What money really mean to IT employees

The recent market recession has led firms to curtail costs wherever possible including cost on human capital. Most of the companies have curtailed benefits and put salary revision on hold, which makes this a good time to re-evaluate how we think about money. It seems our love affair with lucre has developed into a bit of a dysfunctional relationship.

Few issues elicit as much emotion from technical staffs as salary. For a bunch of folks who typically eschew emotion, we can get really worked up about money. We have seen more tears and screaming about it than about any other managerial issue.

The problem is that we've allowed money to become wrapped up with a number of other issues. We use it as a tangible symbol for other intangible values.

Status. We use money as an indicator of social status. As herd animals, we really like to know where we stand in relation to our peers, and money is one key measure.

Personal worth. We use money as a symbol of how much our organizations value us. The more they pay us, the more they must feel that we are good and valuable people.

Progress. We expect that income over a career should continually rise. As we progress, so should our value and commensurate compensation.

Fairness. Most important, we use money as a gauge of the organization's fairness. We compare the value we deliver and expect to be reasonably compensated. We estimate the value that we add compared with our peers and expect that each should be compensated according to his relative contribution.

So frequently, when technical people, uncomfortable with squishy emotional things, feel undervalued, unloved, abused or unfairly treated, they complain about money. It's the safe, concrete way to express what they don't like. It's easy to say, "Bob does a worse job than I do but is paid better. That's not fair."
It's hard to say, "Why don't you respect me and my contribution as much as you do Bob's?" But they are really the same thing.

And that's where the problem comes in. Money's not really about any of those things.

In aggregate, how much we get paid is not a function of our moral worth but of supply and demand. The ups and downs of salary numbers are based less on the value we deliver to the organization and more on the fluctuations of the market for people with our talents.

As the market for technical skills continues to globalize, we need to get clear about what money really means. And perhaps more important, we need to get better at expressing our feelings about worth and values and fairness separately from the symbol to which we've grown so accustomed.

Career planning : HR perspective

Career Planning

Career planning is the process of setting and individual career objectives and creatively developing activities that will achieve them.

> Organizational Initiatives
1. A Job posting system
2. Mentoring activities
3. Career resource centers
4. Career counseling
5. Career development workshops
6. Human resource planning and forecasting
7. Performance appraisal
8. Career Pathing programmes

1> Job Posting system
1. Job posting is an organized process that allows employees to apply for open positions within the organization.

2. Employees can respond to announcements and postings of positions and then be considered along with external candidates.

2> Mentoring Activities
1. Introduce people to the inner network of the organization, which may assist them in their career advancement.
2. Help clarify the ambiguous expectations of the organization, provide objective assessment for the strengths and weaknesses of new employees and provide a sounding board for participants.

3> Career resource centers:
1. A resource centre returns the responsibility of career development to the employee
2. Offers self directed, self- paced learning and provide resources without creating dependence on the organization.
3. Career development works only if employees accept responsibility for their own careers.
4. Help facilitate career decision making, which helps to develop career exploration and evaluation competencies.
5. Primary services are: educational information, career planning and personal growth and job finding skills.

4> Career counseling:

Bring unique advantages to the career counseling role:
1. Make realistic appraisals of organizational opportunities
2. Realistic suggestions regarding career planning
3. Similar career decisions can be empathetic toward the employee.

5>Career development workshop

Is designed to encourage employees to take responsibilities for their careers
1. Employees can reflect on their present occupation in order to determine their level of satisfaction.
2. Excellent vehicle for orienting employees to career/ life planning, a major component of career development.
3. Seeks to address several basic questions :
• What are your goals, interests, values, choices, and skills?
• Where do you want to be in your career in the future?
• What knowledge and skills do you need to attain your goals?
• How do you plan to gain knowledge and skills?
• Is your plan realistic? What are the obstacles? What obstacles are self-imposed?

6> Human resource planning and forecasting:

The process of analyzing an organization’s human resource needs under changing conditions and developing the activities necessary to satisfy these needs.

From the analysis of needs, priorities can be determined and human resources can be allocated to satisfy existing future needs through career management.


7> Performance appraisal:

Appraisal is a very effective tool to guide and direct future growth opportunities for employees. This should aid in the development of a person’s career as well as enhance communications and understanding.

8> Career Pathing programmes:

Career path is the sequencing of work experiences, usually different job assignments, in order to provide employees with the opportunity to participate in many aspects of a professional area.

By experiencing each of these related but different occupations, the employee can develop a better understanding of the broad role.


Individual Initiatives in career planning :

1. Career planning
2. Career Awareness
3. Career resource center utilization
4. Interests, values and Competency Analysis.


1> Career planning:

HRD practitioner has an obligation to encourage as well as provide for the utilization of career planning on the part of employees. Employee can effectively contribute to the organizations’ overall human resource planning activity.


2> Career awareness:

Employees control decisions such as whether to remain in the organization, whether to accept specific occupational assignments, whether to perform at acceptable levels, and ever whether to engage in personal growth activities through training or professional continuing education.

Role of the HR is to provide the means and the information to assist in personal career decision making. HR must develop a climate and culture that is conducive for growth, one that encourages career development.

Employees take advantage of that climate and be aware of the important componenct of career development.

Employees need to construct plans that will enable them to accoplist their career goals, analyze potential career areas and determine if the posess the skills, competencies and knowledge necessary for such positions.

3> Career resource centre:

Career resource centers provide occupational guides, educational references career planning guides and computer programs aimed at assiting employees in determining their career interests, values and competencies. These materials increase the effectiveness and efficiency of career planning and provide employees with alternative approaches to career development.

4> Interest, values and competency analysis:

These interest inventories are designed to provide employees with important information about their career interest, values and competencies.