The Important Career Development on Organization - Research Paper Example

?Introduction: Career development is a planned approach towards matching individual’s career objective with the organization’s requirements and needs. The aim of career development is to improve every individual’s present work performance, allow them to benefit from the upcoming job opportunities and last but not the least, accomplish company’s objective for retaining motivated, effective and an intelligent workforce. Research Question: Is career development important in an organization to retain efficient and talented employees? Research Objective: The aim of the research would be to find out whether career development in an organization plays an essential role in retaining employees and in doing so achieve the following objectives: Impact of career development on the employees Identify how career development can result in lower employee turnover Literature Review: Everts L (2001) State that Purpose of Career development is to improve the overall performance of the company and the employee by following certain activities. Individuals should take career development process seriously in order to progress professionally. Moreover, organizations should also consider it important to practice this process to bring out the best from their employees. (Iretire, 2011) illustrate that career development as a ladder towards success which helps every individual achieve his or her objective by following various steps. This process provides guidance to an individual since the start of his/her career beginning right from choosing the right educational institution, subject to organization. The Career Planning covers areas like choosing of an occupation, getting a job, growing in your job, achieving the desiired growth and eventually retiring. (Gutteridge 1986) argue that Career development is one of an integral component of human resource (HR) management in a workplace. Other components consist of company’s design, control, HR planning and evaluation. Along with focusing on other components of human resource management, companies should also give equal attention to the area of career development as it is helps gain greater output. (Fink, 1992) demonstrate that in today’s competitive environment career development plays an essential role. Both, youngsters and adults have started giving career development due importance in order to be successful in the profession they choose. Moreover, employees today are very much concerned about their career than before. As the economy is growing, workers demands are also increasing both in terms of progress and personal growth. Organizations and companies that are not able to meet these needs and demands of their workers face increased employee turnover. Therefore, this research paper will discuss the importance of career development in an organization as it not only helps retain employees but also benefits employees by allowing them to fulfill their career related wants and needs. Various companies today are facing one common problem, i.e. employee retention. They are aware of the fact that replacing employees is a lot more expensive than retaining existing ones. Hiring new employees includes high cost of recruiting and training. High employee turnover not only effects the organization in terms of high cost but also have a negative effect on its effectiveness and efficiency. The most effected organizations are service oriented ones including firefighters and law-enforcement agencies that require highly trained, skilled and competent workforce. Many studies have been conducted to best address this problem and results have shown that career development programs can resolve this issue to a certain extent. Earlier, it was assumed that employee need a straight path to move up the ladder, (Werther & Davis, 1992) cite Career development is not just about moving ahead but is about achieving what is best for his/her career and suits his/her expertise. This will also enable employee to contribute positively in achieving company’s goal and objective. Implementing career development program is a solution to the number of problems faced by the organizations like, retaining high performing talented employees or executives, reducing cost of turnover, assisting good managers produce positive and stronger outcomes and getting good return on HR investment Research philosophy, approach and strategy: My research is based on phenomenological philosophy which describes one or more individual’s experiences of a phenomenon. There are different types of phenomenological and my research is based on individual phenomenological as it involves few number of data samples. I have used an inductive approach in my research as my study includes the qualitative evaluation data. This approach is basically used when your research requires, condensing of raw information into a concise summary and establishing an understandable link between the research objective and the summary of the results found from the raw data collected. For my research paper I have conducted primary research by designing a questionnaire. Questionnaire results gave me a detailed insight on the opinions of general public regarding the importance of career development in an organization. To collect secondary data, I went through various research reports, working papers and publications on career development and compressed the collected raw data into a brief literature review. Research strategy reflects general approach and objective of a research study. Research strategy that I have used in my paper is descriptive. This is the most commonly used strategy and its purpose is to find out the cause of something that is happening. For instance in my research I have found out that one main reasons for high employee turnover in an organization is less or no focus in the area of “career development”. This research strategy includes surveys, case studies, and documentary analyses. Access and Ethical Measure: This topic has been chosen by me after doing thorough research through which I found out that a lot of study has been previously conducted on this topic which made access to the needed information easier. This topic is ethically accepted and is beneficial for both the employees as well as the organization as it discusses the importance of career development from both aspects. This study has no negative impact on any organization or individual and has been approved by my tutor who has also guided and instructed me throughout the project. However, since my research method also involves questionnaire, there is a possibility that some common errors might occur like, people providing vague information during the process due to unclear understanding of the topic, and also by intentionally providing false information by lying or not replying to the questions asked to them. Moreover, the results of this research is based on the evaluation of the study conducted by the researchers earlier, therefore there is a possibility that this research can change over the period of time. Research Methodology: Presently there are various job options available for an individual. Therefore it has been seen that employee turnover rate in many organization has been increasing. Career development programs not only help organizations retain employees but also benefits employees by allowing them to fulfill their career related wants and needs. The purpose of this study is to find out the role of career development in reducing the employee turnover rate. A descriptive research method is used in this paper and is based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through questionnaires where various questions regarding career development were asked from few individuals. This questionnaire comprised of both close ended and open ended questions. The close ended questions were used to find out their current work status, the reason for leaving their previous job and the number of years they have worked in the organization they left. In order to find out the importance and benefits of implementing career development programs in an organization, open ended questions were used in this research. There are five questions in the questionnaire from which two are open ended questions and rest are close ended questions. Graphical presentation has also been done in terms of percentage of the data collected through questionnaires. To collect secondary data I have gone through different research reports, working papers and publications on career development. This gave me a deep insight on this topic and helped me attain good understanding and knowledge it. Data Analysis and Findings: Data collected from the questionnaire shows that, five respondents out of seven respondents left their previous job in the period of less than 3 years. All five stated the reason that “they were employed by other organization” and got a better opportunity. The data further shows that respondent 7 who is in his sixth year is still working. Therefore it can be concluded from the data gathered, that if the companies are able to retain the employee till the fourth or fifth year, there are high chances that he will remain for a longer period. It is the group (one-three) years of employees which every company must focus their career development efforts on. For question number four almost all respondents gave a positive answer i.e. they all believe that implementing career development programs in organizations will help reduce employee turnover. Answers for some of the respondents are as follows: “Respondent 1: “yes it does because this policy has also been adopted by Wall Mart and they had been successful”. Respondent 2: “in my opinion implementing career development programs increases job satisfaction level in the employees which in turn reduces employee turnover”. Respondent 3: “Development of current employees reduces the company’s dependence on hiring new workers and if employees are developed, the job openings are more likely to be filled internally”. Respondent 4: “yes it does because every employee needs appreciation, training and career development opportunities”.” Moreover, for question number 5, majority agreed to the fact that career development is one of the important components of an organization’s strategic plan. Answers of few of the respondents are as follows: Respondent 1: “By giving perspectives, hopes and aspiration to its employees a company ensures they will be loyal, they will work their hardest and they will be retained (at least when they are good)”. Respondent 2: “Yes it is because it helps identify, develop, and retain employees who are the right people having the right skills”. Respondent 3: “I think career development is essential in every organization in order to maximize the existing talent pools in their own companies”. Respondent 4: “career development is very important to retain trained and skilled staff because the more different technical skills there are involved in the design, manufacture, marketing, and sales of a product, the more vulnerable the organization will be to critical shortages of the right kinds of human resources”. By looking at the response we can clearly state that it is essential to make career development efforts for every organization if they want to retain their efficient and talented employees. Conclusion: After researching the topic of “Importance of Career Development in an Organization”, I strongly believe that organization would surely benefit by implementing such programs. A properly structured career development program will greatly assist organizations in retaining most efficient workforce. Moreover, implementing these programs will benefit both organizations and employees in the long-run. “Even in a 1978 survey conducted by the American Management Association on company-sponsored Career Development Programs, over 90% of the respondents found them to enhance job performance, help employees use personnel systems more effectively, and improve the utilization of available talent” (Walker & Gutteridge, 1979). Therefore, it is essential that every organization conduct these programs on regular basis. Hence my research question, “Is career development important in an organization to retain efficient and talented employees?” proves to be true. Questionnaire 1. Name: _________________ Status: A. Working in the same company for more than 3 years (1 Respondent) B. Recently Switched the job (5 Respondent) C. Have Not Worked at all (1 Respondent) FOR OPTIONS ‘A’ and ‘B’: Name of the company (Optional) _____________________ 2. No. of years worked (Previous Job): ______________________ Respondent 1: 2 Years Respondent 2: 1.5 Years Respondent 3: Less than 3 years Respondent 4: 2 years Respondent 5: 1 Year Respondent 6: -- Respondent 7: 6 Years – Till date 3. What was your reason for leaving your previous job? (for people who have left their previous job) Employed by another organization (5 Respondents) Personal reasons (Non) Job Dissatisfaction 4. Will implementing Career Development Programs in organizations result in reduced employee turnover? Why? Respondent 1: “yes it does because this policy has also been adopted by Wall Mart and they had been successful”. Respondent 2: “in my opinion implementing career development programs increases job satisfaction level in the employees which in turn reduces employee turnover”. Respondent 3: “Development of current employees reduces the company’s dependence on hiring new workers and if employees are developed, the job openings are more likely to be filled internally”. Respondent 4: “yes it does because every employee needs appreciation, training and career development opportunities”. Respondent 5: “of course it does because if my last job had given me career development opportunities I would still have been working there”. Respondent 6: “though I have no much knowledge about but I this career development programs will reduce employee turnover to some extent”. Respondent 7: “If employees are stuck in a job with no opportunity for promotion and no variety, they will become bored and leave so yes career development programs does help”. 5. Is career development an important component of an organization’s strategic plan? Respondent 1: “By giving perspectives, hopes and aspiration to its employees a company ensures they will be loyal, they will work their hardest and they will be retained (at least when they are good)”. Respondent 2: “Yes it is because it helps identify, develop, and retain employees who are the right people having the right skills”. Respondent 3: “I think career development is essential in every organization in order to maximize the existing talent pools in their own companies”. Respondent 4: “career development is very important to retain trained and skilled staff because the more different technical skills there are involved in the design, manufacture, marketing, and sales of a product, the more vulnerable the organization will be to critical shortages of the right kinds of human resources”. Respondent 5: “ yes it is because the main reason for leaving my last job was that they had no focus on the career development of their employees”. Respondent 6: “As I have not worked at all I can provide you with an appropriate answer to this question”. Respondent 7: “yes career development is an important component both from the point of view of the organization and the employee as it will help organization reduce training cost and employee turnover and at the same time help employees grow in the career”. Its been approximately more than 5 years now that I working in the same company and the reason is good friendly environment and the career development programs they offer. Purpose and Design Evaluation “number of years worked” will give us a rough idea about the target group leaving the organization. This will help us identify the group that needs focus in terms of career development efforts. Reasons for turnover will help us identify the reason for increased turnover in an organization. People leaving jobs due to getting better opportunity or job dissatisfaction are both because of less or no career development efforts made by the organizations. References: 1. Everts L (2001). A Sudy of Career Development Programs in Wisconsin Muncipal Police Agencies [Online]. Available from: http://www2.uwstout.edu/content/lib/thesis/2001/2001evertsg.pdf [Accessed 23rd May 2011] 2. Iretire (2011). Career Development, Career Planning [Online]. Available from: http://www.iretireearly.com/career-development-planning.html [Accessed 26th May 2011] 3. Gutteridge (1986). Career Development in the workplace [Online]. Available from: http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9212/career.htm [Accessed 28th May 2011] 4. Fink, S. (1992). High commitment workplaces. New York: Quorum. 5. Werther, W., & Davis, K. (1992). Personnel management and human resources. New York: McGraw-Hill. 6. Walker, J., & Gutteridge, T. (1979). Career planning practices: An AMA survey report. New York: Amacom. 7. Leibowitz, B., Farren, C., & Kaye, L. (1986). Designing career development systems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 8. Herzberg, F. (1975). One more time: How do you motivate employees? New York: Harper & Row. Read More