What is a career path?

A career path is a career development program employees follow to move up through the ranks in the company. Think of it as a timeline that provides short- and long-term goals for them to accomplish so they can advance. Each career path is customized and catered toward an employee’s unique goals and skills. Career mapping starts from the employee’s lower-level role and provides a detailed plan to get them to a higher-level position.

Having a structured plan allows employees to better visualize their advancement in the company by seeing the milestones they need to reach. Career pathing tells employees which skills, experience and knowledge they need for each promotion and higher-level role they want to pursue. Giving employees a career path to follow shows that managers care about their team member’s accomplishments and success.

Related: Saying Congratulations on a Team Member’s Promotion

How companies benefit from employee career paths

Creating career paths is beneficial to both the employees and your organization. The guidance gives your staff the motivation to submit valuable work and stay with the company. Other common benefits of implementing employee career paths are:

• Attracting quality employees: Knowing there are guaranteed opportunities for advancement encourages more driven and motivated employees to apply to your company. 
• Boosting employee engagement: Advancement opportunities lead to a positive and motivating work environment, which spreads throughout your team. Employees also feel more driven to collaborate and work as a team to deliver quality projects. 
• Reducing employee turnover: Laying out a clear career path for employees tells them they can move up in their role if they meet certain milestones and goals. This drives workers to stay long-term to reach goals, learn new skills and develop careers.
• Improving employee performance: Achieving milestones and moving up helps employees improve their skills and deliver quality work, which contributes to the company’s overall performance.
• Building an employee-centric culture: Career development for employees to help them meet their goals is an effective way to show your company is committed to their success and well-being. This makes employees feel appreciated and valued, which can lead to impressive performance results and higher retention rates. 

Types of career paths

Creating an effective career path means you need to collaborate with your employees to learn about their advancement goals. There are many career growth opportunities available depending on an employee’s career goals, skills, knowledge and field. Common types of career paths include:

• Vertical: This is typically the most traditional career path, which involves moving up within a specific field. For instance, an employee would advance from marketing coordinator to marketing manager to director of marketing. 
• Horizontal: In this career path, employees move from one department to another, developing a well-rounded skill set and general knowledge of different positions. Horizontal career paths are ideal for entry-level employees still learning which career is right for them. It also allows them to gain experience in numerous areas before moving upwards into leadership roles.
• Dual career ladders: This career path provides employees with promotions and raises without placing them in supervisory positions. It’s a great solution for employees who want to advance but aren’t interested in or well-suited for a management position.
• Scaled back career: Some employees may decide that moving down the career ladder is the best option. This is beneficial for employees who find the tasks in their role uninteresting, feel their role is too fast-paced or want to try a different position within the company. A scaled-back career path helps employees take a moment to evaluate their current responsibilities and determine if they want to continue working in this position or industry. 

Tips for managers to help employees reach their career goals

As a manager, it’s important for you to support your employees as they advance in their roles and improve their skill sets. Follow these tips to help employees accomplish their career goals:

Build a career development plan and roadmap

Work one-on-one with your employee to understand their career goals. Then, collaborate with them to build a customized career roadmap and career development plan that represents how they’ll move up in the company once they hit certain milestones. Build a diagram to help them picture their progression. It also helps if you have an organizational chart that outlines the hierarchy and the employee’s current position to better understand where they fit within the organization.

Set clear goals for the employee to meet 

Clearly define the performance standards you expect the employee to meet. Evaluate their current strengths, skills, knowledge and experience. This helps you better understand certain improvements to add as goals. Think about the skills needed to be successful in the roles the employee is interested in. Ask them which goals they want to achieve and where they see themselves in their career over the next few years.

Communicate this plan to your employee

Work with the employee to develop clear milestones to hit, communicate deadlines for each goal and plan regular one-on-one meetings to discuss their progress. Communicating your plan and plotting out each goal to hit by a specific date can help them stay on track and hold themselves accountable.

Add training and development milestones to your plan as well. This provides staff members with the necessary resources to improve their performance and knowledge. Possible training and development opportunities to offer include leadership training courses, mentorship programs, industry conferences and software training classes.

Track and optimize employee performance 

After incorporating one-on-one meetings into your plan, follow through by sitting down with employees at the scheduled times to discuss their performance. Praise them for being on track with their performance goals and provide guidance and resources if they’re falling behind. Keep the conversation positive and avoid disciplining them for failing to meet goals.

Focus on ways to help them improve and meet their performance goals next time. Ask which challenges are keeping them from meeting milestones. You may need to adjust their goals and deadlines accordingly to meet their needs, challenges and skill level.

Give employees opportunities to learn about different roles

For entry-level employees or career changers, develop a mentorship and job shadowing program to give them hands-on experience in leadership positions. Ask them which higher-level roles they’d like to pursue. Then work with leadership members to set up programs for team members to shadow executives, learn new skills and ask in-depth questions about the role.

This motivates your employees to pursue their goals. It also helps them decide if they want to work toward a different position within the company instead. Another option is to start a job rotation program that lets employees shift to different roles occasionally to learn their daily tasks, gain new skills and understand how the company functions.

Related: Promotion Announcement Emails: a Sample for Your Business

Encourage a healthy work-life balance 

Hard work is essential for employees to find success in their careers. It’s important to encourage staff to work hard while still maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Teach them strategies to maximize efficiency and prioritize tasks effectively so they have more time to spend on their hobbies and interests, rather than completing work tasks. Emphasize the importance of keeping their brain and body healthy by taking regular breaks, getting adequate sleep and eating a healthy diet.

Encouraging your employees to maintain work-life balance helps them understand they don’t have to work excessive hours to move up in their roles. As more employees maintain a healthy work-life balance, you’ll notice them feel more energized to meet goals and submit valuable work.

As you develop a career path for each employee, be sure to provide them with ongoing encouragement and resources to help them reach their goals. Being in a positive, collaborative environment may help workers stay with your company long-term as they advance and improve their performance.

Frequently asked questions

Do all employees need a career plan?

It’s beneficial to create a career path for every employee. However, you can’t force staff members to follow their maps or get excited about advancing. Some people want to stay where they are. Revisit career plans regularly with all employees, even the ones who aren’t enthusiastic about them.

How can you help employees who don’t know what they want to do?

Some employees are very ambitious and know exactly how they want to advance. Others are happy in their current positions or aren’t sure what they want to do differently. Reviewing the organizational chart with them and discussing potential opportunities can help. You might also point out strengths you see and where you envision them going.

How can you monitor progress?

Your regular one-on-one meetings give you the opportunity to discuss progress with your employees. Look at their most recent job reviews and evaluate their work regularly to see how well they’re progressing. If they seem to be stalling, revisit the goals to determine if the employee still wants to pursue that path.