Career Planning and Development

1. A career may be defined as ‘ a sequence of jobs that constitute what a person does for a living’.
2. According to Schermerborn, Hunt, and Osborn, ‘Career planning is a process of systematically matching career goals and individual capabilities with opportunities for their fulfillment’.
3. Career planning is the process of enhancing an employee’s future value.
4. A career plan is an individual’s choice of occupation, organization and career path.

Career planning encourages individuals to explore and gather information, which enables them to syn­thesize, gain competencies, make decisions, set goals and take action. It is a crucial phase of human resource development that helps the employees in making strategy for work-life balance.

Features of Career Planning and Career Development:

1. It is an ongoing process.
2. It helps individuals develop skills required to fulfill different career roles.
3. It strengthens work-related activities in the organization.
4. It defines life, career, abilities, and interests of the employees.
5. It can also give professional directions, as they relate to career goals.

Objectives of Career Planning:

1. To identify positive characteristics of the employees.
2. To develop awareness about each employee’s uniqueness.
3. To respect feelings of other employees.
4. To attract talented employees to the organization.
5. To train employees towards team-building skills.
6. To create healthy ways of dealing with conflicts, emotions, and stress.

Benefits of Career Planning:

1. Career planning ensures a constant supply of promotable employees.
2. It helps in improving the loyalty of employees.
3. Career planning encourages an employee’s growth and development.
4. It discourages the negative attitude of superiors who are interested in suppressing the growth of the subordinates.
5. It ensures that senior management knows about the calibre and capacity of the employees who can move upwards.
6. It can always create a team of employees prepared enough to meet any contingency.
7. Career planning reduces labour turnover.
8. Every organization prepares succession planning towards which career planning is the first step.