We've spent months interviewing people at all stages of their career to find out how they think about career progression
Why is this interesting for you? Because our research told us that almost half of employees are actively or passively considering their next role. So if employee retention is on your mind, read on to find out what we learned.
Even as we prepare to release this feature, I'll be honest, we'll likely be iterating on this for a long time to come! But to arm ourselves with as much data as we could, we've spent 12 months obsessively interviewing employees, HR professionals and people leaders from all stages of career, ages and backgrounds to work out what people really want. And we discovered some surprises along the way.When we dissected the data, it told us we could satisfy almost everyone by creating an experience for 4 different types of employees (and YOU can to!):
Career Persona 1: I'm in the right role right now
53% of those we met fit into this category these people are either new to their job or happy exactly where they are. It's not that they lack ambition, this group just want to be great at their current job but you'd better not overlook them when they are ready to make a move or else you risk losing them. Provide this group with skill-strengthening opportunities relevant to their current role and the chance to mentor others if they want to.
Career Persona 2: I know what my next role looks like
27% of people we met fell into this category. These people generally want to stay in their career area and typically want to move upwards. What seemed most important to this group was clarity on exactly what they need to do to get to their target role and how long it will take. They are generally aware of their current skill-development areas but also want feedback on what else they can be doing to prepare. Provide them with a concrete action plan for development and manage their expectations on timeframes to avoid misalignment.
Career Persona 3: I'm ready to pivot my career
We found about 12% people live here. This group are typically quite established in their current role and are keen to explore life in another team or function. The trick is to support their exploration but be mindful of how it impacts the team or manager they may leave behind. Provide this group with the chance to participate in projects and get access to mentors that will help them get exposure to other parts of the business if you want to retain them.
Career Persona 4: I'm not sure!
Around 8% of people we met knew they wanted to do something different but had no idea what (and most had no fixed timeline). This group found it easier to say what they didn't want to do but wanted help working out where else their skills could take them. This group is harder for managers to support, especially when some won't ever share this with their manager. Support them by having open career conversations and give them the chance to receive coaching, participate in meetups to chat to colleagues in other areas and offer projects that allow them to explore other parts of the business.
What else did we learn?
Based on our research, almost half of employees are actively or passively considering their next role which should be sobering news if you're in an HR or leadership role!
- It's often easier to quit than try to move internally - internal politics, fear of open conversations with leaders and lack of visibility of internal opportunities still means that some employees we met felt it would be easier to quit than move internally
- Career pathways are increasingly non-linear - a lot of people we met cared more about the feeling of making progress, gaining new experience and growing than they did about getting a promotion
- Managers generally want to support their people - but many didn't know how to structure a career conversation or how to find out what else their company offered, beyond the traditional internal learning programs
- Most mid-large companies have HUNDREDS of ways to develop their people - we heard about companies that host virtual job shadowing, discovered secret mentoring groups, spoke to people that kept spreadsheets of people's skills and one company with a famous monthly lunch and learn that was invite-only. Even companies with tiny budgets had no shortage of ways to grow but in the main, you only got access if you know the right people!
So if you're embarking on supporting employee career pathways and development, kudos to you because this is a complex area to get right!
We'd love to hear from you if you're doing something innovative in this area and if you'd like to take a look at what this looks like in the GoFIGR platform, book in with me for a demo (we're really proud!).
Helena Turpin spent 20 years in talent and HR innovation where she solved people-related problems using data and technology. She left corporate life to create GoFIGR where she helps mid-sized organizations to develop and retain their people by connecting employee skills and aspirations to internal opportunities like projects, mentorship and learning.
