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CAREERS TODAY Best Jobs Consultalk Anita Ramachandran, CEO, Cerebrus Consultants, comments on the new challenges in designing career development systems. In a world where employees do not seek careers, but only assignments that gild their CVS, is there a point in thinking about career development? There is, if we see it as a planned risk that companies need to take and manage effectively to beat competition. Hence, it has to be combined with 'lock-in' measures-positive (like stock options) and punitive (like non-compete clauses)-and in-depth career succession planning. Conceptualising career development systems involves several critical steps:
Shifts in organisational structures and work-culture have to be kept in mind during competency-building exercise. The present business environment requires managers to work in leaner, network-driven structures that place a premium on the ability to influence rather than just direct, and cope with business uncertainties. Companies, therefore, have to develop core-competencies suited to this environment of flux. To do this, a career development system must evaluate competencies using cutting-edge techniques, and speed up the learning process. It should aim to facilitate the development of leadership and other competencies through self and experiential learning. Designing a career development plan today requires an understanding of business and functional needs of the future .With obsolescence and plateauing becoming common phenomena, keeping employees energised should be the other key challenge in crafting a career development plan. Best CEO Picks CEO; Leading dot.com company; Delhi;
B.E. and MBA with relevant experience; Omam consultants, 137,
saidulajab,new delhi-110030. CEO; namtech electronics; bangalore;
Engineer (electronics/ electrical) with MBA and relevant experience;
Namtech Electronics; Leo Complex, 44/45, residency road, bangalore-560025. CEO; Options Consulting Group; Delhi;
MBA with relevant experience; Options Consulting Group, 1C, White House,
10, Bhagwan Dass Road, New Delhi-110001. Best CFO Picks Vice-President (Finance); American
insurance firm set to launch operations in India; Delhi/Gurgaon; ca with
12-15 years of experience; hr solutions, c-143, 2nd floor, defence colony,
new delhi-110024. General Manager (Finance); Archies
Greetings & Gifts; Delhi; graduate with CA/MBA and 10-15 years of
relevant industry experience; a-37, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase-1, New
Delhi-110028. CA/Cost Accountant; Tata Steel;
Jamshedpur; Graduate/ca with relevant experience; Tata Iron and Steel
Company, General Office Building, Jamshedpur-831001. Best Overseas Picks CEO; Lobo Management; USA; Relevant
qualification and experience; Lobo Management, F1, 66, Regent Park Road,
London. Country Manager; Singapore;
Graduate/MBA with eight years experience. Manager (Business Development); Consulting
Services; USA; Graduate with relevant experience; Iris Software, 52,
Bridge Street, Metuchen, New Jersey-08840, USA. Manager (Business Development); Bhilwara
Infotech; USA/UK; B. Tech/MBA with 6-12 years experience; Bhilwara Tower,
A-12, Sector-1, NOIDA-201301. Designing Career Development Systems Want to grow your own timber? And make sure it stays in your own yard? Just paying your employees well will not suffice. Nor will giving them juicy perks and wealth-creation sops like stock options. Today's mercurial corporate talent needs more than that to stay committed to its organisations. Today's employees need time-bound career paths which would allow them to chart their own professional destiny, expand their skill-bases and maintain a healthy work-life balance. A tall order? Designing and implementing career development systems has never been more crucial for an organisation's survival than it is today. With leaner organisations and flattened hierarchies, vertical pyramids are being replaced by horizontal structures, replete with cross-functional teams and multi-skilled managers. The need to be agile and responsive to shifting business scenarios has led to a dispersal of decision-making and leadership. This, coupled with a scarcity of talent, makes career planning and focused skill-building vital. Can you do it? Check out our guide to building new-age career development systems: Define the needs. At the outset, define the developmental needs of your people on the basis of the critical business and functional competencies that the company wants. Map the job roles of the existing managers to identify skill-gaps and establish target groups, with specific requirements. For instance, star managers who require special career paths or decaying middle-managers who need to fight obsolescence. It is also important to take factors like the prevailing organisational culture, employee age and skill profile, and readiness for change into account. Check the existing developmental programmes as to suitability, or better still, scrap them. It is always better to start with a clean slate. Tip: Establish your goals up-front and enlist top management support, with the help of relevant data as to why the old system did not work. The CEO's buy-in is necessary before large-scale changes can be implemented. Create a vision. Underscore the long-term philosophy of change and the need to ride it successfully. Unless your people understand the need to discard and adopt skill-sets, they will be unsuited to meet the challenges posed by the New Economy. The bedrock of your career development system should be creating competencies and learning systems for change management. The training interventions that you design should reflect this. So should all other communication from the corporate hr. Tip: Organise and make available career-related information to sell your ideas-this could be in the form of training programmes, journals, industry meets, and workshops that your managers would access and attend-to ensure a trickle-down effect. Draw up an action plan. Make the career development plan understandable and easy to implement. Roll it out to your CEO and the functional heads first to iron out any problems. You would be wise to create an advisory group comprising your peers and superiors to partner your efforts. It would be ideal if you could involve them in all the stages-data compilation, programme design, implementation, evaluation, and feedback. Assess the resources you have and would require to implement it, and seek more, if necessary. Tip: Make sure that you have built up a broad support-base and have enough resources committed to effectively carry out the changes. Otherwise, you would be putting your credibility on the line. Maintain the change. The final challenge would be to keep the pace of change from flagging. For that, you would need to re-design the system often, taking note of changes in the environment. You would do well to scan global trends in career management, and network with industry peers to make sure that your interventions are relevant. Tip: Create formal and informal channels for feed-back in order to maintain the system at peak efficiency over a period of time. If you don't, you stand to lose talent and, eventually, your job. -Paroma Roy Chowdhury Best practices in career
development Ernst & Young (India) Hyundai Motor (India) Seagram (India) -compiled by Jaya Basu HELP, TARUN!!! I am a 45-year-old graduate, working as a clerk in a government organisation which doesn't pay well. I want to leave my present position and forge a career in medical transcription services. This could be a lucrative career. But, how should I go about it? Do I need special qualifications? Is there any institute which imparts such training ? What kind of money can I hope to make? Please advise. There is a private institute in Delhi which imparts this kind of training. But you will be competing with younger people and may be at a disadvantage as younger people are perceived to be more flexible, trainable, and less expensive. Also, a government job entitles you to many hidden perks which you may not be quantifying while calculating the remuneration. Make sure you are not sacrificing a secure job with a seemingly better paying one-but in reality something with less saving potential. I am a 24-year-old MBA (Finance) from a middle-rung B-school. For the past two years, I have been working with a small accounting firm in a small city where growth prospects are limited. I wish to make it big in the corporate world but at the same time don't want to deviate from finance. What kind of additional qualifications would I need ? Should I pursue a course in chartered accountancy along side, or international finance, or banking? Or, should I migrate to a metropolis and look for a job in a larger firm or bank? Since I am single and have no family obligations, I can devote time and effort to my career. Your scope in a Chartered Accountant's firm in a small city limits your prospects. You could enhance your skills by doing a ca, but that would require three years of articleship. You could also pursue a CFA programme, which is a distance-learning programme. However, notwithstanding any of the above-you do need to move to a place with greater opportunities (either in a different firm or in a different city)-this would add to your exposure and perspective, while widening your horizons and scope for growth. I am a 39-year-old mechanical engineer with 17 years of experience in techno-commercial functions. I have been working with a well-known transnational for the last 12 years, but now wish to switch to e-Commerce. I am unsure as to which branch of e-Commerce would be ideal for me? Also, is such a switch possible at my age? Should I ask my employer for a break, or should I look for opportunities elsewhere? It would be best to ask your current employer for a break in case they are entering the e-Commerce arena. Your current employer will value your experience, even if it's in a different field. In case there are no opportunities with your current employer, you could try outside. Your experience in logistics and supply-chain management will be relevant even in the e-Commerce area, and you could pursue a part-time course in e-Commerce along with your work. Your age is not a barrier. I am a 22-year-old MBA (Marketing) and I want to study further. Should I go in for a Ph.D? If so, should I choose topics like brand management and advertising, or go in for more quantitative subjects like market research? What would help more if I decide on an academic career? Or should I take up a job now, and take a sabbatical later? My parents as well as friends are advising me to pursue a corporate career as it pays more. I am confused. Please advise. The only person who can clear the confusion is you! All we can do is to put forth the alternatives before you. An academic career in India is not as well paid as a corporate career. So, if you are looking for a fat pay-check, a corporate job is the answer. You could adopt teaching on the side, perhaps as part of a visiting faculty. Your corporate experience would enrich your teaching as well. On the other hand, if you are truly an 'academic type' you could embark on a Ph.D and teach. (You could do your Ph.D abroad and try and take up a teaching assignment there-academicians are better paid abroad.) Alternatively, you could combine both-do a Ph.D and have a corporate career subsequently. Tarun Sheth, the senior consultant at the Mumbai-based recruitment and training consultancy firm, Shilputsi, addresses your career concerns every fortnight. Write to help, tarun!!! c/o Business Today, F-26, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001.
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