Chapter 11

CAREER AND SUCCESSION PLANNING Chapter EXCEL BOOKS 11-1 11

ANNOTATED OUTLINE 11-2 The concept of career A career comprises of a series of work related activities, that offer continuity, order and meaning to a person’s life. The underlying idea behind a career is that a person can shape his destiny through a number of well planned and well timed, positive steps. The success of one’s career, therefore, depends on the individual more than anything else. Career And Succession Planning

11-3 Career: Important features A career develops over time The success of one's career depends, most often, on one's own careful planning and timely steps taken at a right time The important element in one's career is experiencing psychological success. The typical career of a person today would probably include many positions and transitions. Career And Succession Planning

11-4 Career stages A career includes many positions, stages and transitions just as a person’s life does. Career And Succession Planning

11-5 Exploration: the transition that occurs in mid-twenties as one looks at work after college education, seeking answer to various questions about careers from teachers, friends etc. Establishment: this is the stage where one begins the search for work,picks up the first job, commits mistakes and learns thereafter. Mid-career: Between 35 and 50 one is typically confronted with a plateaued career, where your maturity and experience are still valued but there is the nagging feeling of having lost the initial fire in the belly Late career: This is the stage where one relaxes a bit and plays an elderly role, offering advice to younger ones as to how to avoid career mistakes and grow continually. Decline: This is the stage where one is constantly reminded of retirement, after a series of hits and misses. Career And Succession Planning Career stages

11-6 Golden rules to be kept in mind while searching for a job Career And Succession Planning 1. List all your wins and achievements, then draw a second list from it – highlighting different aspects of your personality. Do not underplay your achievements. 2. Seek help from all your contacts. Asking for help during job hunt is like asking for directions when you are lost. It is better to ask for directions than to stay lost. 3. Your resume should not be a condensed biographical sketch (nor a razzle- dazzle document) of your life and work. It must reveal your experiences, diverse skills and vast knowledge in an appropriate manner. Be ready to respond positively (“I can do that”) to tricky questions probing your knowledge and experience in a different area. Having a “can do” attitude can sometimes be more important than the actual experience. This way, one is sure to get at least interesting work where one can learn and get ahead. Be it a war or an interview, before actually going full throttle, one needs to plan and prepare well and at the same time watch out for the unexpected. The best way out is to arm oneself with answers for all the possible questions. Cont…

11-7 6. Try not to be everything in an interview. Most candidates try too hard in an interview and are very accommodating. Don’t be. The most commonly asked question during an interviews is “what could you contribute to this organisation?” The usual answer given is ‘whatever you need’. This just shows your desperation. Guard against this. 7. Negotiate salary, benefits and working conditions clearly, keeping realistic picture of your own fair market value and the current economic climate in mind. Most experts believe that a candidate should guard against winning a salary tug-of-war at the expense of losing the goodwill of his interviewer. Lost out on a job, no problem. It is always a good idea to call your interviewer and ask him for feedback on the reasons why you were not hired. (P. Dalmia CEO, JobsAhead.com; Collectors’ Series, Business World, 21.1.2002) Career And Succession Planning Golden rules to be kept in mind while searching for a job

11-8 Career And Succession Planning How to get off to a flying start in your new job? According to William Ellis, the following strategies help a person get off to a flying start in a new position. Make yourself visible early: Try a novel tactic, use a stunningly different strategy or follow a route that’s generally avoided by most others. Try anything so as to get noticed. Overkill that first assignment: In your first assignment, set impossible targets for yourself – which others can’t even think of in their wildest dreams and deliver results faster than others. Get the lay of the land: Get as much information as possible about people, processes and activities in your work spot – at an amazing speed and become a quick and authoritative information source. Say “sure” and figure out how later: Management values the new employee who grabs a challenge and runs with it. Try to get over the hurdles somehow – through a painful process of trial and error and come back with winning solutions Cont…

11-9 Career And Succession Planning Accelerate your enthusiasm: An enthusiastic newcomer can spark a whole department. Yet some days your enthusiasm will run low. There is a remedy, however; if you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic. Inner enthusiasm follows, and it will have an echo effect on colleagues and bosses. Even cynical old hands want to help an enthusiastic new person. Dare to Change the Entrenched Method: Try to challenge the traditional old ways of doing things. Stretch yourself to find those creative ways that save lot of organisational time, energies and resources. The greatest advantage of the fast start on a new job is the early creation of a winning mystique. Even if you were a little slow in the beginning, nothing says, you can’t go to work tomorrow morning and act as if it was your first day on a new job. Better late than never? Source: W. Ellis, “Get off to a fast start in your new Job,” Reader’s Digest, Win@Work, 2001. How to get off to a flying start in your new job?

11-10 Career anchors Career And Succession Planning These are distinct patterns of self-perceived talents, attitudes, motives and values that guide and stabilise a person’s career after several years of real world experiences. More about eight career anchors Managerial competence Technical competence Security Creativity Autonomy Dedication to a cause Pure challenge Life style

11-11 Career planning Career And Succession Planning Career planning is the process by which one selects career goals and the path to achieve those goals. Career planning, it should be noted here, is a prerequisite to effective human resource planning. Why career planning? Career planning seeks to meet the following objectives Attract and retain talent Use human resources properly and achieve greater productivity Reduce employee turnover Improve employee morale and motivation Meet the current and future human resource needs of the organisation

11-12 Identify individual needs and aspirations Analyse career opportunities Align employee needs with available career opportunities Develop action plans Carry out periodic review Career And Succession Planning The process of career planning

11-13 Career Development Career And Succession Planning Career development consists of the personal actions one undertakes to achieve a career plan. The actions for career development may be initiated by the individual himself or by the organisation Individual career development: Some of the important steps that could help employees achieve their career goals could be listed thus;

11-14 Performance Exposure Networking Leveraging Loyalty Mentors and sponsors Key subordinates Expanding capabilities over time Career And Succession Planning Individual career development

11-15 How to avoid big career mistakes while getting ahead? After interviewing more than 2000 executives, E.D. Betaf has identified the following career mistakes-which would come in the way of someone who wants to get ahead. Having no plan: Conflict is an inescapable path of organisational life. So if you are in conflict with someone who could derail your career-think twice before getting into the soup. Instead work out the details of a plan that would help you move closer to those who matter in your workspot. Lacking expectations: People who don’t understand what their employer would expect them to deliver are bound to miss the bus. Always better to read your job description, identify important tasks to be carried out, seek clarifications from your boss and deliver things in tune with your boss’s instructions. Being a loner: The golden rule of work is relationships, relationships and relationships. Friendly relationships help you move closer to your colleagues, make you an important member of a team and build long- lasting bonds with people in other departments as well. It’s far too risky to be a loner and expect your work to speak for itself. Having allies who speak well of your has an added benefit in that it increases your visibility to top management. Career And Succession Planning Cont…

11-16 Waffling: Business respects those who are willing to take tough decisions and deliver things-right or wrong. People who continually waffle decisions, however, stand out for the wrong reasons. Focusing too Narrowly: Inability to develop and adapt is one of the important reasons for career failures at many levels. By making sure you develop a variety of widely applicable skills, you can better market yourself to your current employer or, if need be, to a new one. Covering up: When you commit a blunder the best thing to do is to own up to it and fix it as soon as possible. Handle it right, and you may even come out ahead of the game. Career And Succession Planning Source: D.B. Hogarthy, “6 Big career mistakes – and How to avoid them”, Reader’s Digest: Wim@Work, Mumbai, 2001. How to avoid big career mistakes while getting ahead?

11-17 Career self assessment instrument Career And Succession Planning

11-18 Career And Succession Planning Career self assessment instrument

11-19 Organisational career development: organisations could help promote individual careers through a series of well planned moves. These include: Career And Succession Planning Organisational career development 1 Self assessment tools such as holding a career planning workshop, circulation of a career work book in advance etc. 2. Individual counselling 3. Information services job posting system skills inventory career ladders and career paths career resource centre Career Development Cont…

11-20 4. Employee assessment programmes Assessment centres Psychological tests Promotability forecasts Succession planning 5. Employee developmental programmes 6. Career programmes for special groups Career And Succession Planning Career Development

11-21 Career And Succession Planning Career Development Strategies Of Indian Companies Career development strategies followed by three Indian companies At the organisation level, let us examine the career development strategies adopted by three leading companies in India. Ernst & Young (India) The global consulting firm uses the same career development methodology in India that it uses elsewhere. Primarily, it seeks to align individual aspirations with organisational, business and functional goals, using the formal assessment system to check for skill gaps and career potential. While designing training tools, things that are given serious attention are past performance, future potential, the individual skill sets and competencies of each manager, and the need of the company. However, the firm often takes the assistance of professional trainers brought in from E&Y offices worldwide, or relevant institutions to design specific training programmes for different categories and levels of managers. Cont…

11-22 Hyundai Motor (India) Most executives working for this South Korean car-maker, which started operations in India relatively recently, are middle-level recruits from different industries who have been chosen on the basis of their track record—a factor whose influence pervades the company’s career development system. The company aims to convert these managers into ‘achievers’ for Hyundai, with attributes like mental toughness, professional competence, and an ambition to advance. The HR department devises interventions keeping these goals in mind. The HR functionaries are expected to look at the development process holistically. The company also conducts a three-day process lab where the system is discussed using case studies. Seagram (India) The Canadian liquor major has a career development system that hinges on speedy induction. Among the inputs given during the induction programme, fitting in with the organisational culture is critical. The aim is to enable the new entrant to hit the ground running in terms of performance. The programmes also includes sessions on the history of the organisation, product portfolio, and operations. The programme includes visits to markets and bottling units and sessions with each functional head. Career And Succession Planning Career development strategies followed by three Indian companies

Career Management 11-23 Career management includes both organisational actions and individual efforts aimed at setting career goals, formulating and implementing strategies and monitoring the results. The career management model Career And Succession Planning

11-24 Career And Succession Planning Advantages And Limitations Of Career Planning Career planning offers significant benefits to both the individual and the organisation. The employee has advance knowledge of available career opportunities. He or she can set appropriate career goals and plan to achieve them over a period of time. Organisations, too, can separate the stars from the mediocre and reward the efforts of those who are hard working and talented. This would, in turn, improve employer-employee relations. On the negative side, for small scale units, career planning may prove to be a difficult and costly exercise. Sometimes, local laws, union pressures could upset career planning efforts. Not every company would be able to resolve all career related issues successfully.

11-25 Career And Succession Planning Effective Career Planning Effective career planning depends on a number of factors such as Effective career planning Ensuring top management support Setting appropriate corporate goals for human resources Offering rewards for good performance Placing employees depending on their talents, career aspirations etc Laying down suitable career paths for all employees Monitoring continuously to find where the organisation stands Giving publicity to career related issues and actions

11-26 Career And Succession Planning Succession Planning The basic purpose of succession planning is to identify and develop people to replace current job holders in key positions. Through succession planning organisations ensure a steady flow of internal talent to fill important vacancies. Succession planning encourages “hiring from within” and creates a healthy environment where employees have careers and not merely jobs. It should be noted here that career planning (which covers executives at all levels), by its very nature, includes succession planning (which covers key positions at higher levels)

11-27 Career And Succession Planning Replacement Chart A replacement chart is a visual representation of who will replace whom if there is a job opening

11-28 Career And Succession Planning Succession Management Succession management focuses attention on creating and stocking pools of candidates with high leadership potential. It assures that key people are not just identified but also nurtured and developed into future leadership roles Steps in succession management Identifying the shortage of leadership skills and defining the requirements Identifying potential successors for critical positions Coaching and grooming the 'star performers' The interesting case of BAJAJ AUTO Arm your successor Begin at the edges Start succession early Prepare the organisation.

Chapter 11

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Chapter 11

More from Avinash Kumar

Recently uploaded

Chapter 11