Careers and Career

Management

BY
Vishal
Vipra
Jasmine
prayas

Introduction
11 2

The concepts of career and career management is

important in order to retain and motivate employees.

These companies do provide resources supporting

careers such as development opportunities,

mentoring, and training managers in how to coach
employees.

A major challenge is how to balance advancing

current employees careers with simultaneously

attracting and acquiring employees with new skills.

What Is Career Management?

11 3

Career management is the process

through which employees:

Become aware of their own interests, values,

strengths, and weaknesses.
Obtain information about job opportunities
within the company.
Identify career goals.
Establish action plans to achieve career
goals.

Why Is Career Management Important?

Companys
perspective

Employees
perspective

The failure to motivate employees to plan

their careers can result in:
A shortage of employees to fill open
positions
Lower employee commitment
Inappropriate use of money allocated for
training and development programs

Lack of career management can result in:

Frustration
Feelings of not being valued by the
company
Being unable to find suitable employment
should a job change be necessary due to
mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, or
downsizing.

Career Management and Career Motivation

11 5

Career motivation refers to:

Employees energy to invest in their careers
Their awareness of the direction they want their
careers to take
The ability to maintain energy and direction despite
barriers they may encounter
Career motivation has three aspects:
Career resilience
Career insight
Career identity

The Value of Career Motivation

11 6

Components of Career Motivation

Career
Resilience(flexibility)

Company Value

Career Insight
(approaching)

Employee Value

Career Identity

Innovation
Employees adapting to unexpected changes
Commitment to Company
Pride in Work

Be aware of skill strengths and weaknesses

Participate in learning activities
Cope with less than ideal working
conditions
Avoid skill obsolescence

The career management process:

11 7

Use of information by
The process of
Information
employees
employees to determine their
employees developingEmployees
receive
about
how
the
career interests, values,
shorttheir and long-term determining how
aptitudes, and behavioral company evaluates career
objectives.
they will achieve
skills
and
knowledge
and
tendencies.
Usually discussed withtheir short- and longwhere
they
fit
into
Often involves psychological
the manager and written
company
plans.
term career goals.
tests.
into a development plan.

SelfAssessment

Reality
Check

Goal Setting

Action
Planning

Design factors of Effective Career Management

Systems:
11 8

System is positioned as a response to a

business need.
Employees and managers participate in
development of the system.
Employees are encouraged to take an
active role in career management.
Evaluation is ongoing and used to
improve the system.

Design factors of Effective Career Management

Systems: (continued)
11 9

Business units can customize the system for

their own purposes.

Employees need access to career
information sources.
Senior management supports the career
system.
Career management is linked to other
human resource practices such as training,
recruiting systems, and performance
management.

Shared Responsibility:
Roles in Career Management

Employees

Manager

Company

Take the initiative to ask for feedback from managers and peers regarding their skill strengths
and weaknesses.
Identify their stage of career development and development needs.
Seek challenges by gaining exposure to learning opportunities.
Interact with employees from different work groups inside and outside the company.
Create visibility through good performance.

Provide information or advice about training and development opportunities.

Provide specialized services such as testing to determine employees values, interests, and
skills.
Help prepare employees for job searches.
Offer counseling on career-related problems.

Companies are responsible for providing employees with the resources needed to be
successful in career planning:
Career workshops
Information on career and job opportunities
Career planning workbooks
Career counseling
Career paths

11 - 11

Managers Role in Career Management

Roles
Coach

Responsibilities
Probe problems, interests, values, needs
Listen
Clarify concerns
Define concerns

Appraiser

Give feedback
Clarify company standards
Clarify job responsibilities
Clarify company needs

Advisor

Generate options, experiences, and relationships

Assist in goal setting
Provide recommendations

Referral agent Link to career management resources

Follow up on career management plan

Evaluating Career Management Systems

11 12

Career management systems need to be evaluated to

ensure that they are meeting the needs of employees and
the business.
Two types of outcomes can be used to evaluate:

Reactions of the customers (employees and

managers) who use the career management
system
Results of the career management system

Evaluation of a career management system should be

based on its objectives.

FLEXIBLE WORKING
ENVIRONMENT

What are flexible work arrangements?

Flexible Work Arrangements alter the time and/or

place that work is conducted. FWA provide flexibility

in the:
Scheduling of hours worked and arrangements

regarding overtime, predictable scheduling, and shift

and break schedules;
Amount of hours worked; and
Place of work.
Workplace Flexibility 2010

Common flexible work arrangements

Compressed Work Week: A work schedule that condenses one or more

standard workweeks into fewer, longer days. (9/80)

Flextime: A work schedule with variable starting and ending times, within
limits set by ones manager. Employees still work the same number of
scheduled hours as they would under a traditional arrangement. (7 am-3pm
or 10 am-6pm)
Job-Sharing: An arrangement in which two or more part-time (or
occasional) employees share the responsibilities of one full-time job at a prorated salary.
Part-time Work: A work schedule that is less than full-time but is at least
half of the regularly scheduled full-time workweek.
Personal or Family Leaves: A block of time off while retaining ones job.
These leaves may be paid or unpaid.
Telecommuting: regularly work at home or at an alternative worksite
during part or all of a work schedule (in office M/W/F, remote work T/Th).
MIT

FWA Metrics and Statistics

Everyone wants FWA

Nearly 80% of workers say they would

like to have more flexible work options
and would use them if there were no
negative consequences at work.
Families and Work Institute,
2004
79% of companies allow some
employees to use FWA
37% of companies allow all or most
employees to use FWA
(Galinsky, Bond, & Sakai, 2008)

Not for every job or employee

Must meet business needs

More common among professional
staff
Must achieve performance expectations

% of Workforce using FWA

30%

20%

10%

0%
1985

1997

2004

Beers, T. (2000). Flexible schedules and shift

work: Replacing the 9 to 5 workday? Monthly
Labor Review, 123(6), p. 33.

Business benefits of FWA

Employer
Benefits

Offers a no-cost or low-cost initiative with high

ROI
Impacts ability to recruit and retain
Reduces unplanned absenteeism
Enhances reputation as an employer of choice
Lowers overhead and real estate costs
Provides greater coverage in a 24/7 global
economy

Employer
&
Employee
Benefits

Increases job satisfaction, loyalty and

engagement
Improves productivity and performance
Lowers stress and health care costs
Minimizes the impact of environmental issues

Business benefits of FWA: Data

96% report that flexibility influences their
decision to stay at the company; 73% say
that flexibility is very important in that
decision, and 23% say that its somewhat
important.
Employees who use flexible work
arrangements scored, on average, 30%
lower on stress and burnout.
Bank branches with flexible work
arrangements had retention rates 50%
higher than other branches.

Corporate Voices for Working Families with WFD Consulting

Business benefits of FWA: Data

73% of employees with high availability of

flexible work arrangements reported that

there was a high likelihood that they would
stay with their current employer for the next
year.
Bond, J.T., Thompson, C., Galinsky, E. & Prottas,D. (2003). Highlights of the
2002 national study of the changing workforce. New York: Families and
Work Institute.

Studies indicate that the availability and use

of flexibility and other work-family policies is

associated with higher commitment, job
satisfaction, loyalty, and lower intention to
turnover.
Kossek, E., Lautsch, B., & Eaton, S. (2006). Telecommuting, control, and
boundary management: Correlates of policy use and practice, job control, and
work-family effectiveness. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 68(2), 347-367.

Business benefits of FWA: Data

Organizations with higher employee satisfaction

report larger than average annual returns to investors.

with respect to flexibility programs that enable workers to

work from home, if the proportion of employees working

from home increases by one percentage point, the firms
profit rate increases by an additional six-tenths of one
percent. For the average firm included in this sample, this
equates to a profit increase of approximately $84 million.

Meyer, C.S., Mukerjee, S., & Sestero, A. (2001). Work-family benefits: Which ones
maximize profits? Journal of Managerial Issues, 13(1), p. 40.

General obstacles to implementation

Nature of work
Managers perceptions and abilities
Culture of workplace and how work is done
Employee concerns

Economic obstacles to implementation

In todays economic climate, FWA present new challenges:

Inflexible systems make it difficult to integrate FWA

Groundwork not created to integrate FWA within the

organization

Not comfortable with FWA as a way to do business

Overcoming the obstacles

Effective steps to reduce obstacles at your organization:

Make managers accountable (raise-dependent) for creating a

work environment where employees can thrive at work/home
Help managers to measure important business outcomes
Try a pilot program
Train managers and co-workers about how flexibility can help
them to achieve their business goals
Train managers and co-workers about how to implement and
sustain FWA
Encourage communication about how work will get done and
the rules of the game
Use metrics and evaluation to demonstrate impacts, make
improvements and re-measure

Overcoming the economic obstacles

Effective steps to reduce obstacles in current economic
climate:
Examine how FWA could help the organization to achieve business
goals
Reward performance versus face time
Ask employees and work teams how they could integrate FWA into
their jobs/teams
Offer FWA as a way to support employees and provide relief from
heavy workloads and stress
Remember: even if there have already been layoffs, its never too
late to embrace FWA

Best practices and examples

Goal: Reduce workforce costs without severing ties to employees
KPMG UK, German and Swiss firms: Flexible
Futures. Asked staff to volunteer to work either a
four-day week with a proportionate pay cut or take a
sabbatical for up to three months.
We learnt some painful lessons from the last downturn
when we made redundancies and lost some real talent. When
the upturn came, we were not positioned as well as we could
be. So this time the challenge was clear. Could we create
sufficient flexibility in our cost base that would allow us to
react quickly to future events while retaining our people for
the moment the market picks up?
People Management

Dell asked employees to take up to 5 days off without

pay during the next 3 months. Although the leave is
not mandatory, the company has indicated that
layoffs may be necessary if not enough workers
participate in this reduction of hours/pay.

Best practices and examples

FedEx cut salaries of senior executives and
salaried-exempt employees by 5 to 20%, a
$600 million savings.
Brandeis University requested that faculty
members give up 1% of their salary, and 30%
have volunteered.
Cisco ordered a four-day year-end
shutdown. Instead of a severance package,
Cisco Systems offered the 8,500 employees
it laid off in April, a third of their salaries, all
benefits, and stock-option awards while
working for one year at a not-for-profit
group already associated with the company.

Best practices and examples

In Atlanta, an expected budget shortfall of
$60 million meant that 4,600 city
employees had their weekly hours and pay
cut by 10%.

During their layoffs, founder Charles

Schwab and his wife created a $10 million
educational fund for these workers. The
fund covers as much as $20,000 worth of
tuition over two years at accredited
academic institutions for re-training and
new skill development.

Best practices and examples

Megavolt (Springfield, MO) moved to a "shared work program" of three

10-hour days a week. While workers keep their jobs, the lost 10 hours
each week is enough for them to be eligible for state unemployment
benefits in Missouri.

In 1984, the Maryland General Assembly established the Work Sharing

Unemployment Insurance Program. This voluntary program provides

employers with an alternative to layoffs. The principle behind Work
Sharing is simple; instead of laying off a percentage of the work force to
cut costs, an employer can reduce workers' hours by the same
percentage and keep the entire work force on the job.

Numerous states allow workers with reduced schedules to collect

unemployment: AZ,

AR, CA, CT, FL, IA, KS, LA, MD,

MA, MN, MO, NY, OR, RI, TX, VT and WA.

Conclusion
FWA can help you to achieve your business goals
FWA offer a wide range of business benefits
FWA provide an alternative to layoffs

Research data documents the significant ROI of

FWA
Obstacles exist but can be overcome