the importance of Career Planning in industry.

Career planning involves efforts on the part of the

organizations to provide avenues for growth to its
employees. Certainly this growth should be accompanied
by development. The other side of the coin is the role of
employees in career planning. It involves effort on the part
of employees to clearly think through and decided areas in
which they would like to make a career for themselves.
When employees have assessed their career needs and have
become aware of organizational career opportunities, the
problem is one of alignment. The crucial role has to be
played by HRD in ensuring this alignment to build up
morale in the organization. A systematic choice of
development techniques like training, special assignment,
counseling and rotational assignments should be made to
ensure this alignment.
Employees are often uncertain as to the type of work that
would suit them best. There are a number of evaluation
instruments available to determine basic aptitudes. Human
Resource Development Managers should be able to guide
employees by administering these instruments on them.
Employees should also find out whether they are loners or
socially active. These exercises with some assistance from
HRD Managers should help in career need assessment.
At certain stage the upward mobility stops for many
employees. This is inescapable in view of pyramid

organizations structure. This phenomenon is called

plateauing. It takes place around the age f 40. Some
suggested measures to deal with such employees are:
Mentors should be assigned measures to deal with
such employees. Depending on the maturity of such
mentors, good results can be achieved in assuaging the
hurt feelings of plateaued employees
Additional career ladders could be established to
retain some valuable resource.
Giving them importance by assigning them to some
important task force or committee.
Assisting them to choose a new career. Some
organizations assist their plateau executives to start
their own business.
Career path models developed by a large public sector
undertaking:
This organization has developed career paths models for
the major discipline
Sales
Technical services
Operations
Engineering
Aviation
LPG
Finance
Personnel

Career path models have not been drawn for the disciplines
like materials, public relations, training, etc. career path
models have been evolved to provide direction to career
progression of officers. It forms the basis for placement,
transfer, rotation etc. so that the officers are prepared for
higher responsibilities progressively and the experience
they gain becomes cumulative rather than respective. The
most distinguishing feature of these career path model are
the stress on jib rotation and testing the incumbent in a
different environment to enhance his coping capability
before giving him a higher position in the hierarchy.

On the job training involves imparting training

in the real work environment i.e. it believes
in learning by doing; while off the job
training involves imparting training outside
the real work environment i.e. the principle
of learning by acquiring knowledge is
adopted.
Under on the job training the training and
performance goes simultaneously so
production is not hindered at the time of
training; while under off the job
training methods first training is imparted
and then the real performance follows and
therefore does not add anything to actual
production during training.
On the job training aims at developing the
best practices for a specific job and getting
the job done; while off the job
training methods aim at learning basic facts
and skills and is more general in nature.
On the job training is usually imparted by
experienced workers and first line
supervisors at the workplace; whileoff the
job training is imparted usually by the
academicians and professionals at any place
other than the real workplace.
On the job training methods are suitable
when the trainees are limited in numbers
and the job is not hazardous in nature;
while off the job training methods can be
utilized to train any numbers of employees
and for jobs that involve risks.

On the job training methods are simple and

less-expensive because they utilize the
actual workplace and firms supervisors for
imparting training; while off the job
training methods are quite expensive as
they need a complete different set-up.
Training here is imparted in an artificial setup and outside experts are hired for the
purpose.
Most popular on the job training methods
include job rotation and apprenticeship
training; while the popular off the job
training methods include classroom lectures
and simulation exercises.
On the job training is generally imparted in
case of manufacturing firms for productionrelated jobs; while off-the-job training is
mostly imparted for managerial and nonproduction related jobs.