{"id":6237,"date":"2018-10-19T14:46:15","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T21:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/?p=6237"},"modified":"2024-04-19T13:55:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T20:55:24","slug":"career-pathing-employee-retention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/career-pathing-employee-retention\/","title":{"rendered":"Individual Career Pathing \u2013 The Key to Younger Employee Retention?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s good news regarding employee engagement, a critical component of positive business outcomes. According to a 2018 Gallup Poll<\/a>, 34 percent of U.S. workers are engaged, while only 13 percent are actively disengaged. Those numbers are the highest and lowest, respectively, they\u2019ve been since the poll started in 2000. However, employers still have a way to go in terms of engaging their workforce, and career pathing could provide a way to get there.<\/p>\n

\"Person<\/a><\/p>\n

The remaining 53 percent of workers report they are not engaged, which means they do their jobs without much commitment and wouldn\u2019t hesitate to leave for a better offer.<\/p>\n

High employee engagement results in better customer relations, higher productivity, improved employee retention, and 21 percent higher profits. One way employees become engaged is when their organizations have clear career paths for growth and promotions.<\/p>\n

Traditional Career Ladders and the Peter Principal<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"career<\/a><\/p>\n

In the past, promotions could be given for a variety of reasons, many of them having nothing to do with competence or ability. Remember the Peter Principle<\/a>? Developed in 1968 by Laurence J. Peter, it states:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What it boils down to is promotions were regularly given, based on performance in certain areas, until employees reached a point where they were no longer competent to do the jobs they attained.<\/p>\n

If you look at your own organization, you may see evidence of managers in over their heads, or sales directors who knew how to sell but not how to plan or manage a team. This isn\u2019t good for the organization, and it can be frustrating for employees to work for these supervisors.<\/p>\n

While organizations have always had career ladders<\/a>, they were based on moving in a linear fashion from employee to manager to executive, regardless of individual talents, skills and abilities. Career pathing takes a different approach. It includes different forms of career progression, using traditional career ladders, dual career ladders, and horizontal career moves.<\/p>\n

Career Pathing to Retain Employees<\/strong><\/h4>\n

When employers invest money to hire, train and retain employees, it is disappointing and financially draining to have employees\u00a0leave after a few years on the job. For many millennial and Generation Z employees, offering new opportunities <\/a>to learn and acquire different skills has become a requirement for loyalty. Career pathing can be one means to combat the loss of potentially long-term stellar employees.<\/p>\n

Designing an individual career path for employees is not as difficult as it sounds. First, you can have your employees do most of the planning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ask them to draw up their own career path <\/a>by:<\/strong><\/h4>\n