Being transparent about all the opportunities and resources available is a huge in helping employees feel comfortable making transitions.
Employee growth and development is just one of the many responsibilities HR professionals handle, and its priority often depends on the company’s culture and values. However, HR can have a transformative impact in this area by guiding employees through career transitions and helping them reach their full potential. This not only empowers employees to explore new career paths but also strengthens the organization by building a more motivated and skilled workforce.
In this article, Lee Ann Chan and I, delve into how HR can effectively support employee growth, facilitate career transitions, and drive long-term success for both individuals and the company. For HR teams eager to help but unsure where to begin, we also provide practical steps to get started on this critical journey.
Q: As someone who has successfully transitioned careers, how do you think HR professionals can best support employees who are considering a career change within the organization?
Lee Ann: So when we think of HR supporting employees through a career change, there are a couple of different ways they can do that.
Fostering A Safe Environment
First, creating open communication and a culture where employees feel comfortable and safe talking about wanting to change jobs or explore other opportunities within the organization. Having that open-door policy is crucial for honest discussions early on.
Encouraging One-on-One Career Discussions
The second thing is encouraging HR professionals to have one-on-one career discussions with employees. These conversations are important to understand what employees are interested in and what their goals and aspirations are. HR should be seen as a supportive partner that employees can approach during times like these.
Providing Platforms for Growth and Development
And third, which I think is very important, is offering platforms for growth. Many organizations provide opportunities for employees to upskill or develop new skill sets that might align with different career paths. Some offer resources like LinkedIn Learning, while others have their own learning platforms.
These are three key ways HR professionals can support employees who are considering a career change within their organization.
Q: What strategies can HR teams implement to identify employees who might benefit from exploring new roles or departments?
Lee Ann:
Assess Employee Performance Reviews
One of the best ways to assess whether someone is ready for a new role or professional growth is actually through their performance review. Many companies use a rating system for reviews, right?
- HR should focus on employees who consistently score a four or five, particularly those scoring a five, as they’ve gone above and beyond.
- Also, employees who have been in their current role for four years or more might be good candidates for further career growth.
That’s where HR professionals can leverage data and metrics from performance reviews to start looking at an employee’s potential through a different lens and identifying where they might go next within the organization.
Conducting Stay Interviews
The second tool I recommend is the opposite of exit interviews—stay interviews. These are more casual, like surveys or focus groups, that give you a sense of employee satisfaction. They can help you understand what employees want and what would keep them within the organization.
I find that many employees like where they are but are unclear on what their next steps could be. Stay interviews can provide clarity and help employees see potential career paths. Those are the top two tools I would recommend for HR.
In bigger organizations, where one-one ones may not be feasible – You can conduct focus groups. We did this at one of my previous companies. The idea was to gather employees’ thoughts on the organization and see where they’d like to see more growth opportunities. We included people from different teams, which I think is really helpful, especially when you have a larger organization. It provided valuable insights from a variety of perspectives.
Q: How can HR professionals help employees recognize the transferable skills they’ve developed in their current roles that would be valuable in other areas of the business?
Lee Ann: I can share an example. One of my experiences involved working with one of our HR recruiting coordinators to help her through a career transition. She was responsible for managing interviews, scheduling with candidates, and being the face of our organization. After a few years in coordinating roles—about two to three years—she came to me and shared that, while she loved what she was doing, she also had a passion for operations, particularly HR systems and IT.
What happened next: We discussed options for her to upskill within the organization. Fortunately, we had a learning and development platform, and as leaders, we could recommend courses for our employees. I consulted with HR as well since they are the experts in career development. Together, we created a development plan for her on the platform, setting quarterly goals where she would take specific courses and apply those new skills to ongoing projects.
The Result: Within six to nine months, she developed the essential skills, and she successfully transitioned internally to an HR IT department, where she was able to use those skills while still supporting some recruiting aspects. She’s still on that career path today.
Q: For employees looking to move into leadership roles or transition to different departments, what steps should HR take to facilitate their growth and prepare them for success?
Lee Ann:
The Leadership Development Program Approach
Leadership development programs allow managers to nominate employees who they believe have potential for leadership roles. It’s a year-long commitment, where participants continue their full-time jobs but carve out time for the program as well.
In the program, you’re connected with peers, managers, and leaders from various departments. You work on projects that are presented to the CEO and the C-suite team, focusing not just on technical leadership skills, like how to collaborate and lead projects, but also on soft skills—like team building and communication.
After completing the program, there’s a next step, where you’re almost fast-tracked for consideration for more senior or leadership roles. It’s a great way to develop future leaders within the organization.
On The Job Training Approach
Now, for companies that don’t have a formal leadership development program, there are still ways to help employees transition. One way is by offering cross-functional projects, where employees can work on initiatives outside of their usual scope, exposing them to different teams and experiences.
At one of my previous organizations, managers would regularly talk among themselves and share projects they were working on. If a manager had a project that could be a learning opportunity, we’d ask if one of our team members could join in, maybe dedicating a third of their time to that project to help develop new skills.
The Mentorship Approach
Another important aspect is mentorship. We all know how crucial mentorship and sponsorship are, right? I always emphasize that employees should seek mentors not only within their department but also outside of it. This broader perspective helps them understand the organization as a whole.
Employees can connect with potential mentors through internal networking events, employee resource groups, or affinity groups. These groups give employees opportunities to meet others from different divisions, which can be very valuable when considering career transitions.
Q: Do you have any tips on how HR professionals can build or start an internal mentorship program?
Lee Ann:
- The first key part—making sure the match is a good one. When presenting the Mentorship Program, it has to be very structured. It’s carefully organized, and we ask for volunteers from different divisions and levels within the organization to participate as mentors and mentees. We ask mentees what level of leadership they’re looking for and their top three areas of interest within the organization. The coordinator will do their best to match mentees with mentors based on those preferences.
- Another crucial element, especially for internal programs, is tracking and ensuring that people remain committed to the process. In many of our mentorship programs, there’s a matching process in the beginning. We have forms for both mentors and mentees to fill out on a monthly basis, tracking how their meetings went, what goals they discussed, and any progress made. HR provides guidance on how to come prepared for these meetings, which helps keep everyone on track.
The mentorship program usually lasts a year, with monthly check-ins. At the end of the year, we conduct a survey to gather feedback on what worked and what didn’t. Mentorship programs are always a work in progress, but they offer great opportunities for growth.
Even if just one person gets promoted or transitions into a new role, that’s still a success story worth sharing with leadership. It’s a way to demonstrate that the mentorship program is effective and is contributing to employee development and satisfaction. Highlighting these success stories shows that the program is working and adds value to the organization.
Q: How can HR foster a culture of learning and internal mobility, where employees feel empowered to seek out new opportunities within the company?
Lee Ann:
Promoting Internal Job Postings
Since I come from a recruiting background, the first thing I’ll say is that we need to promote internal job postings. I’ve been at companies, and we’ve all heard stories where employees didn’t even know that a job was posted internally or that there was a website for internal job postings. As managers and leaders, we need to be proactive in telling our team members where to go if they’re interested in a role and to encourage them to let us know what they’re interested in. This is the simplest first step—sharing that information helps employees feel comfortable and aware of the resources available.
Recognize Your Employees
The second key is recognition. In my last role, we made it a point to recognize employees during our quarterly meetings whenever someone got a promotion or transitioned into a new role. When employees see others making transitions, it resonates with them. It creates the belief that they too can move up when they’re ready to make that change. Promoting these success stories across the company has a huge impact.
Regular Check-Ins on Employee Growth
Lastly, something that should be obvious but isn’t always practiced is having regular career development discussions. I meet one-on-one with my direct team members weekly, not just to talk about projects but also to discuss where they need help, where they want to grow, and where they see themselves going next. If they’re not sure, I can offer suggestions based on their strengths. Managers need to be proactive in sharing opportunities and perspectives with employees.
These are the top three things I would recommend to promote a culture that supports internal growth.
Q: With AI in the picture – has it slowed down or progressed employee growth and development?
Lee Ann:
Well, first off, I will say a lot of people are still very fearful of AI, and I think one thing HR professionals need to do is talk about it more within their organizations. It really starts with leadership. You need leadership’s buy-in to be able to share articles, resources, and insights with employees, so the information flows down. Many people fear AI will take over their jobs, but that’s not the reality. AI is here to improve jobs and save time.
As HR professionals, we also need to think about what courses and resources we need to invest in to help employees upskill alongside AI. While we’re implementing AI tools—like chatbots to make things easier—we need to simultaneously focus on employee development. It’s really a twofold process.
HR definitely has a lot of work ahead when it comes to educating and preparing employees for AI. HR professionals should be constantly keeping an eye on what’s out there by attending workshops and webinars, so they can bring that knowledge back to their organizations.
It’s a learning process, as I said before, but the key is not to be fearful of AI. We need to talk about it openly, and that’s the first step in ensuring people understand its value.
Q: What advice would you give HR teams to foster collaboration between managers and employees to support career development and growth?
Lee Ann: What typically happens is that employees go to their direct managers first.
If you’re a manager and an employee comes to you expressing interest in exploring a different career path, you should have the guidance and resources to help them, whether that’s knowing what internal programs they can use or whom they should talk to.
This is where HR comes in – managers should be trained by HR professionals on how to support these types of conversations.
- Having joint career planning sessions for at least the first few meetings is a good approach. For the first three sessions, you could loop in both the manager and the employee so everyone is aligned. This ensures that individual development goals also align with the company’s objectives. HR is a guide and resource there to help employees and managers work toward common goals.
- The second thing I’d suggest is 360-degree feedback. This involves gathering feedback from peers, direct reports, and managers to help employees gain a more well-rounded view of their growth areas. It’s an invaluable tool for development.
- Lastly, offering manager training is crucial. Many people are promoted to management roles based on seniority rather than leadership skills, and those skills take time and practice to develop. From an HR perspective, we need to ensure that learning and development platforms provide required training for managers to build those skills. It should be part of the progression for anyone stepping into leadership roles.
If the employee wants to go to HR for further conversations, they should see HR as a resource and a guide.
It’s important for employees to have multiple resources available to them
Q: Can you elaborate on how HR professionals and managers can ensure smooth transitions, and what role transition plans play in preventing issues like employees juggling multiple roles after a promotion?
Lee Ann: A few key things I want to emphasize.
- First, it’s important to ensure that employees’ individual goals can be aligned with the organization’s goals. There’s almost always a way to make that alignment work.
- Another point I can’t stress enough is open communication. Being transparent about all the opportunities and resources available is huge in helping employees feel comfortable making transitions. Without that transparency, people won’t feel confident about their options.
- One more very important thing I want to mention is having a strong transition plan. This is crucial whenever someone makes a transition, whether it’s a promotion or a lateral move. It’s not just on HR but a joint effort between HR and managers. There needs to be a clear plan for how that person transitions out of their old role and into the new one.
Often, when someone gets a new role, they end up doing two jobs—both their previous one and the new one. That’s not sustainable, and we’ve all heard those stories where it drags on for months. As HR professionals, we need to know when to set boundaries and ensure there’s a clear cut-off. We want to set the person up for success in their new role, and also make sure someone is in place to fill their previous position.
Transition plans are so important, and that’s where I’ve seen many companies fail. Without a clear playbook or plan, it becomes chaotic, and it’s not good for anyone involved.
If you are an HR or People leader, and want to collaborate for an article – let’s chat!
