Career Management

In general, a career means advancing, gaining, and developing experience and skills in any field of work throughout the working life of an individual. In daily life, it may include meanings such as progress, profession, business life, success, roles undertaken by the individual throughout his / her business life, and experiences related to these roles. Famous human resources guru Edwin Flippo used the term career; "Career is a separate but interrelated series of work activities that provide continuity, order, and meaning to a person's life." defined as. 

Today, apart from the concept of personal development and career management, the term organizational career management is also common. It refers to the activities carried out by companies to continue the career development of their employees, to help them get promotions and salary increases, and to ensure their transition to leadership positions. In this context, organizational career planning is very important.

Individual career management helps individuals to make their careers productive for themselves. It also offers personalized relocation services and career coaching programs. In short, individual career management; can be defined as "planning, organizing, realizing, coordination and evaluating the necessary activities for a person to achieve his business goals".

The individual performance system is the starting point of the career management process. There is a strong link between these two concepts. While performance evaluation was seen in public institutions in the USA in the early 1900s, it has also been applied in the private sector since 1950. 

Determining and improving the performance of human resources, which is one of the most important factors that create competitive advantage for companies, is of great importance in terms of reaching the targets.

Systematic performance evaluation is needed to make fair decisions. Different methods (competency-based, KPI…) can be used to arrive at objective conclusions. The establishment of performance systems is the responsibility of senior management and human resources. 

The performance evaluation process is of critical importance as it results in consequences extending to the termination of the employment contract of the employees. This system is a dynamic process in which the employee and the manager are in constant interaction throughout the year.

The Performance Management System consists of 3 Stages: 

1. Planning

2. Evaluation

3. Development

In the performance management process, the manager and the employee share their mutual expectations. They plan the performance of the employee. They try to reach the planned planning and provide effective feedback. If there are problems in the feedback, there will be disturbances on both the employee and the employer side. The primary purposes here are; to reach the planned performance targets, to increase career success, and to provide a performance improvement.

The achievements of individuals as a result of their performances should be rewarded. With the performance management system, it is ensured that career management, strategic planning, wage management, training and development, and quitting decisions are made objectively and systematically. Rewarding processes can take different forms such as promotion, rotation, and bonus. Rewarding by the criteria obtained as a result of the performance system is also a critical point.

Career Management in Business 

With human resources career planning, questions about where the employees will be in the organization in five years or ten years and what are the possibilities of progress or growth in the organization can be answered. 

Benefits of Career Management to Businesses

• It encourages the employees to be promoted through training and orientation programs, to reveal their talent potential, and to determine career goals by employees.
• Because of the many potential insider benefits of promotion, most organizations like to promote employees when positions are available. A strong human resources and career management program is also required to ensure that employees can perform effectively in their new jobs.
• It provides a better basis for meeting human resource needs in the future.
• Effective career management and planning will help ensure a continuous supply of professional, technical, and managerial talent to achieve future organizational goals.
• Career management in businesses provides the motivation that will trigger the increase of employees' expectations in change stages for different job and responsibility definitions.
• It enables uncertain and unexplained personnel expectations to emerge.
• It is ensured that the needs of employees with low work motivation and working efficiency are determined and taken action by being supported with various educational arguments.
• Certain personnel problems can be solved with effective career management practices. 
• High employee turnover may be partly due to the feeling that there are very few opportunities within the organization. 
• It may be easier to hire new employees if applicants find that the company is developing its employees and providing career opportunities.
• It ensures the preparation of pool programs for managerially important positions.

Benefits of Career Management to Employees

• Making the right and effective career choices in line with awareness
• Reducing the disappointment that may be experienced in the company to the lowest possible levels
• Recognizing the potential required to evaluate different career opportunities and feeling of trust
• Providing a purpose for the personnel to do better work by preparing the ground for the emergence of career goals that are not revealed
• Personal development opportunities 
• Ensuring work-life balance
• Improving the quality of life

Finding harmony between the goals of organizations and employees is very important for the path to success. Having personal development goals of the employees will motivate them for development, and this development will reflect positively on the institution. Career management processes are as follows;

1. Setting Individual Development Goals for Employees 

• It is one of the main duties of managers to ensure the career development of their employees. All managers are primarily responsible for making performance evaluations of their subordinates, creating and implementing development plans, monitoring their development, and implementing practices for career development.

2. The Service of Individual Development Goals to the Corporate Objectives

3. Employees' Career Planning

• aimed to guide all employees about their current and next duties.
• The basic rule in career development is not determining a definite task (career planning) within a certain period, but determining the positions that may be suitable for the employee.
• Based on the idea that people can develop at different levels in different competencies during their work, positions, where employees can be candidates depending on the development of their competencies, are determined instead of career plans that specify the tasks that the person will undertake after a certain period.

4. Identifying Critical Positions and Creating a Succession Plan.

Succession plans are both an important input and output of strategic human resources planning. In the evaluations made according to competence and business goals, development plans are made for this, based on the fact that some employees have the potential to take over a higher task after a certain period. It is seen as a part of their performance that all managers raise employees who will back them up. In this context, the following concepts are very important:

• Internal recruitment (promotion or change of department)
• Dismissal (usually as a result of low performance)
• Orientation
• Management development (consultancy to management candidates and staff in the talent pool)
• Backup (backing up critical positions by star employees)

5 . Increasing Corporate Success