Question

A. Roles in Career Development: What is the employee's role in the career development process? Themanger's role? The employer's role?

B. Career Development Activities: Give several examples of career development activities that employers can use to foster employee commitment. Does your current employer make use of any of these examples?

C. Linked-In: A growing number of recruiters and organizations are turning to Linked-In to strategically extend their global reach, speed recruitment, sourcing and cut costs (SHRM, 2010). Linked-In is the most used professional network, so whether you are looking for a job or looking to fill a job or improve your know-how through networking, this social media connection may be for you.

View the Linked-In video What is LinkedIn? at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzT3JVUGUzM which is about 2.5 minutes in length; then, go to the social media website located at http://www.LinkedIn.com to find out more. What is your opinion of this social media solution? Do you already have an account? Is Linked-In for you? Why or why not?

Posting is to be 200-300 words in length and supported by at least two sources properly cited and referenced an academic journal article published within the last 3-5 years.

Answer 1

ANSWER:

First, let us discuss the following definitions:
1) CAREER
The occupational positions a person has had over many years.

2) CAREER DEVELOPMENT
The lifelong series of activities that contribute to a person's career exploration, establishment, success, and
fulfillment.

A) EMPLOYEE'S ROLE IN THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROCESS:

Along with the employee, the person's manager and employer have career development responsibilities. These depend partly on how long the employee has been with the firm.

For Example: Before hiring, realistic job interviews can help prospective employees more accurately gauge whether the job is a good fit for them. Especially for recent college graduates, the first job can be crucial for building confidence and a more realistic picture of what he or she can and cannot do providing challenging first job and having an experienced mentor who can help the person learn the ropes are important.
Some refer to this as preventing reality shock, Reality shock is a result of a period that may occur at the initial career entry when the new employee's high job expectation confront the reality of a boring or otherwise unattractive work situation.
Phenomena that occurs when a new employee's high expectation and enthusiasm confront the reality of boring, unchallenging job. Periodic job rotation can help a person develop a more realistic picture of what he or she is good at and thus career moves that might be best.
Thus intuit offers new graduates entree into its Rotational Development Programs These are comprehensive 2-year programs in which employees first learn about Intuit products, customers, employees, strategies, and values. Next, the employee completes 4-6 months rotation getting experience in a range of Intuit business units and a variety of functions, for instance, product management marketing and human resources.
All Rotation Development Programs participants are paired with an executive advisor who provides career coaching and mentoring. Finally, we will see that once the person has been on the job for a while career-oriented appraisals are important. Here the managers only not appraise the employee but help the person to match his/her strength or weakness with a feasible career path.

THE EMPLOYEE ROLE/ RESPONSIBILITIES

1) KNOW YOUR SELF
Know your strength and weakness. What talents can you bring to the employer?
Personal career planning begins by being honest with yourself.

2) MANAGE YOUR REPUTATION
Without appearing as a braggart, let others both inside and outside your current organization know about your achievements. MMake you and your achievement visible.

3) BUILD AND MAINTAIN NETWORK CONTACTS
In a world of high mobility, you need to develop contacts. Join national and local professional association, attend conferences and network at social gatherings.

4) KEEP CURRENT
Develop the specific skills and abilities that are in high demand avoid learning organization specifics skills that cant is transferred quickly to other employees.

THE MANAGER'S ROLE

Managers/Supervisors play a crucial role in career development

1) EMPLOYEE NEED TO BE MOTIVATED TO PARTICIPATE IN TRAINING PROGRAMS AND EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
Managers need to make their employees realize the importance of employee development activities and how such initiatives would benefit them and organization in long run. Managers play an essential role in motivating employees to enhance their skills with time and acquire new learning.

2) MANAGERS OUGHT TO SIT WITH THEIR TEAM MEMBERS TO FIND OUT WHETHER THEY ARE LACKING AND WHAT ALL NEW SKILLS THEY NEED TO ACQUIRE FOR AN INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY
They have to provide right guidance to their team members. Give them correct feedbacks. Remeber a manager can give correct feedback only when he knows what his employees are up to? Performance monitoring is essential.

3) MANAGERS MUST ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEE TO REGISTER FOR ONLINE OR DISTANCE LEARNING COURSE TO ACQUAINT THEMSELEVEs WITH NEW KNOWLEDGE
As a team leader, they have to give an extra push to their employees to participate in employee development activities. Respect other's idea. Let people come out with new ideas. Information sharing helps in the development of employees. Ensure employee to participate in discussion rather than just sitting blank.

B) FOLLOWING ARE THE EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT ACTIVITIES :

1) INVOLVE EMPLOYEE IN YOUR BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS
Every 6 months or even quarterly present the most important issue in your company and their actions made to address those issues. Involve your team in planning ahead, assessing, opportunities and coming up with improvement ideas for your business strategy.

2) CREATE A KNOWLEDGE SHARING SYSTEM
One of the biggest cost of high employee turnover rate is the loss of essential information. A knowledge sharing system helps you avoid that cost to some extent and it is also new engagement drivers for newcomers.

3) ENCOURAGE AND PROVIDE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY
Create your own academy where employees can access the knowledge and development opportunities that they need. This is one of the reasons why employee quit companies: lack of learning prospectus. Assess their need and preferences Create a curriculum and set up 1-2 classes per week. Get them involved in deciding on how you must schedule these learnings initiatives.