by The employee, the manager, and the employer all play roles in planning, guiding, and developing the employee’s career. However, the employee must always accept full responsibility for his or her own career development and career success. This is one task that no employee should ever leave to a manager or employer. For the individual employee, the career planning process means matching individual strengths and weaknesses with occupational opportunities and threats. The person wants to pursue occupations, jobs, and a career that capitalize on his or her interests, aptitudes, values, and skills. He or she wants to choose occupations, jobs, and a career, and a career that make sense in terms of projected future demand for various types of occupations.
Of course, career planning only gets one so far. Many people who had previously worked hard to train as computer systems analysts were devastated to find that the dot-com collapse had dramatically reduced the need for systems analysts. However, uncertainties like these only underscore the need for keeping one finger on the pulse of the job market, so as to be better positioned to move when a career change is required.
The Employee Role:
Making decisions like these is the employees responsibility. For example, an employee can do several things short of changing occupations. An employee must know what he is looking for in a job and to what extent his current position is fulfilling his needs. Get rid of energy-draining, low impact responsibilities. Employee can enhance his networks, for instance, by joining a cross-functional team at work, discussing career goals with role models, conducting informational interviews with people whose jobs are of interest and becoming a board member for a nonprofit organization so that the employee can interact with new people. If an employee is satisfied with his occupation and where he works, but not with his job as it is currently organized, the employee must reconfigure his job. For example, consider alternative work arrangements such as part time work, flexible hours, or telecommuting; delegate or eliminate the job function least preferred and seek out a ostrich assignment that will let him work on something that the employee finds challenging.
Workplace Politics
Employee development programs cannot always place the same amount of emphasis on all employees at once, and not all employees are interested in growing personally and professionally. When some employees take part in development programs and others do not, it creates an opportunity for negative workplace politics. Employees have a responsibility to refrain from gossiping about or resentfully treating others who take advantage of development programs, and to refrain from looking down on employees who choose not to participate.
Outside Learning
Certain aspects of employee development programs place a great deal of responsibility on employees to work hard in their personal time. An employer can offer a college tuition reimbursement plan, for example, but employees have to put in their own hours studying and working toward their degree. Likewise, employers can send employees to seminars and workshops, but employees must choose to use their time for learning and making professional contacts rather than treat the trip like a vacation.
Attitudes
Employees absolutely must have positive attitudes when approaching employee development programs. An attitude of entitlement or complacency can seriously hinder employees’ professional growth. If an employer gives an employee additional responsibility, for example, it is up to the employee to view it as an opportunity to learn and grow rather than being forced to do extra work. In addition, employees have a responsibility to make the most of training sessions rather than complain that training wastes their time.
Taking Initiative
Employee development initiatives can involve identifying potential management candidates on the front lines and giving them training and extra responsibility to prepare them for a future promotion. Employees have the responsibility to speak up to management about their ambitions and desire to progress in their career, however, and must earn the attention of management through excellent individual and team performance.
Employer Role
The manager plays a crucial role in career’s development. First of all, he should be a mentor to expand the capabilities of the individuals and improve their performance. According to John Kotter (2012), the role of the manager as a mentor can be helpful particularly for young employees, who have just started their career. He emphasizes that the successful executives, who he has known, have had two or more these sort of relationships with their managers in the early stage of their career. The mentors provided them with specific information, important contacts or skills.
The effective manager should incorporate coaching skills into his management style. For instance, at Intel, the management department is responsible to help the workforce understand the shifting demand for their skills and ensure that the staff will be provided with appropriate training. At Reuters, the employees are also receiving the guidance to help them to work more efficiently.
