An employee, along with the HR department, identifies long-term career goals, assesses skill gaps, and prepares a structured development path including training and future job movements. This process is best described as:

Career planning is a collaborative process where an employee, often with HR's guidance, maps out their professional future within an organization. It involves: 

• Self-Assessment: Identifying personal long-term goals and current competencies.
• Gap Analysis: Identifying the specific skills or knowledge needed to reach those goals.
• Actionable Pathing: Creating a structured roadmap that includes specific training, mentorship, and planned job rotations or "movements" to prepare for future roles. 

  Note: ·        Succession planning: While related, this is primarily an organizational strategy focused on identifying and developing specific internal candidates to fill key leadership roles when they become vacant, rather than a broad development path for any individual employee.   ·        Performance appraisal: This is a periodic (usually annual) evaluation of an employee's past performance against set standards. It is a review of what has already happened, though it may feed into future planning.   ·        Job analysis: This is the technical process of determining the duties and skill requirements of a specific job and the kind of person who should be hired for it. It focuses on the job itself, not the employee's long-term career path.   ·        Human resource planning (HRP): This is a high-level macro process used by the organization to ensure it has the right number of people with the right skills at the right time. It deals with forecasting overall workforce supply and demand.