How to improve retention and performance through career management
Why building a career path matters
The reality is some of your employees are preparing to leave your organisation. The worrying part is, the ones who leave might surprise you and may not be the ones you want to leave.
A recent study by Microsoft found 41% employees are considering leaving their current employer over the next 12 months.
According to Mercer, 78% report they would stay with their current employer if they knew their career path.
And career path doesn’t have to mean moving up in an organisation. It is about employees feeling empowered and educated to know hot to tap into opportunities, what options are available to them, and what they need to do to progress within your organisation.
Offering career management initiatives within your organisation allows you to align the aspirations of individuals within your organisation with your current and future business needs.
What does a career path look like?
Traditionally, a career path looked more like a ladder. In this career trajectory the individual concentrates on moving up in their field. But, there are other options available to employees that can help them develop broader and deeper skills that can have a longer term benefit for their career
What are the eight career directions available?
Enrichment. Develop your current skills and knowledge through expanding your current responsibilities and/or tasks.
Remain in Current Role - No Change. Your current role provides you with your desired level of challenge and development at this time.
Redirection. Changing the career stream or field of work, moving into a different area.
Relocation. Work in a different area from your current one.
Vertical - Seek Promotion. Advance to a higher level with more responsibilities and/or wider job scope.
Lateral - Sideways Move. Moving to a role at a similar level but with different job content to develop specific skills.
Exploration - Test Out Options. Project work, a secondment, or acting in another job function to test out how you like it.
Realignment - Change in Job Level. For a short- or long-term period, move to a different, possibly lower level that is a better fit, and/or to develop specific skills.
4 essential steps to support employee career pathways
For organisations, the important focus should be to provide resources and tools to empower employees to create their own career path.
Encourage internal mobility through talent acquisition processes. Internal candidates should be prioritised before going to the external market. When candidates are unsuccessful for roles, offer them tangible feedback they can leverage to assess their gaps and how to mitigate them.
Identify training needs and analyse potential development programs. Review existing programs and offerings to ensure they meet the needs of employees. These should also be in line with the future needs of the business.
Task employees with developing an Individual Development Plan (IDP). This plan should be developed in conjunction with their manager so both parties buy into the areas of focus. It should be specific to their individual career goals.
Utilise a career portal so employees can access best practice resources and information as needed. By providing employees the tools and resources needed to track their progress, your organization can analyze and measure career management data. This allows you to see how employee career paths, and development, are making a difference.
Is your organisation review its career management offerings? Project Roar offers career portals, career modules and career programs to increase employee retention and keep your employees invested in your business. Get in touch if you want to find out how we can help your organisation retain your talent and align the aspirations of your employees within your organisation with your current and future business needs.