Career path
What is a career path in HR?
In the realm of HR, a career path is a structured map for growth within an organization. This often involves a step-by-step guide that helps employees get a clear idea about what skills, experiences, and responsibilities they need to be successful in their professional lives.
What are the benefits of creating career paths for employees?
Here's why every organization should make it a point to create defined career paths for employees:
Keeps employees engaged and motivated
When employees see a future at your organization, they feel more valued, and this leads to higher engagement and performance. Career paths enable them to grow continuously and climb the career ladder without stagnation, which encourages long-term tenure and improves your retention efforts.
Helps in recruitment efforts
Training and career development continue to be top priorities for candidates. By creating career paths, you improve your employer branding strategies and attract top talent.
Improves business performance
Well-defined career paths align employee needs with overall business goals. By providing a clear idea about all the training, development, upskilling, and reskilling programs required for high-level performance, you keep employees productive while moving toward organizational milestones.
Aids in succession planning
Since employees keep improving, it becomes pretty easy for organizations to identify employees who have greater potential and the right set of skills. It keeps employees prepared to take on leadership roles and achieve organizational goals.
What are the different types of career paths?
Here are some of the key career path types that every HR team should know:
Vertical career path:
Employees progress to higher positions within their same role or job function. This particular type of career path helps employees take on additional responsibilities and leadership roles.
Lateral career path:
Employees take on different roles to help them gain varied skills and experiences.
Dual career path:
Employees gain expertise in both technical and managerial roles.
How can HR teams create career paths for their employees?
Here's a six-step guide that'll help your organization develop well-defined career paths for your employees:
Step 1: Understand organizational needs
Start by speaking with C-level leaders and senior managers to clearly understand your organization's goals, mission, vision, and future talent needs. This will help you create the right roles, levels, departments, and skills. For instance, if your organization's immediate goal is to strengthen AI capabilities in your product, you can design career paths that help employees upskill in AI-related domains. This will ensure that your talent strategy supports your organizational goals.
Step 2: Create an organizational tree
Develop a detailed organization chart that maps out different departments, teams, roles, and role levels. Identify the key positions within this structure. Once that's in place, establish the responsibilities and core functions for each role. This will give employees a clear idea about how they can grow and transition across different levels and functions.
Step 3: Define skill gaps
To develop comprehensive and meaningful career paths, it's essential to understand where employees stand in terms of their skills, capabilities, competencies, and room for development. Conduct a skill gap analysis to identify the skills employees already possess and where they need to grow. For instance, a software engineer with six years of experience may be ready for a lead role, but the analysis may show that that while they are technically strong, they still need mentoring, communication, and project management skills to move up.
Step 4: Decide on the type of career path
You can either provide the same type of career path for all employees or tailor them based on the role. For instance, vertical career paths can be ideal for sales, where there's a lot of room for improvement and advancement. Lateral career paths can be ideal for employees who are trying to expand their skill set. A content writer on a marketing team, for example, may like to explore areas like SEO, public relations, or technical writing to continue their growth.
Step 5: Create training and development opportunities
Once you've pinpointed the skill gaps and what's required for each role, conduct training programs with the right resources and guidance to help employees reach the next level. Encourage employees from senior roles to mentor younger employees who are trying to transition to different levels and positions. Job rotation and cross-role training can help employees expand their skills and try new roles.
Step 6: Keep tracking
Your business goals and strategies will keep evolving, so it's important to track all career paths and ensure they remain aligned with organization needs. This process will also help you understand if any of the existing career paths require improvement. Gain feedback from employees regularly as well to see if they're satisfied with their career development.