Open access peer-reviewed chapter
Abstract
Career development has gained a lot of interest over time as organizations and employees attempt to match individual goals with organizational goals to maximize performance. Value proposition, in human resource management focuses on the value that organizations and employees place on their worth, thereby the future of work for both. This chapter reviewed existing literature and linked the relationship between the two constructs to inform on their contribution to the future of people management. Global changes have made it necessary for employers and employees to re-examine the world of work and people management. How organizations manage employee careers is strategic in adding value to both the organization and the employees. The methodology employed was to search online and identify literature, review, and analysis were done per construct reviewed literature. Further the link between the career development and employee value proposition was identified. The limitation is that most of the available literature on the two constructs is before the Covid-19 pandemic and does not emphasize the future. The findings are that career though fast changing remains an important motivator for employees as an aspect of the employee value proposition that would impact people’s management futures.
Keywords
- career
- development
- employee
- value
- proposition
- management
1. Introduction
Global changes have affected organizations and employees significantly, impacting the world of work. People are identified as the most important resource in organizations, yet it is observed that organizations have to come up with ways of managing people in the wake of rapid changes and many factors, such as the pandemic, knowledge economy, and knowledge workers, among others.
Career development is one of the individual responsibilities that employees need to grow themselves. Previously, organizations also had a significant role to play. A career may be defined as an individual’s work-related and other relevant experiences, both inside and outside of organizations that form a unique pattern over the individual’s lifespan [1].
Careers would previously entail a job for life several years ago where an organization employed an individual, and the individual developed through on-the-job training and gaining experience in addition to formal education to grow their careers. Over time formal education required that an individual identify an area of interest and grow in it as a vocation and acquire certification in that area. The certification became proof of one having acquired certain knowledge and skill to enable them to enter an organization and work in the respective capacity. Once an employee acquired a job in a particular field, they then sort to grow in their line of career sometimes up to managerial levels in that area.
However, this has changed over time as individuals and organizations seek to align themselves with the current global changes. The need to develop one’s career over the years has handed the organizational role and the individual role and matching organizational and individual career needs in the process. This has necessitated that right from recruitment and selection organizations obtain employees taking into consideration their dreams and aspirations and how these will be aligned to the goals and objectives of the organization, including succession management. Organizations, therefore, have availed information necessary for individuals to utilize to grow their careers and also carried out career counseling where necessary as part of mentoring and coaching. Individuals, on the other hand have hand to identify their career paths and to use formal opportunities, for example,. educational institutions and informal opportunities, to grow their career and utilize where possible the knowledge and experience either in the organizations they are in or look for employment in organizations where their newly acquires skills may be used. Mulhall [2] notes that human resource practitioners and business leaders have a critical challenge in providing employees with career management programs that are effective.
Shaito [3] states that there is a need to develop an effective career development strategy in organizations. He identifies the career development process to consist of recognition of career needs, provision of career paths, carrying out job analysis, and succession planning for purposes of developing effective career opportunities. Further, there is a need to integrate the needs of employees with career opportunities using management by objectives and career counseling then having monitoring and evaluation regularly. Management may be seen as an antecede for career development as career development is a complex long-lasting procedure [4].
The employee value proposition has gained a lot of interest as organizations seek to brand themselves to attract and retain talented employees for competitive advantage. Employee value proposition focuses on how an employee may offer value to an organization and how an organization may receive and utilize that value as they also offer quality employment for employees. It is worth noting that with the increase in knowledge acquisition, the pool of available potential employees continues to increase, however, due to the current need for competitive advantage for employees, organizations need to offer value to obtain and retain employees and get value for money.
Deshoande, A. [5], states
It is worth noting that although career development research has been done from vocational skills development, and employee value proposition has been developing over the years, this paper focus on career development in the adult life within organizations in the face of change, such as mass layoffs, that have led to career shock. Further, this chapter utilizes hope action theory (HAT) in an attempt to contribute to the future of people management. Career development is part of the employee value proposition whose responsibility is now more on employees. Literature is reviewed to come up with the possible significance of career development and employee value proposition in the future contribute to people management futures.
2. Career development
Several scholars have defined career from individual and employee perspectives that it may be objective or subjective. Saleem [6] cites other scholars on career definition and change that “a ‘career’ has been described as a long-term procedure made up of a sequence of actions and relevant behavior or behaviors that take place in a person’s perform lifestyle. It is also considered as a routine of performing relevant encounters, such as job roles, tasks responsibilities or actions, perform relevant decisions; and a very subjective understanding of performing relevant events, such as work aspirations, objectives, principles, needs, and feelings about particular perform encounters, that period the course of an individual’s lifestyle.
This chapter defines a career broadly taking into consideration that there is no agreed-upon definition as a career keeps changing. A career refers to those experiences that are work-related for an individual forming a unique lifespan pattern, whether within or outside an organization. Further, careers may be portfolio or encore. Portfolio careers refer to workers engaged in the line of work that is more than one whole encore career refers to retired individuals who take up another kind of work as opposed to the work they did before retirement.
Career development then may be defined as both from an individual and organizational perspective. They point out that “individual perspective, career development is a lifelong process involving psychological, sociological, educational, economic, and physical factors, as well as chance factors that influence the career of the individual. From an organizational perspective, it is a process of assuring an alignment of individual career planning and organization career management processes to achieve an optimal match between individual and organizational needs.
There are many career theories, however, those that are development-focused include those of scholars, such as Donald Superlife, John Holland, Linda Goffredson, John Kromboltz, Ginberg, Ginsburg, Axelrad, and Herma, where development refers to a process over time.
Tamper [7] propose that career development be focused on only for core employees in the light of portfolio career in the workplace to enable organizations to focus on competencies that are core and match portfolio skills with the needs of the organization in the wake of changing HR function.
Career development is the lifelong process of managing learning, work, leisure, and transitions in order to move toward a personally determined and evolving preferred future [8]. Pawar [9] notes that employee value proposition is core to other organization processes to attract and retain employees.
Egan, and Lyneham [10] note that the twenty-first century realities need to be captured in a theoretical framework [11] and the need for career development to be made relevant in human resource development. Career definition also may be seen as aligning career aspects that are subjective with those aspects which are objective for pest fit purposes in terms of organizational and individual needs [12].
Simonsen as cited by Hite [13] defines career development as “career development is an ongoing process of planning and directed action toward personal work and life goals. Development means growth, continuous acquisition, and application of one’s skills. Career development is the outcome of the individual’s career planning and the organization’s provision of support and opportunities, ideally a collaborative process.”
Colon, [14] in a literature review identifies eight themes on Career development namely demographics, old vs. new economy, career patterns, workplace justice, lifestyle & welfare trends, employee responsibilities, employee and individual responsibilities, education and training, and they note that there is a shift of career development from being a responsibility of the organization to being more of individual responsibility.
Nagarathanam et al. [15] in their study found that career development practices resulted in moderate employee retention. The specific practices were leadership development, career development structure, talent management structure, success planning development, and self-assessment evaluation.
A study by Crocitto et al. [16] emphasizes the need for mentorship as a career development practice for expatriates.
A recent study found unique challenges that have been experienced in the world of careers for individuals. The study by Yoon et al. [17] using the HAT theory developed by Niles, Yoon, and Amundson in 2010 classified workers into four types, namely, essential workers, remote workers, outgoing workers, and displaced workers. They emphasize the need for career development interventions and policies that facilitate continuous career development progression. Further the hope-action competencies.
Hope: Being hopeful about one’s future.
Self-Reflection: Thinking about oneself, one’s uniqueness, and lessons learned.
Self-Clarity: Articulating self-identity.
Visioning: Envisioning future possibilities based on self-clarity.
Goal-Setting and Planning: Setting goals and plans, reflecting a vision and self-identity.
Implementing: Implementing plans with intentionality.
Adapting: Being open to change with the flexibility to modify the course of action or goals.
MacDonald and Hite [13] suggest that human resource development remains an integral part of the career development process and that organizational interest in expanding career development efforts should have a return on investment considered.
3. Employee value proposition
Employee value proposition may be seem to have motivation as an underlying factor, whereas process motivational theories connect in expectancy, goal setting, reinforcement, and equity. These areas connect with heart to action theory of career development.
Beacon Review [18] gives a framework of five elements for employee value proposition:
Compensation: The money employees receive for their work and performance.
Benefits: Indirect compensation, including health, retirement, and time off.
Work content: The satisfaction employees receive from their work.
Career: The long-term opportunities employees have for development and advancement.
Affiliation: The feeling of belongingness employees has toward the organizations.
Research shows that employee value proposition attracts employees [19]. Pawar [20] notes that most organizations have an employee value proposition to attract, motivate and retain the right talent and to provide a line of sight to the company’s culture. He points out that career is one of the attributes of employee value proposition and concludes that employee value proposition can help attract talent.
Parreira [21] carried out an analysis of employee value proposition and found out that there are two parts that are dependent on each other, that is, attraction and retention, where retention success depends on the attraction and retention strategy.
EVP purpose to a company:
To attract, motivate and retain the right talent.
Provide a line of sight to the company’s culture.
There are elements to EVP that Sibson consulting has created in a reward for work (ROW) model.
Compensation: Monetary reward for work done and performance.
Benefits: These may be non-monetary, for example, insurance cover, retirement, and time off.
Work content: It focuses on the satisfaction from work that employees receive from undertaking it.
Career: The long-term opportunities for advancement and development are available for employees.
Affiliation: This is a feeling of belonging that employees have toward an organization.
Shinde [22] gives three steps in developing an employee value proposition namely:-.
Selecting the attributes for inclusion in the EVP.
Building candidate awareness of the EVP.
Shaping candidate perception.
Pawar A. and Charak [23] carried out research that showed that employee value proposition has not been formalized by many organizations even though it should be calc early statement that is written and communicated to employees and they are aware of it. They note the importance of employee value proposition to include in the corporate leadership councils research.
Isabel Holm and Linn Anderson Hutsch [24] carried out research on employer branding focusing on the importance of balancing the needs of employees with employer offerings note that the specific performance of an individual or a group of workers has a profitability impact that is significant. They note that organizational strengths are important and they may originate from behavior and assets of employees or the unique assets of the specific organization. Talent management focuses on how an organization manages its talent. Employer branding focuses on how talent perceived the organization.
Armstrong [25] notes the need for organizations to first identify employee expectations who are already engaged in the industry, that is, employee value proposition. This may include benefits offered to current and potential employees. Literature on employee retention and turnover indicate trust, satisfaction, work-life policies, and role congruence as some of the positive aspects that encourage employee value proposition and lead to retention.
4. Hope action theory
Reviewed literature shows using hope-centered model of career development promotes career management of individuals encountering challenges and opportunities, reinforcing the vigilance needed for individuals to maintain self and occupational awareness. They use (a) hope, (b) self-reflection, (c) self-clarity, (d) visioning, (e) goal setting/planning, and (f) implementing/adapting [26].
Niles, S. G., Amundson, N. E. & Neault, R. A. (2010). development. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Niles, S. G., & Harris-Bowlsbey, J. G. (2009). Career development interventions in the 21st century (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Pursglove [27] carried out a study on hope the holistic evaluation of employee hope, wellbeing and engagement using the hope theory and found out positive outcomes of employees with hope.
Snyder [28] in hope theory defines hope as “the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals, and motivate oneself via agency thinking to use those pathways.” He notes that there are two major types of goals in hope theory, namely:
Type 1 involves positive goal outcome.
Reaching for the first time.
Sustaining present goal outcome.
Increasing that which already has been initiated.
Type 2 involves a negative goal outcome.
Deterring, so that it never appears.
Deterring, so that its appearance is delayed.
Building on this further research by Pursglove [27] notes that previous research views individual goal attainment as leading to a likelihood of attainment of organizational goals. That where hope is fostered in organizations, negative impacts of change are countered with a focus on shared goals.
In addition, Yoon et al. [29] carried out research and found that hope action competency, general self-efficacy, and job search clarity were effectively developed. They noted that HAT integrated three theories: human agency theory, career meta-competencies, and hope theory.
5. Career development, employee value proposition and people management futures
Dipak [30] states that at the recruitment level, career value proposition, which is specific and individualized with manager and employee roles, needs to be introduced to employees. Also, North [31] points out the need to make employee value proposition recognized and more intentional as a strategic and sustainable approach.
Pawar [32] argues that most organizations have an employee value proposition to attract, motivate and retain the right talent, and to provide a line of sight to the company’s culture. He points out that career is one of the attributes of employee value proposition and concludes that employee value proposition can help attract talent.
Parreira [21] carried out an analysis of employee value proposition and found out that there are two parts dependent on each other, that is, attraction and retention where retention success depends on the attraction and retention strategy.
This chapter notes that the hope Action theory would go a long way in employee proposition where individuals lay emphasis on career development as of prime importance.
6. People management
Human resource management literature shows that there are challenges that are being faced in the twenty-first century. Armstrong [33] states that human resource management deals with people in organizations in three ways, namely, employment, management, and development.
Career development is an aspect of the employee value proposition. As organizations seek for uniqueness in employee value proposition, the career development aspect becomes invaluable in assisting employees to connect with employer value.
This is because career development offers present and future employees the opportunity to realize their goals alongside those of the organization. This is because there is a need to create a more compelling EVP. This takes into consideration the need to anticipate intense competition for talent, changing workforce needs due to disruptive technology, and general workers’ view that employee satisfaction is not enough.
Research conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic identifies career development as a human resource management challenge due to career shock and fear of job loss and that job loss may lead to a reevaluation of individual goals or position fit by Akkermans, [34] who previously had defined career shock as:
They give the definition and point out the key elements to be frequency, intensity, controllability and predictability, valence, and duration which Hite [35] posits are relevant in the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a need to make careers sustainable and the implications for human resource development is to come up with training strategies that enable individuals to adapt making career development part of human resource development for sustainability and moving from job specialization to generalization.
It is suggested that people management is transitioning from human resource management, and human capital management where talent management is the focus to human self-management, and that multitalented employee value proposition is one of the drivers of human resource and human capital transition. This emphasizes the importance of employee value proposition for organizations in people management [36].
7. Conclusion
The reviewed literature brings out changes in career development to shift more to employees for sustainability. However, the literature emphasizes that career may be changing but remains important to employees. Further, the need for employees to focus on attainable goals that bring satisfaction is pointed out. Career development is being focused more on human resource development. It is further noted that career development is one of the outcomes of the employee value proposition that organizations may use to attract and retain employees with hope action theory (HAT) being utilized to offer employees sustainable career development for employee attraction and retention as a people management future aspect to address the challenge of employee attraction and retention in the people management future.
This chapter has examined the literature on career development and employee value proposition and the shift pointing out the need for management to play an active role in the future management of people. It is suggested that career development and employee value proposition policies need to be put in place and taken into consideration at the recruitment level in future for retention purposes. The future management needs to be trained on incorporating career development and employee value proposition in the retention practices as part of supervision for future people management. Also, career value proposition and employee value proposition should be practiced simultaneously to cater for types of employees with training on building hope for employees.
Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge my University Murang’a University of Technology for allowing me to take the time to publish this chapter. I wish to thank IntechOpen for grating men the opportunity to publish this chapter in the book. I wish to acknowledge Jelena for her assistance to ensure that this work is published and for the reviewers who reviewed this chapter and made recommendations to improve the work. I acknowledge researchers who have published articles on these constructs and availed them online, thereby stirring interest in the two constructs.
Notes/thanks/other declarations
I wish to declare that this work has not been published before.
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