5.Career Development

According to Patra and Singh (2012), career development is a system which is organized,formalized and it’s a planned effort of achieving a balance between the individual career needs and the organization’s workforce requirements. The rapidly growing awareness makes it obvious that people can give the firm its leading edge in the market place. The new challenge for the HR professionals is to identify the developmental strategies which can inspire the commitment of employees to the firm’s mission and values so that the employees become motivated and help the

firm to gain and maintain a competitive advantage.Al-Sharafi et al. (2018) further argued that, career development considered as one of the human resource practices that help in retention management issue. Many studies mentioned it as one of the main retention strategies. Studies have shown that a lack of career development opportunities within an organization leads to high employee turnover. In contrast, organizations that implement career development programs are more likely to have a high level of commitment and retention

among their employees.

 

Das and Baruah (2013) stated that, a close and positive correlation between promotions and job satisfaction and which in turn helps in retaining employees. Further, it has shown internal career development of employees is often the best predictor of an employee's effective commitment.

Chandranshu and Ruchi (2012) further mentioned that the job flexibility along with embracingn career and life options is a critical incentive for all employees. Research shows growing trends of employers providing greater job flexibility that includes flexible career options (i.e. training, mentoring, workstation accommodations, job mobility, and reduced work hours) and life options

(i.e. counseling services, health and wellness programs).Kossivi et al. (2016) also observed direct relationship between development opportunities and retention. It is also identified promotion and opportunities for growth as a significant reason for which employees decide to leave or stay in an organization and went further by identifying influential factors pertaining to career growth opportunities, which are: advancement plans,internal promotion and accurate career previews. Das and Baruah (2013) further argued that talented employees are required for maintaining a competitive advantage and employees want career growth opportunities to develop and rise in their career ladder.Providing great career development opportunities makes the employees to stay in the company for long and at the same time enhances their loyalty to the firm. Also creating a positive social work environment and adding content to the jobs and tasks to be done by the employees enhances employee satisfaction and commitment (Mehta et al., 2014).Career development is important for both the organization and individual. It’s a mutual benefit process because career development provides the important outcomes for both parties.Organizations need talented employees for maintaining the sustainable competitive advantage and individuals require career opportunities to develop and grow their competencies (Patra & Singh,2012).Furthermore, Fatima (2011) mentioned that the Career development Opportunities is imperative for both the organization and individual. It’s a mutual benefit process because career development

provides the important outcomes for both parties. Organizations need talented employees for maintaining the sustainable competitive advantage and individuals require career opportunities to develop and grow their competencies. Mehta et al. (2014) further mentioned that Retention practices give more importance to factors affecting to cause employee turnover (career opportunities and financial rewards) than on those believed to affect employee retention (social atmosphere, job content, work-life balance). Career opportunities have the strongest impact on employee commitment while the impact of financial rewards is less.

In order to strengthen the bond with employees, organization must spend on the development of employees. It creates promotion opportunities within organization and provides training opportunities and skill development to improve their employee’s employability on the internal and  or external labour market (Irshad & Afridi, 2007).

Strategic ways for retaining top talent in the organization is by helping high potential employees have cross functional job for job and work related satisfaction, involvement in decision making,

encouraging their ideas and helping them implement them, help in career development moves,skill building through effective and relevant training and also employees must be able to see aclear career path in the organization, only then they will stay for long (Mehta et al., 2014).

Further to the above, it has been proven that the Career Growth and Employee Retention do have a significant relationship between each factors and it is highly impact on retaining the employees in any organization. It is shown that a company with good career path will attract more employees

to the organization and it is also impact of retaining the best staff in the company to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. In other words, career development helps in developing a sense of loyalty for employers who are willing to invest in them. Likewise, when hiring new employees to the company, career development programs can be attractive to job-seekers.