority of employees have said they expect to continue to work beyond the normal retirement age. Part-time employment is an alternative to outright retirement. Employers can benefit from retirement planning by becoming able to anticipate labor shortages.
A. Create a Culture That Honors Experience – Changing cultures that are explicitly or implicitly biased against older workers can help make a company more attractive to retirees.
B. Offer Flexible Work – Redesigning jobs to include telecommuting and other options will attract and retain workers
C. Offer Part Time Work – Granting part time work is often a good alternative to losing an employee.
Ø / NOTES / Educational Materials to UseAPPENDIX FOR CHAPTER 10 – Managing Your Career
I. Making Career Choices
A. Identify Your Career Stage – The career lifecycle consists of the following stages:
1. Growth Stage – lasts roughly from birth to age 14 and is marked by the development of self-concept.
2. Exploration Stage – The period from 15 to 24 when a person seriously explores various occupational alternatives.
3. Establishment Stage – roughly spans ages 24 to 44 and is the heart of most people’s work lives. It has three substages:
a. Trial Substage- is a time during which a person determines is their chosen field is suitable
b. Stabilization Substage – is characterized by setting firm occupational goals, and planning to determine the sequence of promotions, job changes and educational activities necessary to accomplish the goals.
c. Mid-career Crisis Substage – is reached sometime between the mid thirties and mid forties. Here, people make a major reassessment of their progress toward their ambitions.
4. Maintenance Stage – Between the ages of 45 and 65 this stage is directed at maintaining the person’s place in the world of work.
5. Decline Stage – characterized by the prospect of having to accept reduced levels of power and responsibility in preparation for retirement.
B. Identify Your Occupational Orientation – Personality is one career choice determinant. Research indicates there are six different personality types, each of which is attracted to different types of occupations. See Figure 10A-1.
C. Identify Your Career Directions – Figures 10A-2, 3 and 4 assist in determining career directions and choices in which an individual will be happy.
D. Identify Your Skills – In addition to ability, aptitude and special talents plays a role in career success.
E. Identify Your Career Anchors – Edgar Schein identified five career anchors: technical/functional competence, managerial competence, creativity, autonomy and independence, and security.
F. What Do You Want To Do? –This asks the question: “If you could have any kind of job, what would it be?”
G. Identify High Potential Occupations – Once an occupation has been chosen, it is necessary to find the right occupations that will be available in the years to come. The internet can be helpful in learning about occupations.
II. Finding the Right Job
A. Job Search Techniques – A variety of tools exist for job search activities. These include the library, personal contacts, answering advertisements, employment agencies and executive recruiters, career counselors, executive marketing consultants, and employer web sites.
B. Writing Your Resume – A good resume is one that best represents your skills, ability and experience. Figure 10A-9 is an example of a good resume. It is advisable to make your resume scannable, and carefully proofreading it is essential.
C. Handling the Interview – Tips for success in interviewing include preparation, uncovering the interviewer’s needs, relating yourself to those needs, thinking before answering, making a good appearance, and showing enthusiasm.
VIDEO CASE APPENDIX /Video 5: Training and Development
In this video, the director of training and development turns a somewhat confrontational meeting with the firm’s marketing director into something more positive. The marketing director is making the case that there are several performance problems among employees of the company, and that she believes that inadequate training and development is the reason
why. For her part, the training and development manager, Jenny Herman, says that she understands that the company, Loews Hotels, is getting complaints from customers, but that the firm’s training program has been following the employee performance standards now in place. The problem is “there are standards, but employees are still falling down.”
After discussing the matter between the two of them, they agree that the training and development program was not revised for the company’s new needs, and that among other things Jenny would “like to revise the new hire certification process.” She emphasizes that “we need to hear more from the field what the training and development needs are, and
then try these out, and then roll out the final program.”
Video 6 Ernst & Young
Ernst &Young, a large U.S. accounting firm, increased its employee retention rate by 5% as a result of a human resource initiative “to put people first.” By creating a performance feedback—rich culture, building great résumés for its 160,000 people in New York City and around the world, and giving them time and freedom to pursue personal goals, Ernst & Young operationalized the idea of “people first” and thereby created a more motivated work force. In this video, you’ll see the company uses mandatory goal setting, provides employees with learning opportunities in their areas of interest, and measures HR processes using an employee survey to evaluate the workplace environment. While the first segment of this video is necessarily relevant for our needs, the segment on Ernst &Young, in which Kevin, the senior auditor describes his experience at Ernst &Young, illustrates both what performance management means in practice, and the effect that it can have on employees.
For full video case and discussion questions, please visit the Faculty Resource section of the Dessler Companion Web Site at:
http://www.prenhall.com/dessler
KEY TERMS
career The occupational positions a person has had over many years.
career management The process for enabling employees to better understand and develop their career skills and interests, and to use these skills and interests more effectively.
career development The lifelong series of activities that contribute to a person’s career exploration, establishment, success, and fulfillment.
career planning The deliberate process through which someone becomes aware of personal skills, interests, knowledge, motivations, and other characteristics; and establishes action plans to attain specific goals.
career planning and The deliberate process through which a person becomes aware of
development personal career-related attributes and the lifelong series of stages that contribute to his or her career fulfillment.
reality shock Results of a period that may occur at the initial career entry when the new employee’s high job expectations confront the reality of a boring, unchallenging job.