Benefits of Supporting Your Employees’ Career Aspirations

Do you have employees who crush deadlines, take on more responsibility and are knocking down their manager’s door for performance reviews? These attributes may describe your top performers and are most likely fueled by career aspirations. However, do you know what exact goals they are currently working towards? It may be an annual raise, or it could be something more career driven. Additionally, you may have less vocal employees with career aspirations who may not feel as comfortable sharing them or don’t know how to begin working towards their goals in an actionable way. Basing your employees’ career paths and development on career aspirations leads to employee engagement and can build toward increasing organizational retention. Studies show that engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their current employer and there are also many additional benefits to uncover along the way. Today we will cover how leading internal strategies with employees’ career aspirations can engage the individual as well as work towards the best interests of the company.

Career Aspirations Lead to Career Paths

Once career aspirations are identified, career paths can be formed to help employees reach their goals. Career pathing is a way to visually see where your talent is currently at in their career trajectory and the path they need to travel to reach where they want to go next. This can help guide and inform aspirations by providing a way to map out different directions employees can take over the course of their career, based on their current and future skills. Job role profiles are also included in well-built career paths to give an inside look to the skills and duties required of each position in the business. Career pathing provides agency and intention for your individual employees to plan their future careers and decide on a structured development path to get there.

Career Paths Lead to Upskilling and Reskilling

91% of employees want personalized, relevant training. Choosing skill development based on employee chosen career paths is a great way to provide personalized training options. When your people can clearly see what skills they need to develop to accomplish their next career step, they can begin the process of upskilling or reskilling.

Upskilling is the process of gaining new skills in order to move vertically throughout the organization. This helps to provide actionable steps for employees to be ready for the next promotion opportunity.

Reskilling is the process of learning new skills in order to move laterally throughout their current department or even access roles in other departments. Giving employees the freedom to look beyond their current team for positions they might be suited for, helps create a culture of opportunity and flexibility.

According to a McKinsey Global Survey, almost nine in ten executives and managers say their company either face skill gaps already or expect gaps to develop over the next five years. When upskilling and reskilling is conducted based on career paths, not only can company-wide skill gaps be closed, but it can also be done in a way that helps employees accomplish their individual goals. This increases motivation and engagement as you are empowering your employees to take control of their careers and skill growth journeys.

Upskilling and Reskilling Leads to Increased Engagement

According to research, only about 30% of employees are classified as engaged at work. This can negatively affect productivity and hurt your internal culture. When employees are working towards a specific goal, growing their skills in a calculated way and have more agency in their future, they feel more engaged at work. Studies from Gallup indicate that seeing changes in employee engagement is best attributed to changes in how organizations develop their employees. Engagement, performance, and training are all aligned with each other. If you are working towards upskilling and reskilling your employees, but don’t understand their goals, you will most likely begin to see burn out and disengagement. On the other hand, if you ask employees where they want to be and help develop the skills they need to get there, you will see an increase in motivation and engagement. Companies with higher levels of employee engagement see a 21% increase in productivity and a corresponding 22% increase in profitability.

Increased Engagement Leads to Increased Retention

Employees who have personalized career and development opportunities are more engaged. As we mentioned earlier, engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their current employer. If employees are provided with internal visibility into your organization, they are more likely to stay within the company to accomplish their career aspirations as opposed to job hopping. It is a way to save large amounts of money in recruiting and onboarding, while simultaneously creating a culture where your employees feel heard and in control of their own future. Employees that feel supported, in turn, support the innovation, growth, and revenue that your organization is working towards.

The ability to empower employees to work towards their career aspirations is one of the best ways to communicate to your employees that you are as invested in them as they are to you.

Learn how we can help you create calculated career paths, upskilling and reskilling plans, improve engagement, and increase your company’s retention. Request a demo today!