INDIVIDUAL CAREER PLANNING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01826R000900060029-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 20, 1998
• Sequence Number: 29
• Publication Date: April 12, 1956
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2001/0 0-01826R000900060029-0
12 April 1956
T. CIA Career Council
SUBJECT. Individual Career Planning
Recommendations for the approval of the CIA Career Council are
contained in paragraph 6, page 6.
1. FRUBS, :
To establish an Agency-.a i.de program of individual career planning
on an orderly basis.
2. AS5ttJNPTIOX 5 :
a. A plan containing proposals for an individual's training and
assignments for the foreseeable future serves as an incentive
for the individual to do better work and to direct his interests
to a long-term career in the Agency.
b. A plan, which is compatible with an individual's known ability
or his dmAcnstrable potential, if designed in tern= of the needs
of the Agency, increases the individual's potential contributions
to the mission of M.
c. . Individual. Career Plans, revieried by appropriate officials and
made a matter of official record, assist Agency officials in
meeting present and future personnel rc uirenenta and serve as
A basis for eat-mating manpower potential for future intelligence
activities.
d. Supervisors and officials responsible for the Individual career
planning function will apply sound pri nciplea of personnel. msaege-
ment. In the performance of their counseling function they will
emphasize that career progression is dependent upon the initiative
reflected in an individual's perforzmsnce and self-development.
a. Individuals and supervisors will recognize that continuity of
career interest and consistently satisfactory performance rather
than rotation from area to area or function to function are basic
in career progression. Individual career planning doss not ixnply
that proposals for reassignment or formal training are inherent
or must be included in a plan.
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SDRJ ,CT Indivi.daal Career Planning
3.
a. Each member of the CIA Career Staff is assured that attention
will be given to his personal progress. The Application for
Membership in the Career Staff of CIA states: "...that with
continuing satisfactory work performance and conduct on my
part, Just and equitable attention will.be accorded my personal
progress during my tenure in the Career Staff."
b. Regulation No. places responsibility upon the Heads of
Career Services:
(1) To plan the utilization and development of members of their
Service, including their training, assignment, rotation,
and advancement; and
(2) To plan the rotation and reassignment of members of their
Service so as to enable the Career Service to meet long-
range personnel requirements through orderly processes.
c. Some Career Services have made great strides in establishing
programs calling for written plans for the assignment, training,
and development of individuals under their jurisdiction but on
the whole individual career planning is currently in its initial
stage. Appro :hnately ndividual Career Plans using different
procedures. forum..' is , an anning criteria have been reported.
however, there is no accurate way to determine to what extent
career planning has been effected or for what percent of the
employees no glans of any kind have been made.
4. DISCUSSION :
a.. Career planning in the Agency is at present carried out, for the
most part, in an informal manner. Plans for groups or certain
categories of personnel are made, sometimes with and many trees
without -- the respective individuals in these groups participating
on a witting basis. Long-range planning is confined, to a great,
extent. to a few specialists in the several functional fields. In
general. individual career planning is considered the responsibility
of the it mediate supervisor, who may or may not have perspective or
:interest in the long-range development of individuals,
b. An Agency policy which provides uniformity in individual career
planning requirements is desirable in order: to furnish guidance
to the Heads of 'Career Services for the performance of their
career planning function.
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SUS T : Individual Career Planning
c. The Heads of Career Services have submitted reports on their
policies and accomplishments in regard to career planning.
These reports include comments and suggestions and indicate
the need for an Agency-wide policy for individual career
planning.
d. The following basic principles must be considered in the
development of policies and procedures for individual career
planning:
(1) An Individual
DFINI?N: An Individual Career Plan is a documented
description of an employee's proposed career
activities for an appropriate specified
period and serves as a guide for future
personnel actions affecting him.
DESCEIP ION: An Individual Career Plan should be com-
patible with the employee's current and
prospective capabilities and the needs of
the Agency and, insofar as possible, with
his career interests.
A Plan Bray include proposals for retention
in present position, for reassignment, or for
training. Such proposals may be specific or
general in terms of time and place. Although
reassignment and formal training may be pro-
posed in a Plan, the function of individual
career planning does not imply that such
actions are inherent or required for career
progression.
(2) Supervisors and officials assisting in the preparation of
individual career plans or reviewing specific proposals
for future personnel actions must ensure that the real
needs and potential of the individual are coordinated with
the present and future requirements of the Agency.
(3) Specific proposals for reassignment and training included
in Plans are not to be considered as commitments on the
part of the individual or the Agency. The expression of
the individual's career interests and proposals made in
plans are guides for future major personnel and training
actions affecting the individual and must be subsequently
considered by officials when approving such actions. This
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SIJI3Ji T: individual Career Planning
is not intended to restrict desirable flexibility of action
but rather to ensure that major actions which deviate from
the proposals in an individual's plan are taken after serious
consideration of all pertinent factors. in line with this
requirement, individual career plans should be made a part
of an official record (i.e., plan d in the Individual's
Official Personnel Folder) so they are available to all
officials responsible for initiating and approving subsequent
personnel actions.
(4) The preparation of Plans for all employees in the Agency is
not practical, or necessary. However, formal exclusion of
individuals or groups from career planning activities is
undesirable and could easily cause a major morals problem.
In order that inequities would not be set up. an Agency
career planning, policy should not exclude any employee or
grour of employees. The individual career planning program
should be directed initially to certain groups or categories
of personnel since the work load will initially be large.
Colective criteria must be established to determine what
groups would be required to have career plans. Factors such
as age, grade, length of service in the agency, and needs of
the Agency would be considered in establishing priorities for
processing plans. The practice of directing the individual
career planning function initially to persons in recognizable
priority groups would get the program under way in the Agency
on a gradual and realistic basis, with the objective of even-
tually establishing individual career planning as a necessary
personnel management practice for all career employees.
ee . An Agency form for the preparation of Individual Career Plans to
be used by all Career Services is necessary to standardize the
function of career planning for individuals. Various forms are
currently being used in the Agency. Copies of some of, these forms
are attached as Appendix A. Most of tie provide for the entry of
biographic.data items as well as proposals for future personnel
actions for the individual concerned. It is thought. that these
forms do not include sufficient background data to provide a basis
for determining future plans for the individual. They would neces-
sarily have to be supplemented with a biographic brief or infonna-
tion from the Official Personnel Folder. The proposed for, "Career
Plan" attached as Appendii B is a one-page sheet confined to infor-
mation on the career interests of the individual and proposals for
bin future a6sig4rents and training. Space is provided .for the
comments of officials concerned in the career planning of the indi.-
vldual.. Uniform administrative procedures can be developed once
there is a standard form for individual career planning in use
throughout the Agency.
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19 April 1956
PROPOSED ADDITIONS TO STAi'F S
"T IVIDUAL CAREER 'LAMM," DATID 12 APRIL 1956
Add to paragraph 4 DISCUSSION the following:
f. There has been much concern over the fact that career
planning is so conmonly considered to be rotation and
that if an individual prepares a plan, it means that
sometime in the predictable future he moves some place.
This misconception of career planning can be corrected
by proper counseling on the part of supervisors. It
would be normal if more than fifty percent of the plans
prepared were to propose retention in present assign-
ments for the immediate future. 1nphasis must be placed
on the fact that career planning is a personnel manage-
ment procedure to provide for better utilization of man-
power - first for the greatest benefit to the Agency and
second for the greatest benefit to the individual. The
object in preparing a career plan is to project the
activities of an individual in order to direct and
stabilize his planning for the future and to encourage
him to give serious consideration to his skills, interests,
aptitudes and performance in relation to the needs of
the Agency. A elan prepared within the framework of these
objectives serves as an incentive for the individual to
do better work in his present assignment and recognizes
that the development of a career is predicated from the
beginning upon the individual's performance, consistent
endeavor, and potential.
CO ICLUSIONS the follov
a. Individual Career Planning is a necessary personnel
management procedure which provides guides for future
personnel actions for individuals in order that job
continuity and better utilization of manpower in the
Agency may be effected.
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: u9Jgc' Individual Career Planning
An Agency policy on individual career planning which provides
guidance to the Heads of Career Services for the performance
of their career planning function should be established., In
order to effect uniformity in all the Career Services,, the
following principles for making and implementing career plans
for employees should be approved as Agency p~bl.i. y~
(1) Individual Career Plans should be eventually regtdr^ed for
all members of the CIA Career Staff except supergrsde employees.:
(2)
Individual Career Plans may be prepared for a~rg staff employee
or staff agent, if in the opinion of the ind rich . or his
supervisor the documentation of a plan for the individual is
required or desirable:,
Individual Career Plans for persons presently in grades 4S-`121
and 0S=12 should be given first priority h,r the respective
Career Services in determining the sequence for processing
plans
Individual Career Plans should be filled, subsequent to review
by appropriate officials, in the Official!. Personnel Folder of
the individual concerned-
(5) The Individual Career Plan,, along with the annual Fitness
Report,, should be subsequently considered in connection with
then approval of major personnel and training actions affe :!zing
the individual..
(6)
A major change in status, such as a r?assignmont, pa omotiong
change in duty between headquarters and field0 should trigger
the review and extension of a Plan
a?ttachad It"orm i'Car^eer Plan" (see Appendix B) should be used as
a model in developing the basic individual areerJ planning document
for all Career Services
The following general responsibilities and procedures for the
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preparation and review of Individual Career Plans should be followed
in all Career Services%
(1) The Heads of Career Services will be responsible for initiating
the preparation of Individual Career Plans for members of their
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SU J T: individual Career Planning
(2) Operating Officials will ensure that immediate supervisors
or other appropriate officials work in collaboration with
the individuals concerned and the appropriate Career Manage-
ment Officers In the preparation of the Plans.
(3) Heads of Career Services will ensure that Career Boards,
Panels, or appropriate Senior Officials review all individual
Career Plans.
(4) The original of the Individual Career Plan, subsequent to
review and endorsement by. appropriate supervisors and officials.
will be shown to and noted by the individual concerned.
(5) Heads of Career Services will ensure that the original of the
Individual. Career Plan, when appropriately endorsed, is forwarded
to the Office of Personnel for inclusion in the individual's
Official Personnel Folder. A copy of the Plan will be retained
by the Career Service responsible for career planning for the
individual.
(6) Proposals for changes in a Plan may be initiated by the
indlvidual or the Read of his Career Service any time
subsequent to the initial preparation of the Plan.. Major
changes or revisions gill be subject to the same review
as Is required in the processing of the original Plan.
6. RECO ENDATIONS:
It is recommended that:
a. The conclusions in paragraph 5 be approved.
b. An Agency Regulation on Individual Career Planning be prepared by
the Director of Personnel and submitted to the Council for approval.
The Council schedule a special meeting to which the Reads of
Career Services and Operating Officials are invited to discuss
the implementation of the Individual. Career Planning Program.
Deputy Director of Personnel
for Planning and Development
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