Implementation of Human Resource Practices - Essay Example

? CAREER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES The international market place and the changing workforce have generated the need for various organizations to indulge in human resource practices that identify human capital as their key competitive advantage. Additionally, the present trends in the global market emphasize on the increasing demand for the innovative recruitment and retention programs. Most of human resource managers will mention the need to remain competitive as their greatest challenge. Among the essential ideologies to help in conquering this challenge is by embracing proactive and premeditated career management practices. These can offer the employees a strong establishment for the aim of attaining a competitive edge (Enrensal, 2006, p.17). A career is termed as an individual’s occupation that deals with how an individual earns his or her living. Career management encompasses the process where people invest their resources for the aim of achieving career objectives (VonHippel et al, 2000, p.102). Career management is not a one day undertaking but rather a long-term process that is vital for the adaptation of the evolving demands of the 21st century’s economy. Various economic changes taking place in the economy tend to have a great impact on the income distributions and employment opportunities available in the world. During career management sessions, employees are trained on the adoption of suitable beliefs, attitudes, and values that fit in today’s job environment. Career advice given to individuals assists in changing their working behaviors as well as to help them in self discovery in order to meet the needs of employers who are highly influenced by effects of globalization (Grey, 2002, p.445). Worldwide competition, technological change, and adjustments in consumer preferences have greatly impacted on the quality and the type of employment available thus necessitating the need for organizations to embark on career management practices. Career management therefore takes two forms; can either be conducted at an organizational level or at an individual level. In todays market settings competition and the cost economics presents a lot of insecurities in the job market. On the other hand competition and evolution industries are opening a surfeit of opportunities for the people to select from (Personal Career management, 2012). New job openings and associated threats results in the job market becoming extremely unpredictable. In this type of uncertain environment, it is eventually the role of an individual to make his or her own decisions on what to pursue for the preferred career. The individual ambitions attached to the upcoming business developments are used to shape up the individual career options. An organization in this case can try and support the career aspirations of an individual; if at all the career is falling in line with the goals of the organization. Thus with the notion of careers in the contemporary world, an individual is required to adjust the way careers were viewed traditionally. A job is no longer a mere means of getting money but rather should be looked at as a means of acquiring knowledge. As much as the individual is working on meeting the objectives of the company, he or she is also making strengthening his or her skill for the aim career development (Alagse, 2012). Career management is termed as the initial responsibility of any individual. Pursuing of the preferred career by an individual is a long process where he endlessly gets to learn things pertaining to his personality, purpose, interests and abilities. It calls for rigor and much focus at each and every step of career management. This particular person must incessantly review his or her assignments and try to come up with alternative outlook of the job, which assists in enriching an individual’s experience. An interrupted relook at the current job and the organization that an individual is serving alongside the available opportunities in the outside world will enable an individual boost his or her career improvement. Additionally, an individual must keep assessing his progress and checking whether they are inline with the long-term objectives and thus make the necessary corrections aligned with his or her course (Macky, 2012). The ever escalating competition, mounting customer’s expectations, and the dilapidated resources means that career management in most companies is often overshadowed by daily forces. This has resulted in organizations incurring heavy costs pertaining to their quality of production, their general performance and employee’s morale (Allen, 2005). The efficiency of any organization is dependent on its ability to transition its team from the traditional model of expectation to an increased responsibility with respect to own career development and growth. This calls for employers to supply employees with tools, resources, and the connections which ensure optimal person to person jobs equivalent skills attainment and constant improvement. On this note, an organization must come up with a well defined procedure to determine the best career management practice to undertake on its employees (Copas, 2000). A company must first revisit its mission and values to check whether it there is a perfectly-defined mission and vision statements. Secondly, it vital to check the competitive posture to maintain focuses on where the company fits in the competitive landscape. This implies on whether it is a leader or follower in the industry. The management should go ahead to establish the culture of the organization with a focus on whether the company endeavors in embracing peoples practices which will result in the creation of desirable practices (Career Planning & Management Inc, 2001). The review of organizations’ long and short term goals should be done with an aim of laying down the strategies to be used in accomplishing the set goals. Assessment of available competencies, abilities, and knowledge existing in the present workforce is required in meeting the company’s goals. Lastly, the organization should conduct an investigation and assessment on the suitable career management programs that will assist in addressing organizational gaps and extending the competence scale that an organization is striving to meet (Nyhan, 2011). Career management practices include succession planning, which is a key aspect in preparing for organization’s future progress. Managers are required to spot their organizations’ high potentials together with the major performers that the organization could not risk to loose. This will enable the organization not to loose the high potentials employees who are major performers. Development of a future for the potential employees is one of the company’s approaches of retaining talent (Copas, 2000). A consistent performance appraisal must be incorporated in the plan. The capability of the employees is to a large extent assessed through their skills in terms of performance at their fields of specialization. It is through the employee performance that the organization will be able to note the weaknesses of its workforce thus embarking on improvement. This is achieved through training programs to ensure that employees are in a position to meet organizational goals. A company should also pair advisors with their major performers. These advisors should be in a position to provide mentorship that is crucial in attaining final success together with knowledge depth. Sound counseling is vital in making decisions and attaining perspective. Career pathing is also another OCM practice where an organization establishes a family of jobs in a given area, which enables employees to have some vision of progression. It also places them in a position to set their goals and anticipations towards meeting the organizational goals. This is possible moment an organization incorporates an apparent progression on growth with a given criteria to be followed in achieving each level (Kosses et al, 2005, p.85). In conclusion, career management offers an excellent chance for any organization to get to equivalence of ambitions and interests of highly performing people with present and potential business needs. By ensuring provision of suitable directions and growth, career progression pertaining to these individuals can thus be planned by the organization. By this aspect, individuals not only meet a sense of individual fulfillment but also get to attend to the future requirements of the company. Bibliography Alagse., 2012. Career Management- individual & organizational role. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 6th November 2012] Allen, R., 2005. Competitive Career Management Practices: Gaining Leverage in the 21st century. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 6th November 2012] Career Planning & management Inc., 2001. Career Management for Organizations. [Online] Available at: < http://www.careerfirm.com/org.htm> [Accessed 6th November 2012]. Copas, S., 2000. What does career planning and Management involve? [Online] Available at: [Accessed 6th, November 2012]. Ehrensal, K., 2006. Discourses of global competition: Obscuring the changing labor process of managerial work. Journal of organizational change management, 8(5), pp.6-15. Grey, C., 2002. Career as a project of the self and labor process Discipline. Sociology, 28(2), pp. 479-490. Kosses, E., Huber-Yoder, M., Castellino, D. and Lerner, J., 2005. The Working Poor: Locked out of Careers and the Organizational Mainstream? Academy of management Executive, 11(1), pp.77-90. Mckay, D. 2012. What is a Career?[online] Available at: [Accessed 6th November 2012] Nyhan, B., 2011. Career Management. Journal of European Industrial Training, 35(9), pp.928-931 Personal Career Management., 2012. Outplace & Career Coaching Services. [Online] Available at: < http://www.personalcareermanagement.com/> [Accessed 6th November 2012] Von Hippel, C., et al., 2000.Temporary Employment: Can Organizations and Employees Both Win? Academy of management Executive, 11(1), pp.94-102. Read More