The career path mapping process must be structured and carried out consistently across an organization. Here are several steps you can take in order to kick-start this process.
Gather role information across departments to begin building the structure of your career path mapping plan. Update organizational charts, solidify job descriptions, and clarify the number of levels within different job families. It will be helpful to survey managers to find out the most frequently traveled career paths within your organization.
Additionally, it is necessary to communicate with HR to determine employee retention and turnover rates over the past several years. This will help establish a baseline for analytics and make it possible to assess the efficacy of career path planning efforts over time.
Career path planning is typically based upon a self-assessment document to be filled by the employees to take inventory of their skills, accomplishments, goals, and interests. Begin by determining the structure of this document. Will it be a narrative survey or a simple spreadsheet? What level of detail will be required? Will this document differ at all by department or job family?
Next, establish how these documents will be used. Are they simply references for compensation and promotions? Or will this be a bouncing-off point to discuss development between team members and their managers? How involved will HR be in the process?
Lastly, build out a demo career map. This might be a lot of work, but in the process, the questions that need to be asked should reveal themselves. Check back with department leaders to determine if further specificity is necessary. At this point, most of the heavy lifting is done, and the process can be replicated and tweaked to cover even more particular circumstances.
Managers must plan a time to meet with their employees and discuss career path mapping. This meeting involves working through the self-assessment document together, identifying skills, abilities, and previous accomplishments in addition to long-term goals and broader interests.
Managers must also work with their team members to determine which positions fit well according to their career goals and discuss the responsibilities, workloads, and other unique aspects of those potential roles.
Once you’ve discussed options, create a career map that delineates a path forward. This path must list the actionable goals to be completed by the employees, pinpoint the skillsets to develop, and mention the timelines to reach different goals. Consider using a mapping tool to create a visualization of the career map.
This meeting is also an excellent opportunity for management to solicit honest feedback about employee experiences, asking about the different aspects of their current roles that they enjoy or could do without. It is critical to record this feedback to be used later as well.
Once the career plan has been rolled out, refer to the retention and turnover metrics and employee experience data collected previously. Document the frequency of promotions and lateral moves over time and use statistical analyses to determine the likely impact of career path planning efforts on the organization’s success. Establish a plan for tracking improvement and optimizing career path planning efforts.
Kaiser Permanente is a nonprofit health insurance that operates its own healthcare facilities. This organization has its employees create personalized career plans with a tool called PathSavvy. This online platform allows employees to build a profile specifying skills and interests and explore internal roles that match those competency frameworks. This tool provides suggestions for filling knowledge and competency gaps and compiles an action plan that can be shared with mentors and managers to get the ball rolling.
Prominent car insurance company, Progressive Insurance, approaches career path planning and employee retention in a way that prioritizes coaching and continuous improvement. They offer several tools for employees to shape their own career paths, including an internal database listing different positions and the required experience for those roles.
Through this system, employees can explore other career options and gain well-rounded experience without needing to start over at a new company. They also allow team members to try out new roles temporarily, swap jobs to expand business knowledge, engage in employee resource groups, and even create a multicultural leadership development program to accelerate employee growth.
Buffer is a widely used social media management software company that has tried out many different approaches to management and structure over the years . This company uses a two-path framework that considers that not everybody fits well with the traditional “management track.”
In this framework, some team members are “makers” while others are “managers,” allowing for both horizontal and vertical progress. Through this framework, all employees are fully aware of what’s necessary to reach their goals and can work with their teammates to forge ahead and grow with their organization.
Digital Adoption Platforms Help You Achieve Employee Development At ScaleA well-trained, dynamic, and motivated workforce is crucial to any organization. The best way to raise employees to such standards is to invest in their continuous development and career path planning to foster an engaged workforce, which is proven to be productive, profitable, and motivated.
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