Career and life planning is an organizational tool that is being implemented more frequently in organizations since people want something more than a job, they need a support guide to help them achieve their goals to achieve both in their personal career as in the professional. The following work explains in detail this tool and its importance for both people and organizations.
Introduction
Over the years the perception of the meaning of work has been changing. High salaries, good working conditions, insurance, retirement plans, stock purchase programs, accessible work hours, technological advances, education and training programs, among others, seemed to be some of the necessary ingredients for a person to feel happy and complete in the organization and his position. But even with all these benefits there are many people within companies at all levels who are not satisfied and are disillusioned with themselves, their work and their future.
Today many people are looking for more than a job. They pursue a job opportunity that matches their interests, personality, and abilities (Barkhaus & Bolyard, 1982).
In the past the word work implied something that had to be done forcibly to earn money and to survive, it was not expected that people would have to enjoy it. Today many people seek to have a "career", that means they seek to have something more than just doing a simple set of daily activities that do not add any personal value.
Career and life planning in organizations
Alice: Cat, would you please tell me which way to go?
Cat: That largely depends on where you want to go.
Alicia: I don't really care.
Cat: So it doesn't matter which way you go.
Carroll, L. (1934). Alice in wonderland. P. 49
Work is the daily activity that human beings carry out to be able to receive a salary and in this way subsist and acquire all the necessary goods they want, for this reason it must be an activity that helps enrich daily life and especially professional life. That is why the concern arises to start planning the lives of collaborators within organizations, so that there is a drive and motivation to carry out daily activities with enthusiasm and in a pleasant way.
The balance between personal life and work is one of the signs of self-fulfillment and mental health. Work and creativity in transforming the world around us is a deep source of satisfaction and fulfillment, but it is not everything.
Those who make their entire working life, that is, their only source of energy, attention and appreciation, often develop symptoms of neurosis and maladjustment (Cásares, 1993).
Therefore, some organizations go to the point of considering implementing planning systems that help people direct their path and facilitate the achievement of their goals.
Career planning is a deliberate individual process that helps identify opportunities, options, and consequences; It serves to establish work-related goals and to maintain an education and development schedule with which direction, synchronization and a sequence of steps can be obtained that help to achieve a career goal within the organization in which the person works (Carnevale, et al., 2010).
A career is more than a job, it is currently a path of maturation, growth in knowledge, skills and responsibilities about one's life, taking advantage of and responding to the continuous opportunities that emerge around it (Cásares, 1993).
People within organizations will always have concerns about their working life, their establishment, transition and professional development. In order to face these concerns, people must take responsibility for obtaining education and development to facilitate adaptation to changes (Zheng and Kleiner, 2001).
For there to be a career development within organizations, employees must be helped to plan their career or working life with significant significance within the organization. Career development is a structured activity that an organization offers for its staff with the purpose of increasing their knowledge, capacities and abilities that directly affect the development of their careers (Glueck, 2007).
The development of an organization provides a future direction in the advancement of human resources. The person is guided to improve their abilities, knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and life situation (Zheng and Kleiner, 2001).
For a person who has been in the same job for a long period of time, career planning can mean many things; For some it may be having the opportunity to attend a congress by the company, for others the power to take a sabbatical, but for most people it means having an ascending ladder in their career (Foulkes, 1993).
Many managers fear a career planning implementation because they think that it can generate unrealistic expectations of promotion in people; however, career planning is more than a path to promotion. People want to grow, learn, have interesting tasks, enjoy work, and be more valuable to both themselves and the organization (Christie, 1983). Career planning focuses heavily on job design, job rotation, promotions, activities outside the company, training and development, among other things.
A career planning is not only used to make a forecast of job opportunities, it also serves to identify potential internal candidates and know the training they need to carry out in order to fill vacant positions within an organization (Dessler, 2001).
Career planning has become increasingly important as successful people will be those who have the ability to do a wide variety of things and activities that help them keep moving forward (Zheng and Kleiner, 2001).
More and more organizations are realizing that their survival and success depend in large part on the ability to attract and develop people who can help increase their productivity, providing them with opportunities so that they can achieve greater satisfaction and effectiveness in the workplace. job; that is why career planning systems are being developed and implemented with much greater frequency in companies (Miller, 1978).
A career planning provides a process for identifying, developing, and utilizing an employee's potential. When the company maximizes the use of its human resources, both the company and the staff benefit; the organization increases production and of better quality, while the collaborators feel more appreciated and satisfied (Christie, 1983).
In the career planning process, the first step is to learn as much as possible about the person's interests, aptitudes, and abilities. One must begin by identifying the occupational orientation: realistic, research, social, conventional, business and artistic. Then the skills should be identified and ranked from highest to lowest; It must also be identified in what stage of life the person is (Dessler, 2001).
For the person, the career planning process consists of: a periodic self-evaluation and search for self-understanding, including the identification of the concept of a career, identifying opportunities, setting goals, preparing plans (with the support of the organization) and the implementation of the plans. (Beach, 2007). Most development programs seek a systematic approach that allows employees to fully participate in the process of their own growth and development.
A successful career planning program must first achieve or achieve two goals: it must help employees to get to know themselves, and it must help them increase their knowledge of the world of work. To be able to do this, people must: understand themselves and their performance in the current job or position; set reasonable goals for personal development and growth in your career and thus determine your own plan; develop methods for acquiring job skills and information and planning possible career paths (Benson & Thornton, 2004).
For a career development program to be effective, the organization must be very supportive and needs to be willing to provide time, money and other types of support. This support must come from the senior administrators and supervisors of the organization; If you want the program to survive and be effective, supporting your employees is essential. Involving people at all levels of the organization in the development of a career planning program will help to increase engagement (Carnevale, et al., 2010).
Large and medium-sized companies can develop a career planning system as part of a staff strategy. In small organizations the personnel manager tries to get to know all the workers, have direct contact with them and thus motivate them to discuss their career aspirations within the organization. With the information obtained, the personnel manager can help people develop a realistic career plan (Glueck, 2007).
Understanding the employee's occupational interests, anchors, and skills and subsequent placement in a career area to which they best fit is one way to help staff optimize their growth and development on an individual basis (Dessler, 2001).
There is no doubt that the interest in implementing career and life planning systems in organizations is increasing because there are many advantages that it offers both for the organization and the people and it gives very good results.
As people feel better in the organization and are satisfied with the activities they carry out, their positive attitude, productivity at work and motivation increase.
A career and life planning system includes not only work experience but all aspects of the employee's life. With this system, employees not only set short and long-term goals, but also learn to follow a goal setting procedure that allows or teaches them to develop their own plan individually. Although this system teaches the person to plan for herself, in order for her to develop a flexive career, she needs the contribution and help of the organization.
The fact that employees develop a career within the company often requires or implies having an organizational change, for the same reason many companies conclude that it is not necessary to implement such a program and it is not within their interests. However, letting people try to figure things out on their own and want to take different directions within the organization makes them spend more time developing their own goals than helping the company achieve its own.
Career planning is an important element in the search for paths in the organization that can respond to personal needs and goals, at the same time that a more effective company can be developed, which is of utmost relevance since people are the most important resource for organizations.
conclusion
All people have a huge amount of strength, skills, talents, resources and potential that remain latent without being used most of the time. Organizations are very used to keeping their collaborators in the same positions and performing the same activities on a daily basis without demanding or needing more from them. This leads people to feel that they are not taken into account and not to give more of them. Many times they themselves do not know what they are capable of doing because they are not asked for a greater effort nor do they want to do something else on their own, which leads to personal and professional stagnation.
Career and life planning is the attitude, art, and discipline of knowing yourself. By carrying out programs that include it within organizations, people can form a path to achieve goals in order to feel fulfilled and satisfied with the passage of time. You only need the support and drive of the organization, but above all the willingness of people to get ahead and not stay stuck in the same place, people must put aside conformism and know that they can have something more than a simple job.
References
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