Assessing employability capacities and career adaptability in a sample of human resource professionals

Abstract

Orientation: Employers have come to recognise graduates’ employability capacities and their ability to adapt to new work demands as important human capital resources for sustaining a competitive business advantage.Research purpose: The study sought (1) to ascertain whether a significant relationship exists between a set of graduate employability capacities and a set of career adaptability capacities and (2) to identify the variables that contributed the most to this relationship.Motivation for the study: Global competitive markets and technological advances are increasingly driving the demand for graduate knowledge and skills in a wide variety of jobs. Contemporary career theory further emphasises career adaptability across the lifespan as a critical skill for career management agency. Despite the apparent importance attached to employees’ employability and career adaptability, there seems to be a general lack of research investigating the association between these constructs.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional, quantitative research design approach was followed. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations and canonical correlation analysis were performed to achieve the objective of the study. The participants (N = 196) were employed in professional positions in the human resource field and were predominantly early career black people and women.Main findings: The results indicated positive multivariate relationships between the variables and showed that lifelong learning capacities and problem solving, decision-making and interactive skills contributed the most to explaining the participants’ career confidence, career curiosity and career control.Practical/managerial implications: The study suggests that developing professional graduates’ employability capacities may strengthen their career adaptability. These capacities were shown to explain graduates’ active engagement in career management strategies deemed important for their sustained employability in the contemporary career environment.Contributions: The results of the study offered empirical evidence in support of theoretical views on the self-regulatory capacities underpinning individuals’ career adaptability and how these are influenced by their employability capacities.

Investigating the Linkage Between Proactive Personality and Social Support on Career Adaptability Amidst Undergraduate Students

“…This ultimately indicates the poor adaptive state of fresh graduates from the universities that lack the zeal to successfully integrate themselves into the work role which ultimately leads to increased joblessness. This is supported by researches indicating that the result of being adaptive include employment status, career satisfaction, promotability, entrepreneurial intentions, turnover, job Satisfaction (Chan, Mai, Kuok, & Kong, 2016;Coetzee, Ferreira, & Potgieter, 2015;Mckenna, Zacher, Ardabili, & Mohebbi, 2016;Zacher, 2015).…”

The moderating role of HR practices on the career adaptability–job crafting relationship: a study among employee–manager dyads

“…Career adaptability is essentially the self-regulatory ability to engage in adaptive strategies while preparing for and participating in the work role (Savickas, 1997). Research shows that engaging in adapting behaviors results in positive career-related outcomes, such as career success (Xie, Xia, Xin, & Zhou, 2016) and employability (Coetzee, Ferreira, & Potgieter, 2015), supporting the relevance of career adaptability in the context of careers.…”

Employee Career: Effect of Administrative Competence, Social Capital and Performance

“…Nuryanto et al (2017) argues that competency-based human resources can improve capacity and build foundations because if the people who work in the organization have the right competence in accordance with the demands of their work, then he will be able both in terms of knowledge, skills and mental and productive character . Del Corso dalam Coetzee et al (2015) berpendapat bahwa -Individuals must be flexible, proactive, embrace lifelong learning, seek out new skills, and think globally in order to keep up with the pace of change and comply with the requirements of employers". According to Moeheriono (2012), competency indicator is motive, trait, self concept, skill, knowledge.…”