Career path planning and development

Question
I am currently working as an HR officer in a large bank and am going to handle a new position as career
path planning and development senior officer.
Please advice me with the right track to start with, specially that such position needs a large mental work,
and what are the areas should be covered to provide a comprehensive out?

GENERIC CAREER PATH MODEL

SELF MANAGEMENT FOR STAFF.

*Learns specific functional skills
*Innovative Problem Solving
*Builds effective communication skills
*Learns intrafunctional relationships
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SUPERVISORY STAFF
*Learns basic managerial skills
*Effective appraisal and coaching skills
*Team building ability
*Shares insights with others
*Learns to delegate
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MANAGER
*Broad experiences in prime function
*Develops negotiation skills
*Executive communication abilities
*Can implement organizational change
*Strong strategic thinking

SENIOR MANAGER
Multi-functional perspective
*Can handle multiple issues of increasing complexity
*Plays a role in developing corporate vision
*Delegates
*Utilizes resources effectively
*Develops multifunctional integration skills
required to manage business
*Develops business vision
*Exercises power effectively
*Conceives and manages change
*Manages communication relations
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GENERIC Organizational Systems FOR CAREER PATHING
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Selection & Retention Systems

*Recruitment
*Selection
*Pay to market across industries
*Reward for performance

WHAT THIS MEANS

"The Right People" FOR THE ORGANIZATION

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Development
Systems
In-house training
*External education
*Self-directed study
*Action learning
*Coaching
*Mentoring
*Job rotation
*Special assignments
*Leadership development
*Community projects
*Assignment
WHAT THIS MEANS
PEOPLE "With The Right Skills"
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Performance
Management
Systems

 Performance objectives

 Performance review and other measures

 Culture survey

 Performance feedback

 Accountability for
performance

PEOPLE “Doing The Right Things"

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Organizational
Systems
Roles and
responsibilities
Work
processes
Team-based
organization
Linked financial,
operational customer, and employee measures
WHAT THIS MEANS
PEOPLE "In The Right Environment"
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FOR THE SUCCESS OF SUCH CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS,
THE FOLLOWING APPROACH WOULD BE USEFUL.

SUCCESSION PLAN
Performance appraisal-------------------------------potential assessment
CAREER PLANNING
CAREER DEVELOPMENT PORGRAMS
personal development--training/development--career counseling--mentoring
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SUCCESSION PLANNING AND CAREER PLANNING

SUCCESSION planning is an element of career management process.

It is an outcome of
-corporate strategic planning
-corporate objectives
-corporate strategy.
Hence you need to review this in detail.
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Outline for Succession Planning
Define where you currently are in your succession planning process.
What positions are you planning for?
What key people have you designated for succeeding to higher positions?
Where are they in their experience, education and training schedules?
What has changed since your last review?
What other candidates can you identify, either for future needs or to replace people who were in the
process and either left your company or did not work out as expected?
What has changed inside your company which might alter where you have been planning to go with
your succession plan?
How have the current candidates performed to date?
What jobs have changed, and how have they changed, since your last review?
What new opportunities, technologies and other issues have emerged which may lead to change in the
succession plan, its objectives or tactics?
Define where you want your succession plan to take you, especially in light of your current strategic
plan.
What will you look like in three to five years and what will your key people be doing then?
What openings will you need to fill due to attrition, promotion or expansion?
What new disciplines will the company require, and how will you fill them?
How does your succession plan fit with your expectation of where your company, your markets and
your internal situation will likely be going?
Define how you will get from where you are today to what you want the company to look like at the
end of your current planning horizon.

Who will be involved and what will each be doing?

When will they start and end each part of the process and how will you judge their progress?
What criteria will be used to determine each candidate’s ongoing fitness for his or her career path?
Does each candidate offer and demonstrate continuing potential and progress toward meeting the
requirements you have established?
On what basis will you determine if someone is not progressing appropriately, and what can you do to
help that person develop to the fullest extent?
What alternatives can you offer those who are not meeting expectations?
Once a plan is in place and people are in the process of being groomed for higher responsibilities and
positions, where do you go from here? As indicated above, this is an ongoing process. You establish
goals, select candidates, establish training and educational processes, initiate the process of selecting
and training with each individual, and monitor developments. As the Simplified Strategic Planning
process teaches, you continually update your status, review your assumptions about where you want
to go and how you will get there, modify your strategies and the resulting actions/action plans, and
continually feedback environmental developments. As your situation changes, you alter your
objectives to match the appropriate strategies, make mid-course corrections, and continue your
ongoing management processes as a part of the regular course of business.
At each planning interval (usually annually), you will go through the entire process just as you go
through your Strategic Planning process. You ask the same types of questions, make the same types
of analyses as enunciated above, make whatever changes and modifications are indicated by the
circumstances, update your goals and procedures, and proceed with the ongoing processes. Where
you need additional talent, you perform appropriate searches, both inside and outside the company.
You are basically limited by your resources, both human and capital, and your needs, and how far
your “headlights” allow you to see into the future. Will you be totally correct? No, it is not likely you
will get it totally right. But, you will get better as you do this process on a regular basis, and you will
get better with time and repetition. You have the on-going advantage of being able to make mid-
course corrections, so you shouldn’t go too far wrong.
Succession planning
focus on a particular step in the succession-planning process.
Develop a communication strategy
Identify expected vacancies

Determine critical positions

Identify current and future competencies for positions
Develop a recruitment strategy
Create assessment and selection tools
Supplement HR functions to include active recruiting and staffing
Identify gaps in current employee and candidate competency levels
Develop Individual Development Plans for employees
Develop and implement coaching and mentoring programs
Assist with leadership transition and development
Develop an evaluation plan for succession management
Data Input Table
Critical Role Selection
Organization Hierarchy
Competency Data by role/position
Manager Ratings
Employee Aspirations
Employee Readiness
Employee History
Performance Rating
HR Rating (High Potential and Others)
Data Outputs Table
Critical Role List
Role List without nominated successors
Nominated Successors Short List (Based on weighted data which is customized)
Full Succession Plan
High Potential Report
Readiness Report
Drill down to individual Development Plans – ensure development is appropriate for the individual
Management development plans/career counseling/mentoring/
management training/ education.
The system provides you with instant answers across your entire Talent Pool. Succession Planning is
now available not just for the executive team but for your entire Talent Pool.
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DEFINE AND DEVELOP A CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN
FOR EVERY MT INVOLVED PLUS A MONITORING SYSTEM.
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CAREER PLANNING
Career Planning is a critical element / outcome of SUCCESSION PLANNING,
Performance appraisal and Potential assessment systems.
The process of career planning
Career planning is the key process in career management. It uses all the information provided by the
organization's assessments of requirements, the assessments of performance and potential and the
management succession plans, and translates it in the form of individual career development
programs and general arrangements for management development, career counseling, mentoring and
management training.
Career planning - the competency band approach
It is possible to define career progression in terms of the competencies required by individuals to carry
out work at progressive levels of responsibility or contribution. These levels can be described as
competency bands.
Competencies would be defined as the attributes and behavioral characteristics needed to perform
effectively at each discrete level in a job or career family. The number of levels would vary according
to the range of competencies required in a particular job family. For each band, the experience and
training needed to achieve the competency level would be defined. These definitions would provide a
career map incorporating 'aiming points' for individuals, who would be made aware of the competency
levels they must reach in order to achieve progress in their careers. This would help them to plan their
own development, although support and guidance should be provided by their managers, and HR
specialists . The provision of additional experience and training could be arranged as appropriate, but
it would be important to clarify what individual employees need to do for themselves if they want to
progress within the organization.
The advantage of this approach is that people are provided with aiming points and an understanding
of what they need to do to reach them. One of the major causes of frustration and job dissatisfaction
is the absence of this information.
A competency band career development approach can be linked to
Aiming points

1. Competence band 1 definition

Basic training and experience

2 Competence band 2 definition

Continuation of medium training and experience
3.Competence band 3 definition
Continuation of advanced training and experience
Career planning is for core people as well as high-flyers
The philosophy upon which career plans are based refers not only to advancing careers to meet
organizational and individual requirements, but also the need to maximize the potential of the people
in the organization in terms of productivity and satisfaction under conditions of change, when
development does not necessarily mean promotion.

Career planning is for individuals as well as the organization

Career planning procedures are always based on what the organization needs. But they have to
recognize that organizational needs will not be satisfied if individual needs are neglected. Career
planning has to be concerned with the management of diversity.
Career plans must therefore recognize that:

* members of the organization should receive recognition as individuals with unique needs, wants,
and abilities;
* individuals are more motivated by an organization that responds to their aspirations and needs;
* individuals can grow, change and seek new directions if they are given the right opportunities,
encouragement and guidance.
Career planning techniques
Career planning uses all the information generated by the succession plans, performance, and
potential assessments and self assessments to develop programs and procedures which are designed
to implement career management policies, achieve succession planning objectives and generally
improve motivation, commitment and performance. The procedures used are those concerned with:
0 personal development planning .
0 training and management development.
0 mentoring
0 career counseling
In addition, career planning procedures may cater for the rising stars by 'fast tracking' them, that is,
deliberately accelerating promotion and giving them opportunities to display and enlarge their talents.
But these procedures should pay just as much, if not more, attention to those managers who are
following the middle route of steady, albeit unspectacular, progression.

• Career counseling
Performance management processes, should provide for counseling sessions between
individuals and their managers. These sessions should give the former the opportunity to
discuss their aspirations and the latter the chance to comment on them - helpfully - and, at a
later stage, to put forward specific
career development proposals to be fed into the overall career management programs.
2. Personal development planning
Personal development planning is carried out by individuals with guidance, encouragement
and help from their managers/HRM as required. A personal development plan sets out the
actions people propose to take to learn and to develop themselves. They take responsibility for
formulating and implementing the plan, but they receive support from the organization and
their managers in doing so. The purpose is to provide a 'self organized learning framework'.
3.MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT
Formal approaches to management development
The formal approaches to management development include:
1. development on the job through coaching, counseling, monitoring and feedback by
managers on a continuous basis associated with the use of performance management
processes to identify and satisfy development needs, and with mentoring;
2. development through work experience, which includes job rotation, job enlargement, taking
part in project teams or task groups, 'action learning', and secondment outside the
organization;
3.formal training by means of internal or external courses
 Structured self-development by following self managed learning programs agreed as a personal
development plan or learning contract with the manager or a management development adviser -
these may include guidance reading or the deliberate extension of knowledge or acquisition of new
skills on the job.
Mentoring
Mentoring is the process of using specially selected and trained individuals to provide guidance and
advice which will help to develop the careers of the 'protégés' Allocated to them.
Mentoring is aimed at complementing learning on the job, which must always be the best way of
acquiring the particular skills and knowledge the job holder needs. Mentoring also complements formal
training by providing those who benefit from it with individual guidance from experienced managers
who are 'wise in the ways of the organization'.
Mentors provide for the person or persons allocated to them :
advice in drawing up self-development programs or learning contracts; general help with learning
programs; guidance on how to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to do a new job; advice on
dealing with any administrative, technical or people problems individuals meet.
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Here’s what I typically suggested to companies that want to go through this process-
Define or validate the organization’s three-to five-year business strategy. This typically comes
from the executive group and should be communicated broadly to the organization.
Determine the organization structure required to support the business strategy. For
example, if the company is planning to grow by acquisition, the organization needs to be structured in
such a way as to facilitate the integration of new divisions or business units.
Define job roles. Using the new organization structure, create specific job roles. The most important
thing to remember in this step is to consider positions, not people. If you design positions around the
capabilities of the current incumbents, not the business requirements, you’ll be setting yourself up for
disappointment.

Define skills and competencies for each role. This step helps you to objectively determine the
behaviors and knowledge required for successful performance in each role.
Place individuals into positions based on the skill and competency requirements. This also is a difficult
step, because it forces you to take a hard look at individuals who may have been part of the
organization for a long time. However, if the business requirements have changed, and have resulted
in new skill and competency requirements, then the workforce you need will have changed
concurrently.
Review compensation and other HR programs. Once the structure and roles have changed, it’s
important to ensure that HR programs are aligned with the market. For example, if a position’s
responsibilities change as a result of the organization assessment, then you should benchmark the
new position’s compensation against the external market.
Communicate the changes. The effectiveness of your organization changes can be lost without the
support of a strong communication and implementation program. People will want to know what is
changing, why it’s changing, when it’s changing, etc., and it’s critical to never assume that people
have the same perspective of the organization that management does. So over-communicate. Help
people feel like they were part of the change process, not just affected by it. Get folks from the
organization involved in some of the design decisions, and ask for their input along the way. It’s really
the only way that a change like this will be sustainable.
Be flexible enough to change again soon. Change is never over, and new business challenges may
force you to go through the same process again soon. As long as the organization understands why
the changes are required, and they trust that management is steering the company in the right
direction, you should be able to have a positive impact.
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IN CAREER PATHING YOU NEED AN '' INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN''
FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL SELECTED FOR THE CAREER PATHING PROGRAM.
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