CAREER MANAGEMENT IN KENYA AND PLANNING



COMPANIES IN KENYA WHICH PAY EMPLOYEES BEST SALARIES

If you are searching for employment,look no further than the list of companies provided here.This list contains top Kenyan companies,NGOs,government institutions,audit firms,insurance companies as well as banks that regularly employ Kenyans.

We have also provided the link to the company websites where you can always visit for available job opportunities.
KRA Job vacancies
Link: http://www.kra.go.ke/index.php/careers
PWC job vacancies
Link: http://www.pwc.com/ke/en/careers/
OLD MUTUAL job vacancies
Link: http://careers.oldmutual.co.ke/


KEMRI Wellcome Trust job vacancies
Link: http://careers.kemri-wellcome.org/

Cooperative Bank Kenya job vacancies
Link: http://www.co-opbank.co.ke/careers
AMREF job vacancies
Link: http://amref.org/ways-to-give/vacancies/
OXFAM Jobs in Kenya
Link: https://www.oxfam.org/en/work
Central Bank Kenya Careers
Link: https://www.centralbank.go.ke/index.php/careers
THE WORLD BANK Jobs
Link: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/kenya


Public Service Commission (PSC) Jobs
Link: http://www.psckjobs.go.ke/
African Development Bank Jobs
Link: http://www.afdb.org/en/careers/current-vacancies/
American Embassy in Kenya Jobs
Link: http://nairobi.usembassy.gov/
Kenya Ports Authority Jobs
Link: http://www.kpa.co.ke/Careers/Pages/default.aspx
Nairobi Securities Exchange jobs
Link: https://www.nse.co.ke/



Career is the occupational position a person has held for many years.

Career management is the process for enabling employees to better understand and develop their career skills and interests and to use them most effectively both within the company and without. It is also a personal endeavor by an individual to know what they want they want, plan their future and have a guide on what direction they want to take in their life. Some people plan careers early enough while others realize that they needed to plan when it is sunset of their lives. Either way, it is important to take the steps to guide you and be on alert. It is never too late to plan. Career management can be done both within the organization and even without.
If it happens in the organization, it involves other people like the human resource and other managers to help one to shine in their areas of specialization and of course help the organizations to benefit from this.
Specific career management activities might include career oriented appraisal, posting open jobs and offering formal career development activities.


Career development is a lifelong series of activities like workshops that contribute to the person’s career exploration, establishment and success and fulfillment.
Career planning is a deliberate process through which someone becomes aware of his or her personal skills, interests, knowledge, motivations and other characteristics, acquired information about opportunities and choices, identifies career related goals and establishes action plans to attain specific goals.
In some respects building a successful career is an individual task and it can take different directions. Managing careers has nothing to with being in formal employment of not. An individual involved in career management needs to have clear goals set through planning and effective execution of these goals.


There are steps that one can follow in career management.
Self evaluation: it is important that the person doing career management understands their needs and know what they are really passionate about. A career spans many years and it can be hard to maintain the same morale that one started with. One needs to know where they are, where they want to be and how to get there.
Research career options: careers are diverse and it is of great importance that one researches on the options of careers that are there and the skills needed for them. Search within yourself to see if you have any of the skills that are required of particular career of your interest.
Have a road map: The road map helps the individual to follow what they have put in place in their minds. It helps one to think strategically and have long term goals for the career. It may be important to develop the skills ahead of time and put them into use.
Seek ongoing training; ongoing training helps to keep one up to date with the changing environment of careers. This is because one acquires additional skills, knowledge and education needed for the career and even help them to be at par with the requirements of the career at the work place.
Have a personal brand and market yourself: it is important if people know you for something. It is important for one to be identified with something. Do not be neither here nor there. Let people know even in the organization your passion and this obviously gives you a market. Networking is great at this level because that is how one will market their skills.
Seek ongoing career development:  career management and planning is a process and it does have stages and therefore it is crucial to continue reengineering oneself, evaluate and refine. There are changes in the market place each day especially those brought by changing technology and business environment and the needs of the customers and therefore one needs to have may be a mentor or an advisor.


Shifts in career development.
Careers have taken a shift for those who are already working which means that many employers have strengthened the career focus of their human resources activities. Employees are changed more often these days so that they can serve their own long term career needs. The HR therefore needs to facilitate career self analysis, development and management. If someone is a new employee, they need to come with a vision in the company that somehow will give them direction in their quest to reach their career goals.
There are triggers for a more planned approach to career development. These are;
A policy of continuous internal promotion and growthaffirmative action programs and a need to improve levels of motivation and job satisfaction, commitment to the organization and productivity
There is need for a radical shift in the organization’s developmental path, involving a change of culture that needs to be combined with a career development program. If career planning and management is happening within the organization, there are roles played by different persons in the light of developing careers.
Roles in career planning and development.
Ideally, the employer, employee and the manager all play roles in planning, guiding and developing the employee’s career.



Employee’s role
Accept responsibility for your own career. Know that the career success all lies in your hands. Therefore it is their responsibility to own what they do and do it well.
Assess your interests, skills, and values. It is important to know what your interests, skills and values are and pursue them.
Seek out career information and resources. This should be a daily thing to be done since things are changing.
Establish goals and career plans. This will help in the direction of the future one wants to take.
Utilize development opportunities. Organizations provide development opportunities and one needs to use them for their benefit and benefit of the organization
Talk with your manager about your career plans. Follow through on realistic career plans.
Manager’s Role
Provide timely and accurate performance feedback.
Provide developmental assignments and support.
Participate in career development discussions with subordinates.
Support employee development plans.
Employer’s Role
Communicate mission, policies, and procedures.
Provide training and development opportunities including workshops.
Provide career information and career programs.
Offer a variety of career paths.
Provide career-oriented performance feedback.
Provide mentoring opportunities to support growth and self-direction.
Provide employees with individual development plans

Provide academic learning assistance programs.



Life – Cycle Career Management
The employer’s career development responsibilities depend on how long the employee has been with the firm. Career development does not happen in a vacuum.
There are different stages in career development.
When new employees come to the organization, they need to be guided in order to learn the requirements of a job. A mentor will be very helpful at this stage. There can be a reality shock whereby the results of a period that may occur at the initial career entry of an employee who has high expectations on the job just to be confronted by the reality of a boring unchanging job.
Job rotation means moving an employee through a pre-planned series of positions in order to prepare the person for an enhanced role with the company.
Mentoring refers to the formal or informal programs in which mid and senior level managers help less experienced employee by giving them career advice and helping them navigate political pitfalls. Mentoring programs can be introduced in the organization to help employees to develop to greatness and meet their goals and objectives
Entry to the organization – at this point employees need information about themselves and their career opportunities; they should be involved in self assessment activities, in drawing up personal development plans since they are mostly learning at this level.
Progress within particular areas of work – established employees who are steadily progressing in particular jobs or areas of work need interesting, challenging tasks and supervision that gives autonomy and support while making clear expectations of what the individual can achieve. There should be skilled career coaching, counseling and planning and mentoring.
Mid-career and change – it is essential not only to facilitate the continued development of the high fliers, but also to help those unable to move up, on or out to see that they still have careers, in the sense of meaningful work, challenges, and opportunities for stimulation and achievement.
Later career – as employees move towards the end of their career with the company, their careers still need career management. It is particularly important that the effects of low morale and stress caused by the preoccupation with the forthcoming termination of employment do not quickly spread through the workforce.


End of career with the organization – it is the final stage of employment in the organization that is often the most difficult to manage. Positive policies for disengagement, as retention should aim to help individuals to understand that the most important focus for them is that their long-term career path, rather than simply their career within a particular organization.
Managing promotions and transfers
Promotions and transfers are crucial parts of most people’s careers. Promotions help people to advance to positions of increased responsibility as well as benefits. Transfers on the other hand are reassignments to similar positions in other parts of the firm.
Making promotion Decisions
Promotions provide opportunities to reward exceptional performance and to fill other open positions with tested and loyal employees or employer. Promotions come with more pay, more responsibility and more often than not with job satisfaction. Promotion is way of career development but the process is not always a positive experience for the employee or employer.
There are challenges that come with this process such as unfairness, arbitraries or secrecy which can diminish the effectiveness of the process. Therefore, several decisions loom large in any firm’s promotion process. These are;
Seniority or competence
It is important to consider whether the promotion is based on seniority or competence. In most firms’ today, competitiveness favours competence. For a firm to use competence for promotions, they need to check whether the unions govern the promotions or seniority.
Measuring competence
When an organization decides to use competence for promotion, then the next challenge is how to measure competence. This is relatively easy due definition of the job and the standards set for the job and appraisal records. There needs to be a procedure to predict an employer’s future performance. Most employers’ use past performance and hope that since the person did well, it is likely that they will do well even in the promotion.
Formal or informal process
Many firms have informal promotion processes. They do not post positions and so key managers may use their unpublished methods to make decisions. This is however tricky because the managers can promote the people they know not based on competence.
On the contrary, many employers establish formal published promotion policies. Such components as formal promotional policy describing criteria for awards promotions, job posting policy which posts open positions and their requirements are included in the formal process of promotion.
Vertical, horizontal or other
Promotions are not necessarily as easy as they seem. At times when the company is downsizing, the employee may be demotivated. Other employees may not be interested in managerial positions due to their job interests like engineers.  In this case, several options are available; some firms create two parallel career paths; one for managers and the other for individuals like high performing engineers.
Another option is to move the person horizontally. For instance, move a production employee to human resource so as to develop his or her skills and to test and challenge his or aptitudes. Promotions are also even when people remain in the same job. The job itself can be enriched which will require employees to undergo more training to enable them to  take more responsibility.


Handling transfers
A transfer is a move from one job to another usually with no change in salary or grade. Employers seek transfers for enrichment, more interesting jobs, greater convenience or advancement. Transfers could be done to fill a person where there is need. Transfers can aid in employee growth and especially for those who have nowhere to go.
Transfers depend on the policies of the organization. Some firms will do transfers more often than others. Some employees may be transfers due to family matters.
Enhancing diversity through career management.
Enhancing diversity through career management requires some special preparations on the part of the employer. It is necessary to guard against intentional and unintentional bias and discrimination in promotion decisions. People should not be discriminated based on their gender, age or race.  In some organizations, women do not get promotions and this can lead to low success rate in women moving to the top of organizational career ladder.
Career management and Employee commitment.
Career management fosters employee commitment. The employer’s career planning and development provide career planning and development activities should be aimed at the employee’s success in their career. With the effect of globalization, many employees may be less committed to their jobs because technology is being used to cut on costs and they may be afraid of losing their job. Career development programs can be introduced. This could be workshops, training on skills and vocational guidance. Workshops help employees to assess themselves and identify their weaknesses and strengths. These programs since they are aimed at employee career development help employees to be committed to their work.
Career oriented appraisals can also be used to develop employees. These could be annual or semi annual and they provide excellent opportunity to review career related issues. Performance appraisals should not only be used to tell the employee what he or she has done or not but also provide the occasion to link the employee’s performance, career interests and development needs into a coherent career plan.
Retirement
Retirement may mean different for different people. For some, it may be a blessing because they are free from the daily demands of their job. At the same time, it can be slightly adrift due to not having a job to go to. Some people continue to work in a normal capacity even after normal retirement. Retirement is not easy since some people would like to continue being active and so there is need for preretirement counselling which aimed at easing the passage of their employees into retirement.
Some of the practices common at the preretirement counselling are explanation of the social security benefits, leisure time counselling, financial and investment counselling, health counselling, psychological and careers outside the company.
When someone is retiring they need to be honoured for the work they have done and so it is important for the firm to create a culture that honours experience and value the older workers. Companies also can offer flexible work by designing jobs such that staying on is more attractive than leaving. They can also offer part time work as an alternative to outright retirement. All retirement procedures must comply with the law of the land.




Disadvantages of lack of good career planning

Risk of employee leaving the Company

Employer-sponsored career planning programs fail to consider the possibility that an employee will leave the company. If an employer invests time and money in an employee, grooming her for a future employment opportunity, the company loses that investment when the employee leaves the business.

Lacks consideration of employee interests

Many employer-sponsored career planning programs look at the future needs of the company and consider which internal candidates already possess the skills to move into those roles. Companies do not consider individual goals differ from those of the company

Lacks understanding of employee's personal needs

An employee experiences a variety of personal situations during his employment term with a particular company. These situations include family deaths, birth or adoption of children, caring for disabled family members or caring for aging parents. Employer-sponsored career planning programs consider only the work experience of the employee, not his personal life. The employee may need less responsibility to care for family needs than what is available on the path designed by the employer. 
References
Dessler, G. (2008). Human Resource Management 11th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

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