Career Pathing - A Bird's-Eye-View

Research indicates that employees are 8x more likely to work for a company they trust to provide them with a career instead of a job. With planning for the future becoming the norm for today, the newer generations entering the workforce have different expectations from their workplace.

Career Pathing (or Career Mapping) is the process of setting up (or mapping out) the employee’s career progression within the organisation they work at, to help them identify internal opportunities for growth, based on their competencies, skills, performance, and interest.

But why should companies care about individual career pathing?

The biggest reason why your company should invest in Career Pathing for your employees is to drive engagement. With the change in your workforce’s expectations from the company, setting up a career map can help improve employee engagement and satisfaction levels as they mark feelings of progress and upward movement. While salaries and benefits continue to be important factors, employees are now also seriously taking into consideration work-life balance, mental health and well-being, and very importantly - career pathing and the scope for growth.

By recognising and working towards set benchmarks, your workforce will also stay more focused and goal-oriented. This charting process can be seamlessly integrated into your company’s growth and goal-setting, to ensure that your goals align with those of your team members.

An engaged and dedicated team is also likely to improve rates of employee retention. By providing learning, training and development opportunities to your employees to set and achieve their personal goals within your organisation, you are likely to see reduced rates of absenteeism and attrition, and a significant enhancement in their performance daily.

By investing in career development and L&D opportunities for your employees, your company is also more likely to avoid “skill gaps”, and ensure all-around growth for the organisation. The benefits of career mapping cannot be downplayed. From a boost to your employer brand to improved rates of retention, engagement, and achievement, it is a significant tool to build a strong and competitive workforce.

So, how do you invest in career mapping?

To begin with career mapping, it is crucial to understand and lay down the various roles, responsibilities and opportunities within your company. To create individual paths for your workforce, there’s a range of third-party applications and software to choose from that will help your employees showcase and work on their competencies as they continue to work in your organisation. These software options will not only create a growth chart but also enable and encourage your team members to work on specific, highlighted aspects of their professional life, to perform better and achieve more. While a simple Google search for such tools will present you with a list, it's a good idea to identify a tool that works best for you based on your company size, your employees' needs, and of course your budget.

One of the added benefits of career pathing is succession planning, which is often a cause of worry within the C-suite. By introducing mapping or pathing for your employees, not only can you attract better talent, allowing for better potential and guidance, but you can also create a succession plan to ensure that your organisation’s legacy continues beyond you. A multi-purpose tool meant to ease the managerial load and improve the efficiency of the team, career pathing seems to be the answer for what lies ahead!

Employee Retention, Employee Engagement, Competencies, Career Pathing, Career Mapping, Succession Planning, Goal-oriented, HR