Executive Summary
This essay aims to discuss certain aspects about various aspects of Career Management theory and its application with regards to an organization. Career Management is crucial and vital for any organization. It involves management of the entire organizational specific operations and Human Resource of the organization in an efficient manner that can best result in terms of productivity and growth. It will also highlight certain recommendations that are important to empower the employees of the organization.
Physical, Capital and Human Resource are amongst the key assets of any organization that can play a very critical and important role in the overall growth of the organization. In today’s competing and challenging world, it has become all the more difficult for the top-level management to manage their human resources. They are facing various challenges such as staffing, excessive staff turnover problems, absenteeism, lower self-satisfaction amongst the employees and so on. Hence, under such circumstances it will be more important for the organization to implement the career management strategies to overcome these issues and challenges in a given situation.
Further, it will also help in reducing the chances of hiring incompetent and ineligible employees that could obviously become a reason to stop company in achieving high value goals. This is beneficial to the organization in terms of its overall performance, fame and of course productivity. A particular organization must do some homework and plan properly about their recruitment and selection policy before conducting the appointment of new staff. I would like to provide suggestions and recommendations that will help the organization to plan their recruitment policy as per the needs and objectives of the organization.
Recommendations
This essay intends to discuss important recommendations in connection to the career management that a HR coordinator proposes for an organization’s functional and operational perspective. First important recommendation related to the career management and enhancement of the productivity of the organization is to provide appropriate training to all the people of the organization. Today, in this contemporary challenging world, we are finding issues of Human Resources, due to which it can badly impact the entire organization in the future (Price, 2000).
Secondly, the Human Resource (HR) Department will need to prepare the framework for the rules, norms, and other policies, which in turn will help in increasing the motivation for the employees of a given organization. It is, indeed, important for the organization to observe that high quality employees are hired in order to achieve the business oriented goals and targets set by the organization. In addition, for the purpose of Career Management, they should be provided equal opportunities to all the employees of the organization. They should be promoted and rewarded so as to eliminate all the HR issues within the organization.
Justification
There are many major hurdles that need to be focus upon in order to better manage the workforce by the HRM in the given enterprise. There is a barrier of language in achieving the desired performance for the organization. They might fail to bridge the gap between their cultures and language barriers, and hence, will not be able to deliver as per the expectations.
Some cultures might value experienced people, while other cultures might value people with higher accomplishments. Some cultures might have vertical structures of hierarchy while some cultures will have horizontal hierarchy. Further, due to different cultures, there will be a lot of misunderstandings and confusions between the team members, which will finally result into conflicts within the team (Price, 2000). Hence, under all such circumstances, it will be more important to train the employees in the right direction and provide them with appropriate resources so as to get the desired outputs for the organization.
The formulation and policies of the procedures for the organization will create a transparent environment, and the employee will become aware regarding how he or she can get the promotion or rewards. Thus, it will form an indirect way not only to increase the motivation for the employees but also to overcome the staff-turnover issues within the organization. It will also increase self-satisfaction levels of the organization.
Background
Every employee of an organization is an integral part and an asset of the respective organization. The contribution of each employee toward the growth of that organization is critical and therefore prospects looking for joining the organization need to go through the selection and recruitment process, which is managed by the Human resource department staff of that organization.
But as said before, each employee plays a vital role and therefore hiring process is look after and backed up by the efforts of a team. It is of course a team work and individualistic approach is counter-productive. We will try to group ourselves as team members of an organization and try to get into the depth of the process practically for developing better understanding of it. It is important to provide proper training and formulate proper policies in the given workplace so as to overcome the various HR issues as discussed before. However, we would like to check the history of certain cases, will try to find out the associated symptoms, will look on the different implications, and, will finally suggest certain recommendations so as to solve the given issues.
History of the Issue
It has been noticed that, during the earlier times, due to lack of training there were many conflicting issues within the organization. The organization failed to deliver as per the objectives many a times, and hence, it was decided to provide training to all the employees on a regular basis (Price, 2000). Secondly, there was no proper structure on how the policies were framed and implemented inside the organization. Hence, there was a need for the monitoring purpose as well as a proper structure within the HR Department so that it will make easy for the respective entities of the organization.
Symptoms vs. Causes
The symptoms for such issues could be of course, the age-old practices and traditions, due to which the organization was suffering till date. There were severe consequences of staffing turnover, high rates of absenteeism, lower motivation morale, and lower self-satisfaction observed amongst the employees of the organization. The age-old culture and lack of proper structure had a direct relationship in causing such issues within the organization.
In addition, the HR Department also failed in providing proper training from time to time to all the employees of the organization (Beauchamp & Childress, 1983). As a result, the employees were not able to achieve the desired objectives for the organization. Today, the HR Department should at least anticipate the changes in the next five years down the line for a given organization. This gap was lacking within the organization, and hence, it had to suffer from severe consequences.
Cost Implications
We are aiming at providing proper training to the employees of the organization. For this purpose, we will be required to conduct training sessions, deliver presentations, and also provide some hand-layouts that will help these employees to understand the theoretical and practical aspects at their given workplace. In addition, it is important for them to understand the cause of their different working issues, and then apply various theories taught during these training sessions. It will help them to get the desired solutions. They need to focus more upon innovation, managerial aspects, and team-working approach so as to achieve the desired targets for a given organization (Raymond, 2004).
Thus, the basic costs implications will include the costs of preparing these materials, the costs of conducting training sessions, and the costs of monitoring the performance. In addition, there will be even costs related to the different opportunities, which the organization might miss due to one or the other reason. There could be certain extra costs due to mismanagement inside the organization. Hence, the HR Department needs to take care of all these issues; and, at the same time, need to also finalize their structure so that they can design and implement proper policies at the respective workplace in the organization.
Legal Implications
There could be several legal and other implications of the employment laws and recruitment on the hiring of the candidates. These can first of all greatly affect the general recruitment and interviewing procedures, training and development objectives, promotion norms, work-related social activities, retirement benefits, preparation of the pension schemes, dismissal norms and procedures, and the conduct of work inside the given organization (Raymond, 2004).
Keeping in this mind, the first Act that prohibits any sort of discrimination against the minorities during the hiring of candidates is the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 1870, and 1871. In order to improve the situation of the workers and the employees working in the given organization, the organization is advised to give a minimum wage, paying for the overtime, and preventing the child labor practices. The law that takes care of these actions is the Fail Labor Standards Act of 1938. In order to consider men and women equal at work, they need to be given equal opportunities, similar responsibilities, similar working conditions, and similar payouts. The law that monitors these activities is the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
There were some uniform guidelines established for the employee selection procedures in 1978 that instructs the organization to frame and design their tests and other selection procedures as per the given format in these guidelines. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits the Human Resource team of the given organization from getting indulged into any sort of discrimination against the qualified individuals with disabilities (Dale, 2004).
Thus, overall, the HR team just needs to take care of all these legal issues, during the hiring processes of the candidates for a given organization. There will be no legal issues associated with the policy formation except regarding the wages and other benefits provided to the employees of the organization (Raymond, 2004).
Relationship Implications
The relationship implications will include a direct impact on the performance of the employees within the organization. If the plan works out well, and all the employees are satisfied with the new structure, new training sessions, and new promotion and rewards policy their inner motivation and self-satisfaction will definitely increase. In addition, we would also observe an implication on the relation between the Manager and his team or the employees working under him. They will be working like a team, and there will be lesser conflicts and other HR issues, which we discussed earlier in the paper.
I hope that, to improve the performance on a quick basis, the managers and supervisors need to implement new plans and strategies. The training sessions will help in making these employees more work like professionals. They will apply a particular approach in their work and will be able to solve any challenges that they might face during this period. The HR Department can also conduct mentoring programs to boost the performance of the employees and also help them in solving their weaknesses. In fact, they will guide them in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities at their respective workplaces (Raymond, 2004).
Other company practices
I am not much aware of the company practices and policies regarding recruitment, training, and promoting the employees since they are quite confidential for every organization. However, I am at least aware of the survey results taken by the third party organization on these issues. It has been found that, employees are looking forward for other gains and benefits besides monetary gains. They want status, they want to get promoted, they want to try on new roles and responsibilities, and finally, they also want to become the member of the top-level management during the later stage of the life (Raymond, 2004).
Hence, in order to incorporate all these issues, several companies do provide promotions on a short-duration, once he completes a minimum tenure of three or five years, depending upon the organization. In addition, some of the organizations focus more on the monetary gains, and also link incentives to the performance of the employees. This also helps in increasing the self-satisfaction and motivation levels of the employees within the organization.
Timing
In order to quickly address the competitive issue and the HR issues, it will be more important for the HR Team, to focus upon all these issues on a quick note. However, they can set a timeframe for the policy implementation issue, since it will take time. So, they can address this particular issue, in different phase manner.
Evaluation of Alternatives
The alternatives available for the organization to solve the staff retention, high rates of absenteeism, and failing to address the change will be specifically only two: (i) they can either, provide appropriate training to the employees and implement policies that will take care of the motivation and self-satisfaction levels of the employees, or they can hire a third-party entity that will look after all these issues. The HR Department will not be directly involved in such cases. Hence, it will be more important to view the costs and monitoring implications for both the cases.
The costs will be of course, more in the case of hiring third party business entities, but since they are more professionals a structured approach will function more. On the other hand, there will be proper structure followed if the organization decides to implement the solution with the help of the HR Department. However, the costs will be less, and in addition, they are more aware of the cultural and environmental issues within the organization. Hence, they can at least select proper direction for implementing the require solutions.
Implementation
Career Management programs, training sessions, and the required policies will be implemented, once the top-level management agrees to the recommendations. The HR Department can then prepare the blue-print of the solution, which will be address different challenges and issues within the organization.
The Career Management theory is an important consideration for the management and the Human Resource managers to consider for the employee-specific policy making. The HR department serves as the main stakeholders that can bridge the gap in the policy specific differences between a business organization with its competitors by identifying the key areas of enhancement and recommendations from time to time.
Appendices
Appendix – 1: Announcement to the Employees on Training Sessions
Dear Staff Members,
As you are all aware of the new policies and norms formulated by the Human Resource Department, it is glad to announce that you all will be required to undergo the necessary training to get yourself updated with the latest knowledge, updates on technology and systems, and the new way of working. It is important for you to accept this new change as a challenge and overcome the same through the support and assistance from the HR Department.
We would be dividing the entire training into a series of different sessions and will be classifying the members in the form of a mixed bag. It will comprise of members from different departments, with different expertise and skills, and different working approach. We will be even conducting exercises and you will be required to participate in a team-based approach. This will help you to resolve the internal conflicts, strengthen the bonds and finally deliver as per the expectations of the organization.
And, one more thing, which will be updated to all of you, will be the new procedure on promotions and rewards. It will help you in getting better rewards and recognitions and that too in shorter durations. I hope that you all will support with better enthusiasm and participation in this new activity of the organization.
Best Regards,
The HR Team
References
Beauchamp T.I., & Childress J.F. (1983). Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Braithwaite, R.L., & Arriola, K.R. (2003). Male prisoners and HIV prevention: a call for action ignored. American Journal of Public Health, 93(5), 759-763.
Dale, M. (2004). Manager's guide to recruitment and selection. USA: Kogan Page Publishers.
Price, A. (2000). Principles of Career Management: an active learning approach. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Raymond, A. (2004). Fundamentals of Career Management. London: McGraw-Hill.
