5 Ways to Help Employees Advance Their Careers at Work
Not every employer who tries persistently to ramp up the work environment actually ends up cultivating a thriving work culture. Often the missing ingredient in the recipe is implementing career growth to provide employees with the platform to expand their skill sets, build confidence and climb the career ladder.
The employees being the heartbeat of an organization need to evolve constantly through a chain of learning, failures and successes to keep the momentum going. Career growth whether at a personal level of the employee or through a company’s assistance is a continuous journey. It reaps crucial benefits for both by adding to employee satisfaction, retention and continual business development.
Career growth at the workplace is possible with the right methods and a strategic approach. Today’s blog will delve into the intricacies of growth at work and how employers can play an active role in supporting employee career growth.
The What and Why of Career Growth
What is Career Growth?
Career growth, often synonymous with carer development, refers to the process of optimizing personal skillsets, responsibilities, and knowledge and overall bettering oneself to advance professionally within a company or industry. By investing in career growth, employees augment their work experience, attract better opportunities and improve performance. It’s a pit stop to cater to multitudinous objectives such as education, learning and development, leadership, problem-solving, assessment of strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately upskilling.
Why is Career Growth All-Important?
Employee career growth is a win-win for employers and employees alike. It enhances the overall work culture and builds room for continuous improvement. Some of the benefits are:
- Career growth does wonders for retaining top talent. Employees who don’t feel stagnant are likely to grow and the company experiences reduced turnover.
- Employees feel more satisfied at work with their roles and look forward to taking on challenging tasks.
- Continuous learning helps employees stay competitive in their fields.
- Innovation at work blooms, with employees bringing fresh ideas to the table.
- Prioritizing carer growth also boosts employee morale, efficiency and productivity.
- Career growth offers great advantages by building a company's goodwill and reputation. It leads to bringing in more attractive talent as the company rises as their employer of choice
- A workforce with diverse skills allows for cross-departmentalization and adapts quickly to changes.
- Employees who advance professionally attract higher salaries, incentives and bonuses, whilst improving engagement at work.
Related: The 4 Stages of Career Growth
Career Growth & Career Development: What's the difference?
While the terms career growth and career development are used convertibly, they are not the same and differ on various grounds.
Career growth is usually related to the advancement of a person in designation, rank, roles, and salary within a company. It refers to progressing upwards in a professional hierarchy through promotions, raises, salary increments, taking on leadership roles and so on.
Carer development, on the other hand, focuses more on the other side of the coin. It accentuates building a personal and professional life by continuous improvement of an employee. It can be done through building a S.M.A.R.T. career plan to achieve one’s long- term career goals. Career development is a continuous process of learning new skills, improving performance, and adapting to new challenges.
Why Both Matter:
A long-term career plan focuses on both career growth and career development. While employees may strive for promotions and raises, career development ensures they are gaining the skills and experiences to reach milestones and climb the success ladder.
How Managers Can Support Employee Career Growth?
1. Foster A Learning Culture
The foundation for role advancement in a company is active learning and development. Employers can ensure that they’re doing right by their employees by giving them opportunities for constant development and advancement. L&D nurtures employees to learn new skills or improve existing ones, and stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices. All this helps them prepare for their future roles.
How To Do This:
- Invest in mentorship programs, where you pair employees with mentors who are adept to guide them.
- Employee-specific career development plans that cater to individual employees based on their special needs, preferences, learning styles and capabilities.
Example:
Employers can provide employees with individualized training modules like e-learning, coaching and simulations.
2. Create Clear Career Paths
Staying invested in employee growth is all about helping them stay ahead by prepping a career growth plan. This way companies can show employees that their well-being truly matters. Employees need to understand the potential trajectories within a company, the skill requirements for different roles and how to move from one level to the next.
Upsides of Clear Career Paths:
- It gives employees clarity and removes chances of ambiguity on the expectations for advancement.
- It also allows employees to self-assess their good and weak spots.
- Employees become more accountable, build confidence and increase their motivation by giving them something to strive for.
Pro Tip: A regular performance review can enhance the growth even better by continuously checking in on the employee's progress and discussing potential next steps in their growth journey.
To know more about career planning, check out this blog and get a bird’s eye view of how career planning is related to career growth.
3. Encourage Open Dialogue About Career Goals
Many employees shun themselves from discussing their career objectives as they may feel it's not a top priority for their employers. Avoid that by actively encouraging your workforce to discuss career aspirations, assess current skill levels, and identify growth opportunities. Conduct frequent one-on-one meetings to successfully improve the career growth of your employees.
Did You Know?
A study by LinkedIn found that 94% of employees would stay longer at a company if it invested in their career development.
4. Promote Cross-Departmental Collaboration
Providing employees the platform to collaborate with other departments is a game-changer in supporting their career growth. It not only gives them exposure but also allows them to share ideas, develop new skills and explore different career options.
Quick Tip:
Incorporate job rotation in your employee career growth plan, whereby employees temporarily switch roles or collaborate with other departments. It gives them new perspectives and enhances their overall value to the organization.
One of the valuables of fostering a thriving working culture is recognition and appreciation. When employee efforts are recognized, their motivation sparks, and so does their loyalty to the organization. Recognition varies from person to person and company to company but altogether it is a great method to reward employees for their hard work.
Recognition should be the company’s topmost priority even with remote employees. Small actions like sending virtual kudos or momentous gestures like sending e-gift cards and digital rewards make the career growth journey even more memorable and meaningful.
The Power of Career Growth in the Workplace is Unmatched
Companies that prioritize employee well-being are breaking records by becoming an employer of choice- making employees feel valued, challenged, supported and ready to succeed.
As your company chooses to leverage your employee’s career growth journey, make sure that it is seen and felt by the employees. To do that successfully, understand their needs and aspirations to curate specific strategies that work for them and help them realize their full potential.
