Create a Career Pathing Program to Improve Happiness
Create a Career Pathing Program to Improve Happiness
Employees with career path plans are more motivated to succeed and better prepared to do so. They’re also more likely to stay with their current employer, which improves retention and thus company performance overall. Implementing the tools and program to help them create and stick to those plans, however, takes a concentrated effort from managers and top-level executives.
Thankfully, developing an effective career pathing program isn’t as daunting as one may think. It requires sufficient data on job competencies and a cohesive framework including career roadmaps, position profiles, and training resources.
Diagram-style career roadmaps assist employees in visualizing the multiple avenues for career advancement arising from specific entry positions, whether those avenues are upward moves in a single department or horizontal moves across a number of departments. These maps are most useful to employees when built upon an existing competency framework, and may include statistics on average number of employees in each department or role and estimated need growth. Roadmaps that take company needs and overall business objectives into consideration (e.g., by featuring multiple career paths that lead to an area of high need) are particularly beneficial for the organizational whole.
Position profiles help employees dig deeper into the specific requirements and activities of each position on their career roadmaps. These profiles are built on general and functional competencies, which enable employees to understand the attributes and behaviors needed for success in each role. Training resources should bring together an employee’s goals and aspirations – often inspired by the career roadmaps – and the acquirement of the competencies needed for each position in the employee’s path. Such resources may include stretch assignments, leadership training courses, team-building exercises, and/or a mentoring program.
Companies who include these three key features in their career pathing programs can improve the odds that their process will be effective at both engaging employees and preparing them for inner-company growth.
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FAQs
Why do employees with career path plans stay with their employer longer?
Employees with a clear career path are more motivated and better prepared to advance, which the post ties directly to improved retention and, by extension, company performance. The plan gives employees a concrete reason to invest in their growth at the current company rather than looking elsewhere.
What are the three core components of an effective career pathing program?
The post identifies career roadmaps, position profiles, and training resources. Career roadmaps visualize possible advancement paths from a given role, position profiles detail the competencies needed for each role on that path, and training resources connect an employee’s goals to the specific skills required to reach the next position.
What makes a career roadmap actually useful to employees?
Roadmaps work best when built on an existing competency framework rather than generic titles, and they can include data like the average number of employees in each role and estimated growth need. Roadmaps that account for company needs and business objectives, such as highlighting paths that lead toward high-need areas, benefit the organization as a whole, not just the individual employee.
What’s included in a position profile within a career pathing program?
Position profiles are built on general and functional competencies, giving employees a clear picture of the attributes and behaviors needed to succeed in each role. This goes beyond a basic job description by connecting the role to the specific skills someone would need to develop to be considered ready for it.
What kinds of training resources support a career pathing program?
Training resources can include stretch assignments, leadership training courses, team-building exercises, and mentoring programs. The goal is to connect an employee’s career aspirations, often shaped by the roadmap they’ve seen, with the actual skill development needed to move into the roles they’re targeting.
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