Why Successful Career Pathing Starts With Communicating Your Company’s Long-Term Vision
Most leaders are aware of the importance of career pathing and development in general. After all, this element can make or break an employee’s decision to stay at a company or look for seemingly greener pastures. However, career pathing plans can be difficult for smaller companies to execute. Jeff Meade shares insight on how leadership can use career pathing efforts to benefit both employees and company goals.
Many business leaders are now aware of the importance of career pathing for their employees. They know that being able to see progression possibilities helps employees motivate themselves — and boosts retention for the company in turn. However, career development can be difficult for smaller businesses, where organizational hierarchy is flatter and upward mobility seems limited.
Research bears this out. A study by TINYpulse found that only 26% of employees could see ample opportunities to grow within their organization, and research by Randstad shows that a lack of professional development opportunities directly affects employees’ likelihood of staying at a workplace in the long term.
So how can employers create employee retention strategies that also give workers a tangible career path? The key is to invest in co-creating a professional development plan that gives both the business and employees a vision of the long-term goals and how to achieve them. Here’s how to start:
- Make your employee the hero.
Too often, when leaders are trying to sell a career path to an employee, they paint a picture of employees as bit players in a story focused on the organization. But all employees are individuals with their own desires, goals, and visions for their futures. They have to be allowed to be the heroes of their own journeys.
You can gain buy-in from employees by illustrating a story of mutual success. Tell a story similar to the hero’s journey that puts your employee in the center. Make them the Black Panther or the Lara Croft — the protagonist of the story — so they can clearly imagine and get excited about their role in the future of your company. - Identify skills gaps your employees can grow into.
According to a study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, 74% of managers identify a skills gap in the labor market. So the next step for leaders looking to help employees grow is to determine what skills they are missing.
Conversations with employees regarding career pathing should be framed around shoring up your current skills gap. For organizations with a flatter structure, this is important — the vision you are selling is not one where someone is afforded a new title every 18 months. The journey people take with you is one where they enhance their skill set in measurable ways. - Create individual development plans for each employee.
Individual development plans are tools that help employees take ownership over their career pathing. Creating an IDP is similar to conducting a gap analysis, except it’s just for one employee. Your employee looks at their current status and asks: “Where do I want to be, and how will I get there?” When people commit to a goal, they feel more invested in the effort, and they are more likely to achieve success — both for themselves and for your business.
IDPs are roadmaps that will lend accountability and responsibility to your employees’ daily work while giving them a sense of ownership. Once everyone has agreed on a goal, work together to map out the steps it will take to get there. Develop each IDP by answering these questions:
- What would you like to be famous for?
- What will you do to achieve this goal?
- What must you achieve this year to ensure you reach this goal? What about this month?
- What is your next step?
- Why haven’t you taken this step previously?
The answers to the questions above will form a five-step process that’s instrumental to ensuring your goals are achievable and your interests are aligned. At each step, you’ll learn critical information. If you have an employee who wants to be a world-class chef but your organization is all about sports education, for instance, you might have found a reason to part ways. But if you can answer all five and end up with a plan that feels empowering, it can become a workable career development plan.
If you’re wondering how to retain employees when you don’t operate in a traditional hierarchy, the key is to give ownership and power to employees first. This does not mean ownership as in an equity stake — it means ownership in a process, deliverable, or profit and loss. Help employees create their own career development plan, but make goals together so that their success becomes yours.
Written by Jeff Meade.
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