If you're an HR specialist looking to be an HR director someday, career pathing tells you what you need to accomplish to get from points A to Z. (Image: Shutterstock)
We're all wired for growth. Feeling stuck in place, whether in your personal and professional life, is frustrating. But faced with layoffs, furloughs, and budget rollbacks, most businesses weren't exactly ready to accommodate your next big career move in 2020.
It's in leaders' best interests to get growth initiatives moving again. Retention is a big part of the reason why: According to a LinkedIn study, 94% of employees would stay at their companies longer if offered development opportunities. Similarly, a Zaki Warfel survey found that companies that invest in career development keep their top talent 250% longer. In other words, companies that act in the best interest of their employees' long-term careers see the gesture repaid with greater loyalty and better business outcomes.
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For most organizations, facilitating career growth isn't about identifying the "why" but rather the "how." Without formalized job levels or competencies, managers make promotion decisions based on tenure, expectations, and intuition. Playing fast and loose with development doesn't just undermine actual growth opportunities, it opens the door to bias and inequity.
Career pathing
In contrast, career pathing provides the structure you need to make growth clear and actionable. Career paths chart out potential roles, skills, knowledge, competencies, experience, and characteristics required for each job level as an employee moves up the ladder. If you're an HR specialist looking to be an HR director someday, career pathing tells you what you need to accomplish to get from points A to Z.
Companies that first start laying out career paths tend to default to a single track — meaning that individual contributors must transition into management to advance. That approach overlooks that management is its own skillset (or job track), one not everyone wants to pursue. While some structure is better than nothing, you don't want to lose your most valuable contributors because they feel stunted. Maintaining dual tracks for individual contributors and managers is a better alternative.
In all, the most apparent benefit of career pathing is that it makes it easy for employees to understand internal career opportunities and use that information to set short and long-term growth goals. It also reassures employees that you've laid out a path for them and that you're invested in their growth.
Growth planning
So you know where you want to go — setting a growth plan comes next. These serve as a roadmap and personal development plan, and are set by managers and direct reports partnering together. They shouldn't be confused with performance improvement plans or goals. Goals and OKRs are focused on helping the business move forward, while growth plans help individuals advance their careers.
For example, an engineer looking to hone their project management skills might set a growth goal of leading a feature launch. An aspiring manager could commit to taking a course in coaching or managing an intern over the summer. Every growth plan should be informed by the aptitudes and proficiencies the employee needs to move to the next level of their careers. In some cases, that means learning new skills — in others, honing ones already possessed.
Technology can help teams keep career growth in focus year-round, not just during performance reviews. Lattice intentionally brought development and people management together as part of our product. Lattice "Grow" integrates career tracks into one-on-ones, peer feedback, and performance reviews. For employees, the tool makes it easy to set a career roadmap with milestones along the way. It also keeps those milestones top of mind for managers, who are better equipped to serve as a career coaches and help their direct reports develop. This transparency is the key to equipping employees with the information they need to continue to take the next step and feel supported in their careers and reduce attrition.
These are just a few ways you can formalize career growth. People Strategy walks through other valuable tools, like competency matrices and the 70-20-10 framework. Traditional levers like manager coaching and mentorship are also just as critical.
But more than just structures, it takes a commitment from People teams and leadership to make development a tangible, day-to-day priority. Fortunately, organizations are catching on. In a recent industry survey, HR teams ranked learning and development as among their top-four priorities in 2021. Within that, they listed manager training, career pathing, and leadership coaching as focus areas.
Businesses have goals, as do employees. Those that prioritize both aren't just successful, they're great places to work.
Jack Altman is co-founder and chief executive officer at Lattice.
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