The Impact of Career Planning on Employee Relations in the UK - Essay Example

Running head: CAREER PLANNING AND EMPLOYEE RELATIONS The Impact of Career Planning on Employee relations in UK. Ref: University: Course: Date: INTRODUCTION Many organizations today are increasingly aware of the significant role that employees play in advancing an organization's objectives. Human resources strategists have an important place in the organization. In the past the human resource department was viewed as a provider of the necessary administrative functions concerning employees. As the name personnel department suggested these functions included recruitment, providing payroll and generally administering to their work-life needs. Today, the human resource department has evolved and plays an all-important and encompassing role of ensuring optimal utilization if the organizations human resource (human capital). In view of these changes in the business environment, more and more organizations are developing new approaches of dealing with their employees. The days when senior management used to treat the lower level employees as 'necessary evil' are gone for good. The days when organizations sought to improve profitability by giving their employees the worst terms they could get away with are now history. What is evident today is the improved interaction between senior management and employees at other levels and a shift from oppressive policies to interest in developing capabilities. There is much emphasis among Human Resource practitioners on attracting the most qualified employee and matching their skills with the jobs that suits them best. In service training serves to enhance these skills and make them most relevant to a particular job description and skill. What remains to be seen is the relationship between career planning and the field of managing employee relations. This paper examines how managing employees relations has changed over time and, what has caused the changes and the effects of career planning towards this turn of events. Human Resource Management and Employee Relations. In today's business environment, an employee's contribution towards the success or future of an organization has elicited much interest t in recent times. This is out of realization that proper use of this resource can produce the much-needed competitive edge for any organization. Human resource management has emerged as a vital department in these organizations. Today the Human resource Management is faced with the task of developing and ensuring maximum utilization of the company's human resource. Without employees, day-to-day business functions would be impossible. Humans are the heart of any business undertaking. The effort to enhance organizational effectiveness cannot bear much fruit if employees potential skills, time, talents and abilities, are not properly managed. According to Cherrington (1995). Human resource management is charged with the task of hiring people assisting them perform their duties to the best of their ability. Compensating them and generally administering to any need. Human Resource Management recognizes the fact that people have varied needs and goals and cannot be treated like all the other resources that an organization has like cars, office equipment and so forth. The first of the several functions of the Human Resource Management is to attract most qualified applicants and assisting in the selection of the most suitable candidate for the job. After that the Human Resource Management is responsible for creating his/her ability. This is a deviation from the way things were done in the past when the employer had to literally be arm twisted in order to provide the basic requirements for the employee at the workplace. It's no wonder that unions in the UK are rapidly losing their earlier appeal. HRM also oversees the performance appraisal of the employees with the view of making such decisions as hiring, firing, promoting or rewarding exemplary service. Most important though to our current study is the function of assessment of areas in need of improvement and subsequent training and development program geared towards providing such improvements. In the past these particular strategies were not very popular but in recent years the same have become areas of focus and indeed almost all Human resources departments have programs designed to consistently motivate improve and develop the employee. Due to this one of the most popular question in job interviews is "where do you see yourself in five years" Indeed the question points towards the future and the career development plan meaning that career planning is not just a human resource management strategy but also an individuals responsibility. Career Planning. The main objectives of career plans are to motivate employees and to provide them with the required skills related to the job. A career plan supports these goals in a personal way by focusing on the individual employee. The training methods and contents can be personalized to maximize employee development. A happy employee profits the organization. Motivating employees is crucial for the success of the organization and the employee in equal measure. Only a motivated employee is wiling to make his or her best efforts on the job. Therefore, employers should be interested in supporting their employees and trying to raise the level of their job satisfaction and commitment in order to maximize employee creativity and knowledge in today's competitive business environment. A de-motivated employee for example will not do his best and will be less productive. Motivation is an important factor in effective management employee relations. This is an important linkage between the employee and the employer that gives employees more confidence. The opportunity to develop their own careers increases employee's value for the good of both the company and themselves This increases their own job security. On the other hand, the company will have more motivated and higher skilled staff willing to work in a more committed manner. Job security has other positive effects on the whole labour market. People working to achieve their career goal in cooperation with their company are not so much at risk of unemployment. This simplifies the situation for the government, as the government does not have to worry too much about new working places for these people. Even if some of them get unemployed the chances of finding a new job are better than for others. Furthermore, if people do not have to worry too much about job insecurity the unions will have to deal with fewer complaints. This might also be a reason, why Career plans are rapidly becoming one of the most critical subjects in the training and development field. Floodgate & Nixon (1994). Career planning focuses on individualism rather than collectivism as the basis of employment relationships. Cave (1994). But career plans also have negative effects on employee relations; According to Callanan (2003) professional staff in large corporations too often sees career success strictly in objective terms, where the speed of progression up the corporate ladder becomes an obsession. This obsession can lead to an organizational culture that is willing to violate ethical and legal standards in order to advance the employee's career more quickly. The employer can also cause such aggressive behaviour by manipulating their employees. This manipulation can be used to link the achievement of the career plans' goal of an employee to other conditions that are unethical or illegal. Callanan (2003, p.131) asserts further, that organization's culture can have a direct influence on the career strategies and actions individuals are willing to take in the name of career success, even when those are illegal". Even though this is not common it shows that there are negative effects of career plans as well. The employee is responsible for career planning and the organization is responsible for career management (Zheng & Kleiner 2001.). Therefore people do focus on attaining high academic qualifications and training. They plan their careers such that they get they get into jobs that match with their natural abilities as well as providing social and psychological satisfaction. Career planning is a process consisting of self-assessment, choosing a job. Identifying a suitable career. Career planning looks into the future taking into consideration personality, competencies skills and talents allowing one to gauge what career will enable them achieve their development goals. A preliminary to writing the career plan is to have an up-to-date statement of the various components of the person's personal growth profile. Mayo (1991). Higson and Wilson (1995) suggest therefore, that such a career plan consists of three parts: A job description, A learning plan and A learning log. Both Human Resource Management and career planning have a goal of creating and developing a highly competent workforce in all fields. It is believed that such workforce in all fields. It is believed that such workforce will then enhance organizational effectiveness. Compensation, benefits and Labour Relations The issue of compensation and benefits has been a subject of much debate from time immemorial. Indeed this issue has been at the heart of trade unions in the UK and elsewhere. Most organizations in the past sought to pay their employees the minimum wages /salaries in an effort to effort to rent costs and increase profitability. This gave the unions strong grounds as they moved to bargain for better terms. A recent case I point is the ASDA/GMB trade union case where the trade union took on Britain's third largest group pf supermarkets over several issues like working hours and other benefits. This has made many organizations to change their compensation and benefits policies since more satisfied employees are bound to be motivated, more productive and more effective. In effect this has taken a major cog out of trade unions contributing to their decline. Today issues that call for collective bargaining are becoming fewer and fewer. CONCLUSION Today senior management in organizations has recognized the significant role that people play in advancing the objectives of the organization. Human resource professionals must be up-to-date on the ever changing patterns in the in staff recruitment, productivity appraisal compensation and benefits, training and development, employee relations and safety and health issues in the UK and globally. This is geared towards ensuring that the human resource in an organization is utilized optimally in enhancing organization is utilized optimally in enhancing organizational effectiveness. Career planning is as much a HRM strategy as it is an individual responsibility. Employees who are aware of their career and developmental goals are bound to be more effective in their jobs but their jobs but they are also likely to expect much from a job. References Atkinson, C., 2002. Career management and the changing psychological contract. Career Development International, 7 (1), pp.14-23. Callanan, G.A., 2003. What price career success Career Development International, 8 (3), pp.126-133. Cave, A., 1994. Managing Change in the Workplace: New Approaches to Employee Relations. London: Kogan Page. Cherrington, David J. (1995). The Management of Human Resources. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Floodgate, J.F. and Nixon A.E., 1994. Personal Development Plans: The Challenge of Implementation - A Case Study. Journal of European Industrial Training, 18 (11), pp.43-47. Gennard, J., 2002. Employee relations public policy developments, 1997-2001: A break with the past. Employee Relations, 24 (6), pp.581-594. Gospel, H. and Palmer, G., 1993. British Industrial Relations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge Higson, M. and Wilson, J.P., 1995. Implementing personal development plans: a model for trainers, managers and supervisors. Industrial and Commercial Training, 27 (6), pp.25-29. Jackson, T., 2000. Career Development. London: Institute of Personal and Management. Mayo, A., 1991. Managing Carers: Strategies for organizations. London: Institute of Personal Management. Mentzel, W., 2004. Personalentwicklung. 2nd ed. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. Yan Zheng, A. and Kleiner, B.H., 2001. Developments concerning career development and transition. Management Research News, 24 (3/4), pp.33-39. Read More