Four Steps to Successfully Implement Career Pathing

Career pathing is a structured, comprehensive development planning process to help employees visualize their career growth within the company. Career pathing is a proven program by which successful transitions of employees can occur. It helps with succession planning, employee engagement, skills attainment and alignment between employee and company objectives.

There are several reasons why companies have not implemented career pathing: Years of traditional employee processes; resistance to changing those processes; fear of employees expecting advancement once they have a career path; belief that these solutions are costly and time-consuming; and expecting implementation will be complex and resource-intensive. In reality, understanding the steps involved in implementing a successful career pathing plan helps ensure a smooth transition for the company, rapid implementation time and immediate as well as long-term ROI.

Here are four key steps to consider when building out a formal career pathing initiative: