How to Deliver Career Development for All
Read time: 1.5 min
Big Idea
Companies should broaden career development beyond ‘high-potential’ employees, employing transparency in job opportunities, skill-building programs, and coaching; career development should encompass both vertical and lateral development and address issues like talent hoarding and managerial resistance.
Top Thoughts
Extend career development opportunities to all employees, not just those labelled as ‘high potential,’ to stay competitive.
Employees who want to advance may feel held back due to poor career advice or a lack of advancement opportunities. Traditional managers are often not equipped to provide effective career counselling and are not incentivized to help employees develop their careers.
Organizations should be involved and not solely shift responsibility for career development onto employees. Provide visibility into job positions, team structures, and career paths to empower employees to make informed decisions about their development.
Forward-leaning companies offer employees ways to learn and develop new skills as part of their career development strategy. Constructive feedback and coaching are vital for effective career development.
Both vertical promotional growth, and lateral growth and skill enhancement are important. The latter is, in particular, for employees who are content in their current roles.
To discourage ‘talent hoarding’, employ transparent mechanisms, sharing all career paths and performance reviews that measure a leader’s effectiveness in team development.
Quick Quotes
"Helping all workers build rewarding job paths benefits both individuals and organizations."
"When an employee doesn’t advance, you tend to blame the employee and not the system."
"Not all employees have the psychological safety to discuss job options with their managers."
"If you decide that the needs of the company outweigh an employee’s desire to move to a new role, you’re inviting them to leave the company."
"If a leader is not developing their employees, sharing career resources with them, or encouraging their career growth within the organization, then that leader’s employee engagement scores will suffer."
Actionable Advice
Create transparency in opportunities and pathways - Implement a system that makes job positions, roles, team structures, and career paths visible to all employees; this is so they can make informed choices about their career trajectories, fostering empowerment and agency within the organization.
Implement skill-building and coaching programs - Develop accessible, scalable programs to learn and practice new skills and follow up with feedback and coaching.
Address talent hoarding and managerial resistance - Establish performance metrics to measure managerial effectiveness in team development. Use these metrics to identify and intervene when leaders do not focus on employee career growth, and align leaders with organizational values that support staff development.
Source
Westerman, G., & Gigliotti, T. (2023, Aug 24). How to Deliver Career Development for All. [Web article]. MIT Sloan Management Review. (Link)
