What is Career Pathing?

Employees receive support and assistance in developing their paths in organizations with formal processes for career pathing, such as performance development planning (PDP). A more traditional form is performance appraisals. However, they usually aren’t as detailed and tend to focus more on past accomplishments than clear goals for the long- and short-term future. Regardless of the label used, career pathing can benefit employers and employees.

Benefits of Career Pathing

The following benefits can influence an organization to embrace formal career pathing:

• Greater ability to recruit the right people for the right jobs
• Better employee engagement and less turnover
• Greater ability to meet employee demands for greater workplace flexibility
• More diversity at the leadership level
• More opportunities for advancement

Organizations that implement career pathing tend to have more engaged employees because employees believe that their employers are concerned about their growth—providing avenues to reach individual career goals while fulfilling their company’s mission. Career paths offer employees an ongoing mechanism to enhance their skills and knowledge, leading to mastery of their current jobs, promotions, and transfers.

How to Implement a Career Pathing Initiative

There are four main steps for employers to consider when creating a formal career pathing initiative.

Step 1: Identify the Company’s Career Progression Needs

Employees want career progression, and traditional methods don’t always work. They are navigating career lattices, where there are multiple routes to desired positions. Companies must consider how business objectives will align with career pathing, what skills and expertise are required from employees, and how to build the proper foundational framework—something easily navigable to employees looking for an internal career change.

Step 2: Build a Foundational Framework

The starting point of a sound career framework is the job family—a collection of competency-based job role profiles that include competencies, education, experiences, credentials, and qualifications. A competency-based framework is designed to translate the organization’s strategic business objectives into tangible actions on the part of employees, changing how employees engage with the company.

Step 3: Set Employees Up for Successful Career Pathing

It is essential to assess employees’ talent profiles against the job profiles that have been created. This gives insight into how ready an individual is for a specific role and helps determine short- and long-term career paths. It is also essential to enable employees to develop their paths in ways that are meaningful to them.

Step 4: Communication, Development, and Assessment

Employees may have questions about the career pathing initiative. Communicating employee expectations and implementation methods are vital. Employees and managers will require training to understand how it will change how job performance and career options are managed. Employers should also create assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs and whether improvements are needed.

How to Use Career Pathing as a Tool for Onboarding and Retention

Employers must ensure that their employees want to stay, even when they are ready for a change in their careers. Career pathing is vital to both onboarding and retention.

Make Sure There Are Real Career Opportunities Available

Many organizations underestimate the total career opportunities available to their employees because their mindsets are about traditional career paths based on hierarchy and experience instead of potential. However, that way of thinking limits the number of available career opportunities. Employers should make a practice of revisiting employees’ resumes to tap into their strengths and interests so they can maximize the potential of their talent base.

Make Sure Available Career Paths Are Visible

If employees cannot see the available career paths in an organization, they may assume other career opportunities are nonexistent. Employers should consider tapping into data aggregation technologies that harness information about roles and skills to map dynamic paths across the organization. They should then empower employees with a self-service interface to view and explore these internal paths and learning tracks.

Create a System to Facilitate Internal Career Moves

Not many organizations invest as much in internal career management platforms and practices as they do in external recruitment. HR managers should consider upgrading to cloud-based systems with powerful functionality that allows them to connect what they learned from the onboarding process to the employees’ career paths. This is especially important in organizations with higher rates of turnover.

Career pathing is a structured, comprehensive development planning process to help employees visualize their career potential within a company. The process requires employees to take an honest look at their career goals, skills, needed knowledge, experience, and personal characteristics. They are then required to plan for achieving what is necessary for each of these areas to advance in their careers.

Employees receive support and assistance in developing their paths in organizations with formal processes for career pathing, such as performance development planning (PDP). A more traditional form is performance appraisals. However, they usually aren’t as detailed and tend to focus more on past accomplishments than clear goals for the long- and short-term future. Regardless of the label used, career pathing can benefit employers and employees.

Benefits of Career Pathing

The following benefits can influence an organization to embrace formal career pathing:

• Greater ability to recruit the right people for the right jobs
• Better employee engagement and less turnover
• Greater ability to meet employee demands for greater workplace flexibility
• More diversity at the leadership level
• More opportunities for advancement

Organizations that implement career pathing tend to have more engaged employees because employees believe that their employers are concerned about their growth—providing avenues to reach individual career goals while fulfilling their company’s mission. Career paths offer employees an ongoing mechanism to enhance their skills and knowledge, leading to mastery of their current jobs, promotions, and transfers.

How to Implement a Career Pathing Initiative

There are four main steps for employers to consider when creating a formal career pathing initiative.

Step 1: Identify the Company’s Career Progression Needs

Employees want career progression, and traditional methods don’t always work. They are navigating career lattices, where there are multiple routes to desired positions. Companies must consider how business objectives will align with career pathing, what skills and expertise are required from employees, and how to build the proper foundational framework—something easily navigable to employees looking for an internal career change.

Step 2: Build a Foundational Framework

The starting point of a sound career framework is the job family—a collection of competency-based job role profiles that include competencies, education, experiences, credentials, and qualifications. A competency-based framework is designed to translate the organization’s strategic business objectives into tangible actions on the part of employees, changing how employees engage with the company.

Step 3: Set Employees Up for Successful Career Pathing

It is essential to assess employees’ talent profiles against the job profiles that have been created. This gives insight into how ready an individual is for a specific role and helps determine short- and long-term career paths. It is also essential to enable employees to develop their paths in ways that are meaningful to them.

Step 4: Communication, Development, and Assessment

Employees may have questions about the career pathing initiative. Communicating employee expectations and implementation methods are vital. Employees and managers will require training to understand how it will change how job performance and career options are managed. Employers should also create assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs and whether improvements are needed.

How to Use Career Pathing as a Tool for Onboarding and Retention

Employers must ensure that their employees want to stay, even when they are ready for a change in their careers. Career pathing is vital to both onboarding and retention.

Make Sure There Are Real Career Opportunities Available

Many organizations underestimate the total career opportunities available to their employees because their mindsets are about traditional career paths based on hierarchy and experience instead of potential. However, that way of thinking limits the number of available career opportunities. Employers should make a practice of revisiting employees’ resumes to tap into their strengths and interests so they can maximize the potential of their talent base.

Make Sure Available Career Paths Are Visible

If employees cannot see the available career paths in an organization, they may assume other career opportunities are nonexistent. Employers should consider tapping into data aggregation technologies that harness information about roles and skills to map dynamic paths across the organization. They should then empower employees with a self-service interface to view and explore these internal paths and learning tracks.

Create a System to Facilitate Internal Career Moves

Not many organizations invest as much in internal career management platforms and practices as they do in external recruitment. HR managers should consider upgrading to cloud-based systems with powerful functionality that allows them to connect what they learned from the onboarding process to the employees’ career paths. This is especially important in organizations with higher rates of turnover.