Career develpoment plan part (iii) - Essay Example

Performance and Career Management Midhat Bhamani Inbox Business Technologies Marketing and Communications November 12, 2009 Individual assignment: Performance and Career ManagementCareer Management PlanCareer Management is an essential attribute for Organizations, which require its employees to not only function effectively, but also have a road map for their potential career growth. It is a strategic trail created for employees to know where they stand currently, and where they can be in certain time frame.

In order to carry out a systematic Career Management Plan, it’s important to evaluate the current-state of each individual employee. There is a simple, yet effective procedure for employee assessment, providing them with their specific Career Maps in order to grow. Here are three basic questions to answer:1. Where are you right now? This gives the current-state analysis of skills, capabilities, and knowledge which each individual employee holds at this point in time. They are then required to jot down the strengths and weaknesses, which they think they carry.

Their self assessment is then passed on to functional managers for evaluation based on their observation about each individual. This is more like a starting point for the employee’s career, presence of which may un-block potential growth areas.2. Where do you want to be? Second question which needs attention is the future-state one seeks to reach, considering the career interest, knowledge, and skills which can be enhanced. It gives a proper direction for pursuing the career one wants to stick to after gaining much experience.

Mostly, career counseling or proper mentoring by experts can help in figuring out the place one desires to reach.3. What are the main gaps between the above two? Lastly, figuring out the gaps between the current-state and the future-state provides structured Action Plan for achieving desired goals. Over here, it’s very critical to have realistic goals in mind, absence of which can make the efforts go invain. The action plan created acts like a detailed map, consisting of step-by-step measures required to progress.

The career map formed by the assessment acts like the initial document for carrying out the Performance Appraisal procedure, along with the Job Description and Job Responsibilities’ documents provided to employees at the time of induction. At the time of appraisal, which is the basic step for evaluating the progress, appraisal forms (refer to Appendix A) are shared. The yearly, bi-yearly, or quarterly appraisals highlight the strengths, which have been utilized the most; and the areas of improvement of each employee separately.

Feedbacks of the appraisals are shared with the employees individually by calling private meeting in a closed room, where concerns can be shared and disagreements can be catered to frankly. The feedbacks, out of appraisals, lead to the opportunities which are given to employees for filling the gaps. They are provided with career counseling, technical and soft skills trainings, seminars, and workshops to improve the weaknesses in order to achieve their goals. They are rotated to several functions/departments to observe and learn from others.

They stay under direct supervision of a mentor assigned to them for improving of both; knowledge as well as skills. Let us not forget, along with enhancing their capabilities, it is equally important to keep their morale high while on the job, for which Employee Incentives are provided in the form of Cash Bonuses, Small Gifts, Free Trips, and Free Entertainment Tickets. This is a driving factor for leading to job satisfaction, thus increasing level of performance.One of the major challenges faced by organizations is the dual career parenting, which is increasing day by day.

To cater to that, there is a day-care center and option of availing flex-time opportunity for employees who face difficulty management home and office. Research shows that the use of resources such as on-site childcare relates to greater job satisfaction and perceived work-family balance (Ezra & Deckman, 1996). Doing so helps in employee time saved, increased motivation and productivity, better employee retention, decreased healthcare costs and stress-related illnesses, and lower absenteeism (Landaur, 1997).

Respecting diversity of the employees in terms of demographic, physiographic and geography; is also a key factor for employee motivations. Being the organization following Equal Employment Opportunity, there are trainings provided for behavioral and cultural difference, such that all employees feel equal. If required, basic entities like language, accent, and presenting skills are greatly taken care of.Conclusion:My report is based on best practices, used by experts and management gurus, proven to map out career plan, leading to Performance Management of employees (see references section).

It details about the basic steps, which if taken, can save organizations from the turnover cost which they may incur due to dissatisfied employees. It also elaborates the measures one needs to take to achieve the set goals, as discussed in the assessment steps, which would lead to retaining employee’s morale and generating efficient results. The cost occurred through training programs, workshops, seminars, employee incentives, flex-work hours, and career mapping would be a small price paid by the organizations in getting desired outputs individually and being ahead of competition, collectively.

ReferencesMary L. Tanke, Human Resources Management for the hospitality industry (Delmar Publishing, 6th edition, 1990). F. Hall and D. Hall, The Two-Career Couple (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1979).Appendix APerformance Appraisal FormEmployee Name:Employee Code:Date of Review:Reviewed By:Department:Position Title:City:State:Country:PART 1 – SPECIFIC JOB PERFORMANCE FACTORSQuality of Work – Level of accuracy, neatness, and thoroughness of output ad production.

 Excellent Very Good Fully Satisfactory Needs Improvement UnsatisfactoryExplain: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Quality of Work – Volume of acceptable work accomplished, ability to meet schedules, use of time, and level of results achieved. Excellent Very Good Fully Satisfactory Needs Improvement UnsatisfactoryExplain: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Highlight of Performance last year__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Lowlights of Performance last year__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Expectations and Must Do’s__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Overall Assessment and Training Needs__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Comments by Employer __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________PART 2 – POLICY REVIEW The following must be reviewed with the employee at the time of his / her review.

Code of Business Ethics or Stands of Employee Conduct____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________PART 3 – SIGNATURESEmployee DatePrepared ByTitleDateApproved ByTitleDateNote: Forward Original Form to the Human Resources Department for review and inclusion in the employee’s folder.Human Resources Reviewer: _____________________ Date: _______________