Creating Robust Career Pathways for Your Teams

This week we’ve taken a reflective look back over the past couple of years and discussed how working lives have been transformed. The changes we have witnessed, and the insight we’ve gained from listening to the needs of employers and employees alike, demonstrates that workplace strategies must be reviewed to help combat rising resignation levels and falling employee engagement scores.

One such strategy is to create robust career pathways.

Why are Career Pathways Important?

Research has proved that Millennials and Gen Z’s expect better career development than the generations before them. This expectation is driven by the knowledge that around 70% of the roles that our youngest workers take on will be significantly impacted by the progression of automation and AI in the workplace. Studies by McKinsey reveal that around 375 million employees across the world could be displaced by the year 2030.

And it’s imperative to note that these young workers state that they consider the learning of new skills just as valuable as receiving a pay rise.

What Employees Look for in a Career Pathway

• They desire a personalised career path that meets their unique needs and aspirations.

• They wish for a career to be designed around experiences, and not purely around satisfaction.

How to Improve Career Pathways

Taking a strict ‘no one size fits all’ approach is key; here are our recommendations for improving career pathways at your organisation:

• Speak with all employees individually and establish what is really important to them. This should include their professional goals as well as their personal ones too.

• Ask them what they will need to achieve these goals.

• At all times make it clear that the company is invested in their growth.

• While considering the mission of the organisation, provide everyone with access to training and development courses, networking opportunities and coaching.

• It’s good practice for a manager to not just talk about opportunities within their immediate team, but to consider opportunities within the whole organisation.

Career Mapping

It may be beneficial for managers to take a more structured approach when speaking with their team members about career progression. This can be done with a process called career mapping.

This tool helps to steer the career planning discussion and involves three steps.

1. Self-assessment. In this first step, the manager should encourage the individual to explore their past experiences and interests, identify their skills and abilities, and consider what they wish to accomplish.

2. The creation of their personalised career map. Bearing in mind what was discussed during the self-assessment stage, the employee together with their manager can look at other roles that meet their aspirations and interests. And don’t forget, every move within a career map does not have to be a promotion, it can be a sideways move to increase their knowledge and skillset.

3. Being mindful of other opportunities. As and when opportunities arise within the workplace, take time to explore whether it could be a good move for the employee. It could be that the move acts as an accelerator.

Alternative Development Opportunities

We understand that not every business is big enough to embrace detailed career pathways, but there are other methods of career progression that are extremely effective. Here are 4 alternatives that you can consider:

1. The redesign. Should your business have a relatively flat organisational structure this could be the approach that delivers amazing benefits to both employee and employer. Instead of moving roles entirely, the individual can be given more challenges and tasks where they learn essential skills that match their own goals.

2. The rotation. Job rotation programmes provide employees with a greater insight into how the organisation operates. And the extra experiences will help should a vacancy arise which fits in with their career plan.

3. The dual ladder programme to promote innovation. This provides separate routes; one route is for those who wish to take up managerial roles and the other is best suited for those who wish to develop their knowledge and experience without having to man manage. It’s key to note that not everyone wishes, or is suited, to manage others.

4. The horizontal career path. Not all moves need to be vertical. A horizontal move boosts an employee’s knowledge of how every role links with others and provides an opportunity to explore other departments. They also aid structural movement, for example an employee can take a horizontal role meaning that someone else can move up the ladder.

The Benefits of Personalised Career Pathways

When you invest in your people and align their individual training and development needs to the business’s goals you will:

• Differentiate yourself from competitors resulting in the retention of your top talent.

• Gain a loyal workforce that knows that they are valued and cared for.

• Improve employee engagement.

• Attract younger workers who will bring new ideas to your business.

• Have more resilience and have the ability to recover after a crisis.

• Experience greater levels of morale and productivity.

Empowering your Workforce to Create their own Pathways

Looking to a manager to create a career pathway is no longer the only option for today’s employees. They should be given the power to create their own. For this to be successful, you must provide all the relevant resources, job enhancement opportunities, and learning tools to support the employee’s individual plans.

How we can help you

As always, if you’d like to discuss any of the issues detailed in this blog or require additional support in the creation of career pathways, get in touch with us today on 0161 941 2426.