Find Out How Career Pathing is Critical for Building Employee Retention
When your employees step into a new role or look toward their future, having a clear plan can make all the difference. Without direction, they may feel lost and disconnected. This is where career pathing comes into play.
| “By providing a strategic roadmap tailored to each individual’s aspirations, you can improve their confidence and engagement, setting both them and your organization up for success,” said Rebecca Page, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Director of HR Services for JER HR Group. |
49% of employees have said a lack of good job advice has hurt their ability to grow professionally. This is where your company can stand out—support your employees, and they’ll support you.
In this blog post, we’ll explain career pathing, how it can help you improve employee retention, the steps that go into a successful pathing program, and tools you can use to get started.
Career Pathing as a Roadmap
Career pathing is each team member’s personalized roadmap to success. It’s not just a list of jobs but a strategic plan tailored to each employee’s aspirations.
Here’s how it works:
- Custom roadmaps: Each career path is unique, reflecting your team member’s history, skills, and goals. You can design paths that fit each team member perfectly, making sure they see a clear route to what they’re aiming to do.
- Employee development programs: Career pathing includes targeted development activities. These might involve training sessions, workshops, or new projects that help employees build the skills they need to advance.
- Lateral moves: Not everyone wants to climb the corporate ladder. Some prefer to explore different roles within the company. Pathing accommodates these horizontal moves—they can change departments, but won’t change their core responsibilities.
- Promotions and growth: For those aiming for higher positions, pathing outlines the steps needed for promotions. It provides a clear plan for moving up within the organization.
63% of employees who leave their jobs report doing so because there are no opportunities for advancement. This is exactly where organizational retention through career pathing is most effective. By offering personalized career paths, you help your team members achieve their goals, and at the same time, improve engagement and retention.
| What is the difference between career pathing and talent management pathways?
As we’ve already discussed, career pathing provides a roadmap for each of your team members to meet their professional goals within the company, whether moving into a management role or into an adjacent role. On the other hand, but still related, a talent management pathway is a comprehensive HR strategy focused on developing and retaining top talent across the organization. This includes identifying training needs, professional development programs, and for senior management to establish a culture of learning. |
Why You Need to Keep Career Pathing in Mind
Getting stuck with a revolving door of employees leaving your company and continuously training new team members isn’t ideal. However, it’s something you can mitigate. Establishing pathways to growth for your team members needs to be a key part of your strategy as it can build a strong team that’s happy and excels in their roles.
There are several points at which this proves to be true. Here’s how.
Reduce Your Rate of Turnover
When employees understand their future with the organization, they are more likely to stay—resulting in increased morale and reduced costs associated with turnover. Keeping your top talent engaged and committed to their professional development also maintains team stability and performance.
Improve Employee Engagement
Today’s workforce is looking for opportunities for personal and professional growth. Career pathing provides employees with valuable insights into their current skills, potential career opportunities, and the steps needed for advancement.
This empowerment builds greater engagement, driving productivity and loyalty. Likewise, employees who feel supported in their career development are more motivated and committed to your company’s success.
Plan for Succession
By mapping out the skills and competencies of your workforce, you can identify who is ready for advancement and where additional training is needed.
This way, you can also maintain smooth transitions when key employees retire or leave, avoiding disruptions and keeping a resilient organization. Planning ahead also helps you future-proof your business by preparing capable successors and detecting when new talent is needed.
| Learn more about how you can support your employees: |
What Makes Up Successful Career Pathing
You can follow a few steps to set your employees and the business up for success. Here’s how.
| The What | The Why |
| Update Your Org Chart | Create or update your org chart to reflect the company’s structure and align it with your business plan.
Show all positions and departments. This way, you can show potential career paths for employees. |
| Define Job Positions | List the key responsibilities and requirements of each position on your org chart. Include key performance indicators that outline how success is measured. |
| Create a Roadmap for Each Skills Track | Develop roadmaps for every department and team to show how employees can advance through different roles. |
| Identify What Training is Needed | Assess current training programs and determine if they support employee advancement.
Consider access to continuing education and mentorship and the training that employees want. |
| Create Development Programs | Based on the assessment, design training programs that support growth—no matter if it’s into management or more lateral movement.
Try to establish a coaching culture, which differentiates great companies. |
| Establish Career Paths for Each Employee | Implement the career pathing program during onboarding and performance reviews. Discuss goals and job progression, and include their career maps in their files. |
Tools You Can Use to Support Successful Career Pathing and Planning
You’ll need internal career advancement tools to assist with setting up career pathing and planning for your team members. Here are some ideas.
Skill Management Platforms
Make sure your talent development resources are allocated efficiently. Skill management platforms address skill gaps, identify training needs, and align employees with roles that match their potential. These platforms offer features like:
- career development plans
- competency assessments
- skills matrices
- career framework
- succession planning
Online Learning Platforms
Online education platforms, like Coursera and Udemy, offer courses from experts and institutions. They provide employees with easy access to learning materials that can advance their knowledge and skills anytime, anywhere.
Choose platforms based on cost, courses offered and their quality, as well as depth and certifications offered.
Coaching Platforms
Mentoring and coaching are highly effective for career development, offering hands-on learning and support. Consider setting up informal mentoring structures within your organization. Or, use external experts to automate and facilitate the process, providing dedicated guidance and encouragement. You can also use a coaching platform.
A solid coaching platform should track and monitor progress toward goals. Look for features like time tracker tools, customizable tracking systems, task lists, and options for private note-taking.
| Tip: Looking for a more cost-effective option? Take a look at task rotations.
Easy to implement, task rotations integrate into the natural workflow. Use performance reviews and skills assessments to identify areas for improvement, then find internal opportunities for employees to develop those skills. This has proven to be a simple but effective career growth strategy in HR. |
Take Employee Satisfaction to the Next Level
Start implementing career pathing today and see the difference it makes in employee engagement and retention. At JER HR, we provide the tools and expertise to help you create customized roadmaps for each team member, ensuring their professional aspirations align with your business goals.
With over 30 years in business and a team of 40+ experienced consultants, we have successfully served 1,000+ clients across 35 states.