Career Mobility and Career Pathing

In this issue of the Career Mobility Newsletter, we will explore career pathing which is the fourth element of my Career Mobility model below:

Career Path Definition

According to this blog on the BetterUp website,?

A career path is defined as a long-term plan that includes specific steps or tasks that help you advance to a desirable occupation or new role.?There are two kinds of career paths – an organizational career path and a personal career path. Caroline Jefferson

Types of Career Paths

In this SHRM Toolkit on Developing Employee Career Paths and Ladders, they distinguish between the two traditional methods by which employees can develop and progress within an organization.?In career ladders, employees progress through specific occupational fields ranked from lowest to highest based on levels of responsibility and pay.?In comparison, career paths include various forms of career progression, including vertical ladders, dual career ladders, horizontal career lattices, career progression outside the organization, and encore careers.

A study conducted by Morgan Smart and Andrew Chamberlain for Glassdoor found that one of the factors driving employee turnover was allowing them to stagnate in their current role.

Even after controlling for pay, industry, job title, and many other factors, we find workers who stay longer in the same job without a title change are significantly more likely to leave for another company for the next step in their career.

The researchers also found that moving employees through new job roles over time isn’t enough.?Employers also need to make sure pay is competitive to retain talent. The study found that a 10% higher base pay increases employee retention the next time they move to a new role by 1.5%.

According to the SHRM Toolkit referenced above, a career development path provides employees with an ongoing process to enhance their skills and knowledge that may lead to mastery of their current role, promotions, and transfers to new or different jobs.?In addition, implementing career paths can also improve morale, career satisfaction, motivation, productivity, and responsiveness in meeting organizational objectives.

The SHRM Toolkit references a study by Randstad, a global staffing firm, that found while 73 percent of employers said fostering employee development is important, only 49 percent of employees said leadership is adhering to this practice.

Career Path Examples

Based on the @BetterUp blog cited above, here are some examples of career paths:

Customer Service: Associate >Team Lead > Manager > Senior Manager > Director >Chief Operating Officer

Engineering: > Junior Engineer > Senior Engineer > Project Manager > Senior Project Manager > Engineering Consultant

Human Resources: HR Coordinator > HR Manager > HR Director > VP of HR > Chief of HR

Marketing: Marketing Coordinator or Marketing Specialist > Marketing Manager > Director of Marketing > VP of Marketing > Chief Marketing Officer

Salesperson: Sales Rep > Territory Manager > District Manager > Regional Manager

Technology: IT Help Desk > Help Desk Manager > Network, Cloud or Systems Administrator > Network or Systems Engineer > Security and Compliance Director > Chief Technical Officer

While some industries share the same career path, they may have different titles.?Career paths typically include a progression of responsibilities, from performing individual tasks to delegating tasks to others.?Ultimately, there is an advancement to more decision-making and leadership. Those seeking to change industries or career paths may need to take a lateral move before progressing to the next vertical role.

Employees in human resources, marketing, IT professionals, and engineers all use the knowledge they acquire overtime to do their job. In contrast, roles in construction, the performing arts, and restaurant kitchens are skills-based. Some positions like lawyers, doctors, and administrative personnel require a combination of both knowledge-based and skills-based work.

If you want to see more career pathing examples, check out Indeed’s 18 Business Career Paths to Consider in 2023 (With Roles).

Additional Career Path Skills

The @BetterUp blog referenced above says these additional capabilities will help employees better prepare for their next role:

·??????Adaptability

·??????Communication

·??????Leadership

·??????Problem-Solving

·??????Time Management

HR’s Role

Advice from the SHRM Toolkit suggests that HR professionals have new and varied roles in developing and implementing career paths:

·??????Encourage employees to take control of their own ladders and provide resources and tools to assist them in developing their skills and capabilities

·??????Help managers develop career paths for their employees and view their direct reports not as their exclusive resources but as organizational workers

·??????Provide employees with job enhancement and job enlargement opportunities

·??????Design training and development that is focused on lifetime employability versus a lifetime of company employment

HR can also contribute to the process of moving an employee up the career ladder.?They can establish fair, workable, and consistently administered promotion policies and procedures. They can facilitate promotions within their organization by providing employees with career coaching, helping managers develop clear selection criteria, and softening the impact for those not selected by ensuring feedback from the hiring manager.?In addition, they can help newly promoted employees make a smooth transition.?Finally, they can assist non-selected candidates in continuing to strengthen their skills for future opportunities.

Why Companies Should Help Employees Chart a Career Path

In this article in the MITSloan Management Review Spring 2023 issue, authors George Westerman and Abbie Lundberg, say that most companies focus on career development for their high-potential employees but not the rest of the workforce.?The authors say leaders must do more to help employees see a future with the company and a path to advance toward that future.?They cite a small but growing number of companies that are finding ways to improve career development for all of their interested employees. They also note that the investment does require the use of modern tools and a focused approach.?

They conducted a survey with more than 1,000 workers and interviews with talent and learning leaders at more than 25 organizations.?Two schools of thought were identified in the research, the first and the most common is to delegate employee development to line managers.?The other is asking workers to own their professional growth.?However, they found that many workers feel they need better support?for career development.?In high-potential leadership programs, most companies focus on three key elements: visibility into opportunities and paths, ways to learn and practice, and valuable feedback and coaching. ?

The full article available here cites GE Digital which uses an online tool called Career Discovery.?Employees enter their capabilities and interests, and the platform shows them other roles that might be a fit for them.?It also shows competencies that they might need and where to look for them.

Josh Bersin released new research on Career Pathways in October of 2022.?The study focused on non-linear career paths for workers with an education.?According to Bersin, this approach which has been pioneered by companies like Walmart, Amazon, Mercy BonSecours, and others, has the potential to transform jobs, companies, and the economy.?These companies and hundreds of others have built Career Pathways.?

In this article on the Josh Bersin website, he cites an example developed by Mercy BonSecours, that was designed to bring hourly non-degreed workers into highly paid, credential roles which the hospital network needed badly. After the framework was created, Mercy worked with providers like Guild Education or EdAssist by BrightHorizons to build out an entire program.?Walmart’s program, Live Better U, has been highly successful in delivering more than 10,000 degrees to its associates and promoting thousands of people to better jobs.

Bersin says,

Every company we talk with is trying to build its?skills taxonomy,?new capability models, and?Capability Academies?for in-demand roles. They are buying?talent marketplace platforms, investing in online coaching networks, and learning to understand what we call?Growth in the Flow of Work.

Listen to this Bersin podcast to learn more about how this process can become a strategic advantage for your company.

Steps to Creating a Career Path

A blog written by @Liz Strikwerds on the Workforce Hub site outlines 7 steps to create a career path program.?These include:

1.??????Update Your Organizational Chart – align it to your business plan and add positions/teams/departments related to plans for expanding into additional markets and adding products and services.

2.??????Define Job Positions – for each job description, list key responsibilities, education requirements, certifications as well as hard and soft skills.

3.??????Create a Roadmap for Each Skills Track – create professional paths for each department, team or business function that includes how an entry-level employee advances through roles, horizontal moves that are necessary, and how to accommodate different personality types.?There may not be one path that connects each role to an advanced role.

4.??????Identify Training Needs – determine whether employees can progress along the path by documenting the current in-house and outsourced training programs.

5.??????Create Training and Development Programs – identify needs, create a timeline for implementation, and incorporate these vertical growth programs into your business plan, including building a budget.

6.??????Document Your Career Path Program – Include the organization chart, job role profiles, any mentors, career paths/roadmaps and training schedules.

7.??????Map Each Employee’s Career Path – for new hires, do this during onboarding and with existing employees, their managers should do this during performance reviews.?Managers should discuss their employee’s performance and talk about their career paths going forward. Include the career map and career opportunity in the employee’s files.?

Role of Technology

According to Training Industry, as technology has advanced, many companies have entered the market dedicated to using technology to enable career pathing.?Many providers offer software that automates identifying roles and employees and matching them.?They also often provide dashboards accessible to both managers and employees to identify internal opportunities. Some also offer content to upskill or reskill for new roles.

In researching content for this newsletter, I found the following information on career path tools.?This is not an endorsement of the providers.

Gloat – Actionable Career Pathing

Getbridge.com – free career mapping template and eBook

Lattice – Career Development platform

Qualtrics – The Complete Guide to Career Pathing

TalentGuard – Career Pathing Software

G2 – compares various Career Management software showing unbiased reviews on user satisfaction and reports.

Other Career Path Resources

Here are some other resources I found:

Indeed – offers 7 Tools for Career Planning including a career planning process

SHRM – Developing Employee Career Paths and Ladders Toolkit

The Management Center – offers this Career Pathways toolkit that includes a step-by-step guide, template, and two examples to help executives or department leaders define competencies for various roles on their team.

Summary

It’s never too early to start thinking about your career path.?It’s never too late either.?Caroline Jefferson - BetterUp

Please share your thoughts or experiences with readers related to Career Pathing in the comments section below.

Our next issue will focus on the “Future Skills and Workforce Planning” element of my Career Mobility model.