The procedure whereby a manager or a talent acquisition expert works with an employee to map out their potential career paths within the organization is known as career pathing for employees. Some staff members may establish their career path by concentrating on both vertical and lateral prospects using career pathing.
Career pathing entails charting the professional path of employees based on vertical, horizontal, and cross-functional positions. The talents, hobbies, and professional goals of an employee significantly guide the process of career pathing.
Importance of Career Pathing
Unlike the standard career path, which only lists “rungs” or ranks to ascend, career pathing takes a more comprehensive approach. According to a 2019 LinkedIn Learning research, 94% of employees would stay with their employer longer if they invested in their professional development.
A complete career pathing for employees could involve lateral transfers, work rotations, and training programs to assist individuals in acquiring specialized abilities.
What is Included in Career Pathing?
Career pathing is a vast subject. It entails various parties, tangible and intangible aspects of the professional workplace. According to Gallup, the Career Pathing Template includes practical performance standards, and advancement opportunities are critical for promoting employee engagement. The survey also showed that fully engaged teams are 17% more efficient than their disengaged counterparts.
Effective talent management initiatives matched with company culture and goals allow the management to identify and assess employee ambitions through career pathing. It improves staff growth and engagement while also assisting with long-term planning.
What are Career Pathing Methods?
Here are steps of career pathing methods and career pathing best practices.
- Make an organization employees chart
- Define and note all the job profiles
- Identify the need to upgrade job skills
- Consult and create development programs
- Document the career pathing for employees
- Analyze the learning gap and continue the process
- Include leadership career pathing in the agenda
- Hold feedback sessions and take suggestions
- Repeat the process frequently
Why Is Career Pathing Important for Companies?
The importance of career pathing is not limited to individuals at the micro-level. It extends to the organizational level in secondary stages. An IT specialist may be taught a new computer skill, increasing their employer’s value. This is a type of employee development that can help employees advance in their careers.
Mastering a new skill may open the door to additional education, putting them in place for a raise, a salary boost in the future, or making them desirable in the case of a layoff. Here are some benefits of career pathing.
Retain essential employees
Providing career pathing options for employees, teaching and mentoring high-potential workers, and shifting proven performers into new jobs that suit their abilities earned over time are all critical aspects of retention programs. Employees vital in executing a company’s goal should be identified, and retention strategies should be developed or updated to fulfill their requirements and expectations.
Career pathing in a company generates a larger share of crucial business results and significantly impacts an organization’s production process. Good career pathing provides clear information into skill shortages and resources to fill such gaps. It also includes thorough information on numerous progression options.
Maintain a youthful workforce
High-potential people in various roles within the organization are identified and coached to take over critical positions by successful firms. Personnel in line for promotion are not the only ones who receive attention. Hence, career pathing for generation Y employees is different from generation X employees’ attitudes on work, and prospects for advancement differ by generation.
For instance, generation Y employees (born between 1981 and 1996) seem to be more interested in gaining additional knowledge than income. Younger generations are likewise more inclined than older generations to prioritize a job path. Randstad also discovered that a large proportion of Generations Y and X (born between 1965 and 1980) desire opportunities for personal development.
Increase in profitability
Voluntary departure has a high cost, including productivity loss, experience, expertise, connections, and additional pressures on employees who must take up the slack. A successful career pathing program empowers employees because it gives them the knowledge, motivation, and assistance to create objectives and move forward.
The level of engagement grows. According to a new study, employees in the top percentile of engagement are 17% more productive and sell 20% more than those in the worst quartile. They’re also 21% more lucrative, and they miss 41% fewer working days.
Recommended Read: 15 Best Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction and Productivity at Work
Conclusion
Both the employee and the company must be actively involved in the career pathing process. No company likes to see its employees leave since it costs time, money, attention, and effort to find a successor.
Career pathing in organizations means investing more time in creating career paths for employees to display a genuine interest in their workforce’s professional skills, resulting in a win-win outcome for both the company and the person.
