Career Management Week 4 Hrm 531

Career Management Plan HRM 531/ Human Capital Management Career Management Plan Introduction The Career management plan begins with the employee themselves. They are the key to their own success. ‘A career is not something that should be left to chance; instead, in the evolving world of work it should be shaped and managed more by the individual than by the organization. † (Grove, 1999). While it is important for the employee to manage their own career it is equally important for their managers to develop a career management plan to guide them within the organization.The employee may take this information and either develop from it or become stagnant. This paper will discuss different aspects of Career Management such as: feedback, how a manager will help employees reach higher levels of performance, opportunities for advancement to increase skills, flexible opportunities for dual-career parents, adaptation to team diversity and a justification of every member’s ca reer and how they will be handled along with the expected benefits and types of costs. Analysis FeedbackDevelopmental feedback should be given to each employee by their manager or supervisor. Feedback is defined as, â€Å"An employee performance appraisal is a process—often combining both written and oral elements—whereby management evaluates and provides feedback on employee job performance, including steps to improve or redirect activities as needed. † (Cascio, 2006, p 327). Feedback may be both positive and negative. Both should be presented to the employee. If negative feedback is offered the manager should be cautious and sensitive on the presentation of the material.There are different kinds of feedback that should be offered to the employee. The different periods that feedback may be offered in are; after thirty days of starting in the position, immediately as needed in a situation or regularly scheduled. New Employee Each new employee will be evaluated 3 0 days after their first day of working in the position. This feedback will allow the employee to see how they are performing to the job description of the position. It will also give the manager the information on how the employee is performing to the expectations of the position.If redirecting and review needs to take place, this is an important time in the career path of the employee. This sets the foundation for good employee habits. Immediate Feedback In a heightened situation a review and feedback should be done in a timely fashion or immediately as the situation requires. This allows the employee to redirect if necessary and build good work habits. While feedback cannot always be managed so quickly, this is the optimal solution. Immediate feedback should be in the manner of oral and written communication.The supervisor should counsel the employee and speak to the employee with immediate feedback, then follow up with written communication. The employee should then have the abi lity to respond to the supervisor in writing within thirty days. Scheduled feedback Feedback will be given to the employee on a scheduled basis. A review will be done both semi-annually and annually. The format for the semi-annual and annual appraisals will be the same. The goal of each manager will be to provide the employee important information on their performance. The appraisal will be non – biased and informational.The employee should be rated on their individual strengths, including: the quality of their work, knowledge of the job, communication between other members of the organization, work habits, job knowledge and the behaviors and relations with others. The feedback from the appraisal should show how the employee can improve their performance and the tools and resources they have available to improve their performance. After the feedback is presented to the employee in oral and written format, the employee will have thirty days to respond to the feedback.The manag ers or supervisors will then have thirty days to respond to the employees’ feedback. How a manager will help employees reach higher levels of Performance The basis of goal setting and the appraisal and feedback process is to assist the employee to reach higher levels of performance within their current position and to set the stage for future performance and growth. This performance may benefit our company or the employee may leave and take the skill sets they have learned with them.It is the job of the manager to assist the employee to gain higher levels of performance so that they will want to stay with our company. Cascio describes performance as, â€Å"A manager who defines performance ensures that individual employees or teams know what is expected of them, and that they stay focused on effective performance. † (Cascio, 2006, p 329). . How do we as managers accomplish this task? â€Å"By paying careful attention to three key elements: goals, measures, and assessm ent† (Cascio, 2006, p 329). Setting goals for employees sets the expectations that they will work toward.Cascio describes the goal setting process, â€Å"Set specific, challenging goals, for this clarifies precisely what is expected and leads to high levels of performance. On average, studies show, you can expect to improve productivity 10 percent by using goal setting. ’ (Cascio, 2006, p 330). The employees should have realistic and measureable goals. The more defined the goals are the easier they will be understood and be able to be assessed. These goals should align and incorporate the corporate objective of increasing market share and customer based sales. The measures and assessments are part of the appraisal and feedback process.Opportunities for Advancement Opportunities for advancement are largely dependent on the employee and their desire to meet and exceed the goals a manager has set for them. The long term goals for each person vary. It is a managers’ job to realistically discuss what the goals of each employee’s are. Individual goals vary from person to person. One goal for an upcoming salesperson may be to be a Sales Manager within five years. For an older person it may entirely different. Cascio describes an older person’s goal, â€Å"Late careers increasingly are defined in terms of phased retirement.In this new world, the ultimate goal is psychological success, the feeling of pride and personal accomplishment that comes from achieving your most important goals in life, be they achievement, family happiness, inner peace, or something else. † (Cascio, 2006, p 376). Options for Advancement Once individual goals are set, the manager may look at the various options available within the company to meet the needs of the employee. There are a variety of options available to the manager to meet the different goals of an employee. The goals may include upward or lateral moves within the company.To meet the indivi dual goals, training or retraining in different areas may be necessary. The employee may need to be challenged so that they do not become stagnant. The manger may identifying skill sets of the employee and suggest vacancies or positions within the company that would utilize the employees’ strengths to move upward. If the company adds a new market segment, retraining may be offered to current employees. The tuition reimbursement plan of $2000. 00 per employee per year allows the employee to have the company pay for further education at an accredited institution.The focus of the education must align with the employees’ position or future goals. The tuition reimbursement plan is part of the employees’ total compensation package. Other offerings to employees may be established if the manager identifies an unmet need that would benefit many employees. Flexible opportunities for Dual – Career Parents In current studies we see that â€Å"forty five percent of t he workforce is made up of dual- career couples. † (Cascio, 2006, p 379) The dual career couples and parents have presented to be a unique concern in our company.To meet the needs of this group we have offered a variety of opportunities to our employees. Flexible work hours have been established in departments that are not schedule based. Employees may use accrued compensation time to meet family needs. They appreciate work times that may tailored to their family needs. Since beginning this policy, we see that the turnover rate of dual career couples has decreased. Telework from home is allowed for approved employees. When employees are sick or have sick children they work from home, which has reduced company absenteeism.This has allowed employees the flexibility to meet the needs of their families while maintaining productivity. On-site daycare facilities have been established in many of our site locations. This allows parents to spend more time with their children. It has de creased absenteeism of parents. Reviews from parents with children in the company day care facilities have stated that they no longer have to take time off because of private care facilities closing during work days. In many instances productivity has increased because of these measures. The goals of a dual career couple employee may also be unique.The manager should be aware of any special concerns regarding lateral, upward or career relocations this may have for the employee. Adaptation to team diversity and a justification of every member’s career Our company has a combined workforce made up with a very diverse set of employees. There are new graduates directly out of high school and college that have little to no work experience. There are seasoned employees that have been with the company for a number of years. There are individuals from a variety of races that speak many different languages.Our workforce is comprised of nearly equal genders. We are a non-biased company that is utilizing each employee’s strengths. When a unique talent is needed in a specialized market we try to fill the position using the employee’s strong points. Culture differences and fluency in different languages is definitely a plus in our company. An example of the current views on cultures shows that most companies are trying to diversify their workforce. â€Å"We feel it’s important to have employees who represent all walks of life from many diverse cultural backgrounds. (Burden, Octo) We have recently marketed to the Health Care industry in a Spanish speaking region. We have realigned the Spanish speaking sales representative and customer support to these accounts. Productivity and sales have increased three times in the account. Participation in these market segments is voluntary and should be part of the personal goals of the employee. Bonuses and salary increases of five percent will be given to bilingual employees that work in these diverse marke t segments. Bias toward any particular group of people will not be tolerated.Justify the report and the expected benefits and types of costs. The process of appraising, rating and feedback allows for clear and concrete goal setting. The cost of the process and employee offerings far outweighs the cost of doing a mediocre job of employee development and career planning. With concise goals and managers that assist in employee development a strong workforce is being developed within the company. There are many benefits to assisting employees with their career plans. We have a workforce that is staying with the company for longer period of times, more nowledgeable about many departments within the company and more loyal. We have workers that are telecommuting, getting more work done at home than at the office. These are just some of the benefits of career planning. There are also many costs that are avoided with having a stronger workforce. These costs are associated with the lack of em ployee development and career planning. Employee retention and turnover is one of the largest costs to a company. In an industry average we see that employee turnover has a great impact. These calculations will easily reach 150% of the employee’s annual compensation figure. The cost will be significantly higher (200% to 250% of annual compensation) for managerial and sales positions. † (Bliss, May) Retraining employees to work in another department allows them to share and expand their knowledge and eventually make for a stronger company. â€Å"While it is true that sales and other financial statistics determine the success of a company, what most people overlook is the fact that employees are among the most important determinants of the success of a company. (Icles, Apri). Conclusion This paper has shown the process of feedback, how managers may assist employees to reach a higher level of performance, a discussion on lateral and upward advancement, dual – coupl e careers, diversity and the benefits and types of costs of having a career plan. It has been seen that having goals that are derived from an appraisal may start the employee on a career plan. While the employee is ultimately responsible for developing their own career, their manager will play a significant role in modeling the way for that development.Developing a career management plan for employees has associated costs, but we have seen that the benefits outweigh these costs. These benefits are retention of happier, more productive and loyal employees. It appears that career management planning is the way to go for any company. References Bliss, W. G. (May 9, 2010). Cost of Employee Turnover. Retrieved from http://www. isquare. com/turnover. cfm Burden, M. (October 15,2010) Flint Journal – Michigan Business Flourish Because of Bilingual Workers. Retrieved from