People-First HR, Part 4: The Power of Career Pathing
ICYMI, you can read part 1 of this series to catch up on why a cohesive, people-first HR strategy is such a game-changer; part 2 lays the groundwork for our hiring and interviewing strategy; and part 3 shows us how to rewrite the performance review narrative to put people first.
In this exciting conclusion to the series, we’re going to look at the very big picture: how to plan for people changing roles and getting promoted internally, and why that’s so good for your organization.
1) What IS career pathing?
At its most basic, career pathing is a way of planning how employees can progress between roles in a company, based on skills possessed vs skills required for the destination role.
Consider this story as an illustrative example:
Chris runs and operates a lemonade stand, with no employees. While there are a few tasks for Chris to do—sales, supply shopping, some basic accounting—it’s all easy to think of as one role.
As Chris’s lemonade stand starts to gather regular customers and lines become common, it makes sense for Chris to open another location with an employee. Through expanding, Chris’s role has evolved—they are now a manager! That means slightly more complex duties, involving some supply and personnel logistics, and more complex accounting.
Fast forward to Chris’s lemonade stand moving into food courts as a small chain of juice bars. Now there are service staff, multiple managers, a full-time accountant, marketing, etc. And Chris is the CEO with many reports.
When Chris started, there was just one point on a page: the owner/sales role. But as the business expanded and added more roles, all those points show up on the page too. The thing is, they’re not all separate dots: they’re a web of roles and job tiers and employees can follow the lines between them.
The entry level sales staff can get promoted to shift supervisors, or eventually to managers or district managers. How? By learning and demonstrating the skills of the role they want to move into.
Chris, being an astute business owner, decides to invest some time and resources into a career pathing plan. They create a breakdown of each role in the company and list all certifications, key competencies, skills, and specialized knowledge or training required for each one.
What starts to form is like a web: lots of points on a page with lines between them. Some transitions may only require in-role experience (like going from sales to shift supervisor), but some may need outside training, or could even have a few roles in between (like a manager that wants to move into a marketing executive role).
To summarize: career pathing is the deliberate planning process laying out how people can move to different roles (whether a promotion or lateral move).
2) Why you should put the effort into planning career paths
The bigger your organization and the more complex the roles within it, the more work comprehensive career pathing becomes. But it truly is worth it, for a number of reasons!
We’ve mentioned some in this series already: think back to your interviewing and hiring (from part 2). With career pathing in place, you can more quickly spot who’s got the skills you need for a role, because you took the time to list them. On top of that, you can present the candidate the clear vision of career advancement at your company:
“People who join in this role usually stay there for 2 years, learn XYZ, and get promoted to role A, or B. With a year of success in A or B, they start leading a team of their own.” Saying this with the confidence of data behind you tells your candidate that there’s a plan.
Which leads us to the second big benefit: retention. Companies tell us all the time that they struggle with attracting and keeping really talented people. Why? It’s often because they don’t feel like their employer has a real plan for their advancement.
When people don’t feel like they are being invested in, or that there’s no plan, the grass on the other side starts to look a whole lot greener. But when their manager references a tangible plan and helps them develop in line with it, we see retention go way up.
Putting it all Together
If you’ve been reading this series from the start, you’ve no doubt connected the dots already. When you layer all of these people-first strategies together, it’s a recipe for employee happiness. And that translates directly into higher retention, higher productivity, and a better bottom line.
Interviews & hiring: You’re looking for specific skills and knowledge, presenting a clear picture of long-term success at your company, and getting your new hires onboarded with clear expectations.
Performance reviews: Your managers are conducting reviews that celebrate accomplishments and direct learning towards the same list of key skills you used to interview and hire.
Career Pathing: With the development happening from performance reviews, your team is learning exactly what they need to achieve their next role. You can promote from within, which saves on hiring costs and preserves institutional and cultural knowledge.
Ultimately: You keep your people longer, and grow them from within. They’re happier and produce better work. Everyone wins.
How to Get Started
Moving to a people-first HR strategy is not a small feat. It’s an investment and it will take time. Even if you have an entire HR team, they’ve already got daily ops on their plates. Hello HR provides expert strategic consulting and insight. We’re like a superpower both for leadership and HR teams!
Drop us a line and we can get the ball rolling with a free discovery call.
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