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PART THREE TRAINING AND HR DEVELOPMENT
C H A P T E R
N i n e
Managing Careers
9
Lecture Outline
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In Brief: This chapter gives
good advice and tools for
managing careers. It also
provides guidance on
improving employee retention
efforts. Proper handling of
dismissals and separations,
including retirement are
explored.
Interesting Issues: In recent
years, many employees have
taken early retirement, but
many experts believe that the
next generation will have to
retire later than they might be
planning. They might do so in
order to continue to fund the
retirement of those retiring
now. Social Security has
already increased the ages at
which future generations will
be eligible for benefits.
Management will need to find
ways to stimulate career
interests of older employees to
keep them motivated and
productive. Firms will also
need to find ways to ease
labor shortages by attracting
those who may have already
retired.
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ANNOTATED OUTLINE
I. Career Management
We may define career as the occupational positions a person has had over many years.
Career management is a process for enabling employees to better understand and
develop their career skills and interests, and to use these skills and interests more
effectively. Career development is the lifelong series of activities that contribute to a
person’s career exploration, establishment, success, and fulfillment. Career planning is
the deliberate process through which someone becomes aware of personal skills,
interests, knowledge, motivations, and other characteristics and establishes action plans
to attain specific goals.
A. Careers Today Recessions, mergers, outsourcing, consolidations, and
more or less endless downsizing have changed the ground rules. More
often employees find themselves having to reinvent themselves.
B. Psychological Contract What the employer and employee expect of
each other is part of what psychologists call a psychological contract.
The psychological contract identifies each party’s mutual expectations.
C. The Employee’s Role in Career Management An individual must
accept responsibility for his or her own career; assess his or her own
interests, skills, and values; and take the steps required to ensure a
happy and fulfilling career.
1. Exercise 1 One useful exercise for identifying occupational
2. Exercise 2 Another exercise is to write about the job you
would pick if you could have any job.
3. What Are Portfolio Careers? — These are careers built around
4. Are Portfolio Careers for You? — Do you have what it takes to
fly solo? What can you do? Is it practical?
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II. Improving Mentoring and Coaching Skills
Coaching means educating, instructing, and training subordinates. Mentoring
means advising, counseling, and guiding. Coaching involves teaching
shorter-term, job-related skills. Mentoring focuses on helping employees
navigate longer-term career hazards.
A. How to Be an Effective Coach Coaching does not mean just telling
someone what to do. Coaching is a four-step process: preparation,
planning, active coaching, and follow-up.
B. Being a Better Mentor Mentoring may be formal or informal. Either
form can be successful. Effective mentors set high standards, are willing
to invest the time and effort required, and actively steer protégé’s.
1. The Protégé’s Responsibilities The protégé is still responsible
for making the relationship work.
C. Improving Productivity through HRIS Integrating Talent Management
and Career/Succession Planning Various software systems enable
III. Employee Engagement Guide for Managers
A. Career Management The globalization of the world economy has
resulted in workplace efficiencies that often lead to downsizing and
increased unemployment.
B. The New Psychological Contract Many employees today consider
themselves free agents. Employers have to think through how they’re
going to maintain employee engagement in the face of potential
downsizings, and thereby minimize voluntary departures, and maximize
employee effort.
IV. Managing Employee Retention and Turnover
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Turnover is an expensive cost for organizations. Understanding more about
the costs and causes of turnover is crucial for companies.
A. Costs of Turnover There are tangible and intangible costs associated
with turnover. Reducing turnover requires identifying and managing the
reasons for both voluntary and involuntary turnover.
B. Managing Voluntary Turnover Voluntary turnover occurs for many
C. Retention Strategies for Reducing Voluntary Turnover Retaining
employees is a talent management issue, and the best retention
strategies are therefore multifunctional.
D. A Comprehensive Approach to Retaining Employees A retention
program should start with periodically tracking why top performers leave.
E. Social Media and HR Social media tools have changed the
engagement/retention process.
F. Job Withdrawal Withdrawal in general means separating oneself from
one’s current situation.
V. Managing Promotions and Transfers
Promotions usually provide opportunities to reward the exceptional
performance of tested and loyal employees. However, unfairness,
arbitrariness, or secrecy can diminish the effectiveness of the promotion
process for all concerned.
A. Decision 1: Is Seniority or Competence the Rule? Today’s focus on
competitiveness favors competence. However, union agreements and
civil service regulations often emphasize seniority.
B. Decision 2: How Should We Measure Competence? Define the job, set
standards, use one or more appraisal tools to record the employee’s
performance, and use a valid procedure for predicting a candidate’s
potential for future performance. The 9-box grid is an example of a tool.
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likely potential (eligible for promotion, room for growth in
current position, not likely to grow beyond current position)
down the side.
Transfer
Reassignments to similar positions in other parts of the
firm.
Dismissal
Involuntary termination of an employee’s employment
within the firm.
Terminate at will
The idea, based on law, that the employment relationship
can be terminated at will by either the employer or the
employee for any reason.
Insubordination
Willful disregard or disobedience of the boss’s authority or
legitimate orders.
Wrongful discharge
An employee dismissal that does not comply with the law
or does not comply with the contractual arrangement
stated or implied by the firm via its employment application
forms, employee manuals, or other promises.
Termination interview
The interview in which an employee is informed of the fact
that he or she has been dismissed.
Outplacement counseling
A systematic process by which a terminated person is
trained and counseled in the techniques of self-appraisal,
career management, networking, and securing a new
position.
Exit interviews
Interviews conducted by the employer immediately prior to
the employee leaving the firm with the aim of better
understanding what the employee thinks about the
company.
Layoff
A situation in which employees are told there is no work for
them but that management intends to recall them when
work is again available.
Downsizing
Refers to the process of reducing, usually dramatically, the
number of people employed by the firm.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
9-1. Why it is advisable for an employee retention effort to be comprehensive? To what
extent does IBM’s on–demand program fit that description and why? (LO 9.4:
9-2. Explain why employee engagement is important, and how to foster such
engagement. What exactly would you as a supervisor do to increase your
employee’s engagement? (LO 9.3: Explain why career development can improve
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INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP ACTIVITIES
9-8. Many rightfully offer IBM as an example of an employer that works hard to improve
employee retention and engagement. Browse through the employment pages of
IBM.com’s website (such as
http://www-03.ibm.com/employment/build_your_career.html). In this chapter, we
discussed actions employers can take to improve employee retention and
engagement. From the information on IBM’s web pages, what is IBM doing to
support retention and engagement? (LO 9.4: Describe a comprehensive approach to
9-9. In groups of four or five students, meet with one or two administrators and faculty
members in your college or university, and, based on this, write a two-page paper
on the topic, “The faculty promotion process at our college.” What do you think of
the process? Could you make any suggestions for improving it? (LO 9.5: List the
9-10. Working individually or in groups, choose two occupations (such as management
consultant, HR manager, or salesperson) and use some of the sources such as
O*NET to make an assessment of the future demand for this occupation in the next
10 years or so. Does this seem like a good occupation to pursue? Why or why not?
9-11. In groups of four or five students, interview a small business owner or an HR
manager with the aim of writing a two–page paper addressing the topic “Steps our
company is taking to reduce voluntary employee turnover.” What is this
employer’s turnover rate now? How would you suggest it improve its turnover
9-12. Several years ago, a survey of college graduates in the United Kingdom found that
although many hadn’t found their first jobs, most were already planning “career
breaks” and to keep up their hobbies and interests outside work. As one report of
the findings put it, “the next generation of workers is determined not to wind up on
the hamster wheel of long hours with no play.” Part of the problem seems to be
that many already see their friends “putting in more than 48 hours a week” at work.
Career experts reviewing the results concluded that many of these recent college
grads “are not looking for high–pay, high-profile jobs anymore.” Instead they seem
to be looking to “compartmentalize” their lives; to keep the number of hours they
spend at work down, so that they can maintain their hobbies and outside interests.
So, do you think these findings are as popular in the United States as they appear
to be in the United Kingdom? If so, if you were mentoring one of these people at
work, what three specific bits of career advice would you give to him or her? Why?
What (if anything) would you suggest their employers do to accommodate their
graduates’ stated career wishes? (LO 9.1: Discuss what employers and supervisors
9-13. Websites such as Sporting News (http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa–
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basketball/story/2009–07-29/sporting-news-50-greatest-coaches-all-time) ran a
story listing what they called the fifty greatest basketball coaches. Look at this list,
and pick out two of the names. Then research these people online to determine
what behaviors they exhibited that seem to account for why they were great
coaches. How do these behaviors compare with what this chapter had to say about
effective coaching? (LO 9.2: List and discuss the four steps in effectively coaching and
9-14. For this activity, you will need the documents titled (1) “HRCI PHR® and SPHR®
Certification body of Knowledge” and (2) “About the Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM) Body of Competency and KnowledgeTM Model and
Certification Exams.” Your instructor can obtain these documents from the
Pearson Instructor Resource Center and pass them on to you. These two
documents list the knowledge someone studying for the HRCI or SHRM
certification exam needs to have in each area of human resource management
(such as in Strategic Management, and Workforce Planning). In groups of several
students, do four things: (1) review the HRCI and/or SHRM documents; (2) identify
the material in this chapter that relates to the required knowledge the appendix
lists; (3) write four multiple-choice exam questions on this material that you
believe would be suitable for inclusion in the HRCI exam; and (4) if time permits,
have someone from your team post your team’s questions in front of the class, so
the students in other teams can take each other’s exam questions. (Covers all
Students can find the following assisted-graded writing questions at
9-15. Why is it important to manage employee dismissals properly? (LO 9.6: Explain the
9-16. What are the main decisions employers should address in reaching promotion
HR in Action Case Incident 1: Google Reacts
9-17. Without doing any further research than what you learned in this chapter, what
other steps would you suggest Google take to improve employee retention? (LO
9-18. Was there any information in previous chapters of this book that would help to
illustrate other steps Google took to improve retention? Look for students to pull
APPLICATION EXERCISES