An overwhelming majority of employees value their career progression. According to the Guild American Worker Survey, 90% of workers consider well-defined career pathing to be a priority in their jobs.

With job dissatisfaction and turnover sitting at an all-time high, it’s no surprise that organizations are scrambling to implement strategies that help retain talented workers. At the top of the list? Employee development.

Career pathing is a familiar concept, but organizations are struggling to make employee development fit into the future of work. The traditional linear career paths of decades past simply don’t cut it anymore. Organizational structures are rapidly changing, creating a complex and ever-growing list of potential career paths. It’s no wonder traditional career pathing frameworks have grown obsolete.

But employees still need and want defined career paths. So how do we bridge the gap?

Companies need to adopt career development solutions that actually drive engagement in the modern workplace.

To help you navigate the new world of work, we're breaking down the new rules of career pathing—and trust us when we say that they’re here to stay.

What is career pathing?

Career pathing is the process of building a roadmap of roles and jobs an employee may hold during their time at an organization. It takes an employee from point A—their current role—to point B—their career goal. It also maps out any short-term milestones that will help get them there.

Employees want to grow and learn in their roles, which is why career pathing is so valuable. According to the 2023 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, “progress toward career goals” is the number 1 motivation for employees to learn.

So whether an employee is hoping to progress into a senior role or looking to make a lateral move, career pathing puts a solid plan in place for their next steps. It considers their current skills and experience and carves out a growth and learning path that makes the most sense for them.

The importance of career pathing

Effective career pathing is a win-win for both employees and employers. Establishing a clear career path for your employees can empower them to achieve their professional goals. But career pathing is also instrumental in helping you build a high-performing team.

• Career pathing increases employee morale and job satisfaction: According to a report by PwC, 67% of Canadian employees said that upskilling opportunities made them more productive and confident in their organization’s leadership. Career development provides employees with a sense of direction and offers a greater sense of purpose in their day-to-day roles. By empowering employees to take control of their own careers, they’re likely to be happier and more productive. 

• Career pathing reduces churn and helps retain top talent: One of the top priorities for HR teams is retaining top talent. Lack of growth and career opportunities is the reason 41% of employees choose to change jobs. This makes career pathing an easy win for maintaining a strong and loyal talent pool.

• Career pathing helps with talent planning: Career pathing doesn’t only focus on roles and job titles. It also highlights the skills and experience that someone needs to reach their goals. If done correctly, 60% of critical roles can be filled internally. And by taking the time to upskill your existing employees, it becomes much easier to fill skills gaps in your organization and maintain a robust internal talent pipeline.

Who’s in charge of career pathing? 

Ironically, when it comes to career pathing it’s not always clear who should be in the driver’s seat. If we’re being honest, you’re likely to get a different answer depending on who you ask.

But most folks can agree that there are 3 key stakeholders involved in the traditional career pathing process, the employee, their direct manager, and the organization.

Employees 

HR professionals and other leaders will often say that employees are responsible for their own career pathing. But with the traditional career pathing framework, that’s easier said than done. 

Individual employees may be able to identify their long-term career goals but figuring out how to get there can be a little tricky.

Employees also aren’t always privy to internal opportunities and resources that can help them achieve their career goals. These barriers can make it tough to make developmental progress. According to Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends survey, over 57% of employees found it easier to find a job at a different organization than one with their existing organization.

So it makes perfect sense that employees typically look to their manager for guidance in carving out a development path.

Managers

People managers serve as a crucial link between the employee and the rest of the organization. That’s why they’ve always had a heavy hand when it comes to employee development. 

Managers are well positioned to offer insights to their direct reports on skills gaps and strengths. They also usually have better insight into internal opportunities and the needs of the organization.

But manager-led career pathing requires an effective people manager who has the capacity and is invested in the long-term success of their team. Otherwise, you’ll run into common issues like talent hoarding or even complete neglect of employee development.

Organization and human resources 

The strategic direction of an organization impacts the roles and skills needed for the business to thrive. But it’s up to HR teams and the organization as a whole to provide clear insight into these opportunities for employees and their managers. 

HR also plays a strategic role in the career pathing process by providing the necessary tools and resources to foster effective career development. But it ultimately starts with creating a workplace culture that both values and prioritizes internal growth.

The challenge in traditional career pathing 

The case for investing in career pathing is clear. But the traditional career pathing framework assumes that an employee’s goals and an organization’s needs are linear. Understandable, given that the model gained steam at a time when career paths were very clear and predictable.

Fast forward to today and the days of top-down organizational structures are well behind us. Organizations of all sizes are adapting to become more agile with more matrix-style structures. The result is a complicated web of roles, skills, and paths—with no one career path looking the same as the next. 

The good news? Employees have more possibilities and opportunities to choose from than ever before.

But the tradeoff is a more complex employee development process. The traditional career pathing methodology we’ve all become accustomed to just doesn’t fit the new normal. With a near-infinite combination of job descriptions and skill requirements, employees need very personalized career development plans to help them carve out a path that’s unique to them. 

Sure, you could try to reduce the overhead by turning career pathing into a science. But roles and job descriptions are changing so quickly that it’s almost impossible to have a system that catalogs and organizes the data in any meaningful way. Plus, employees want to play a role in their own development.

"The time and effort required to map these career paths and skill ontologies are so great that they become obsolete before they are even complete." - VP HR, Consumer Products

Managers and the modern career path

For an employee to have a successful modern career path, they need someone to:

• Assess their skills gaps and set goals to address them
• Connect them with the right tools and programming to upskill
• Match career opportunities with their goals and needs
• Support any internal career moves

This incredibly tailored list of needs ultimately falls on the plates of people managers. In theory, managers are well-positioned to support these needs, but they’re already juggling 1001 responsibilities on their to-do list.

In the best-case scenario, managers can step into the role of advocate and mentor for their direct reports. They’re able to make career pathing a priority while managing their high-level day-to-day responsibilities.

But more likely than not, managers end up being gatekeepers. While most people managers acknowledge the importance of career development conversations, they often find themselves pulled in the direction of core business priorities and their own goals. 

We can’t even blame managers for failing to prioritize internal mobility—employee career pathing is a massive weight to be sitting on their all too busy shoulders.

Regardless, the result is a pool of top talent left to fend for themselves. And if they’re left siloed for too long, they’ll start looking externally for other roles in hopes of unlocking a better-defined career path.

So what’s the alternative?

Manage career pathing with a community-driven approach

A community-driven approach takes the onus of career pathing off of one manager and shifts it to the entire organization. Essentially, you’re cutting out the go-between and connecting employees with opportunities directly—whether it’s mentors, coaches, subject matter experts, or even colleagues who can help put them on the right path.

It’s personalized and people-driven but flexible enough to ebb and flow with rapidly changing business landscapes. Not only does it foster a culture of learning at an organizational level, but community-driven career pathing is also an accessible and equitable experience.

This alternative approach reduces the load on people managers and puts your employees back in the driver's seat. That doesn’t mean people managers don’t play a role, it just removes them as a barrier in the career pathing process.

Of course, enterprise organizations can have thousands of employees. So you need the right tools and software to implement community-led career development at scale.

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Modern career pathing requires modern solutions

If career paths aren’t linear, your employee development solutions shouldn’t be either. You need to strike that perfect balance between systems and people-to-people development to pull off modern career pathing successfully.

The right tools can empower your staff to successfully chart their own career paths and help your organization implement career pathing at scale. When it comes to modern career pathing, look for solutions that:

• Help employees build a larger internal network: Give your employees the tools to make meaningful connections. Networking beyond their direct managers offers employees the opportunity to develop the skills and relationships they need to take control of their own career growth.

• Take the bias out of development and mentorship: Traditional networking isn’t alway inclusive. Introduce employees based on their goals and interests by using smart match tools that create relevant and unbiased mentee-mentor matches.

• Provide structured development for leaders and employees: Networking can feel awkward. Guided mentorship programs take out the guesswork out of career pathing, so you can implement effective employee development programs.

• Reduce the administrative burden of career development: The transition from traditional career pathing is challenging enough. Manually managing employee mentorship and development through spreadsheets is possible, but tedious and difficult to scale. Instead, embrace technology that helps you connect employees and track success in just a few clicks.

• Create a pipeline of top talent: Provide early talent and high-potential talent with growth opportunities through structured curriculums and opportunities, so you can nurture a strong pipeline of future leaders.
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Career development FAQs 

1. What is career pathing?

Career pathing is the process of outlining career goals and the steps needed to achieve them. Traditionally, a career path was linear and paved the way for vertical upward mobility within an organization’s hierarchy.

However, modern businesses have shifted to flatter, matrixed organizational structures—helping teams stay flexible and nimble. This shift has highlighted the need for innovative career pathing solutions that cater to the more diverse and often unpredictable career trajectories employees are likely to face in their careers.

2. What are the key benefits of career pathing?

The key benefits of career pathing for organizations include: 

• Stronger employee engagement and job satisfaction
• Higher rates of employee retention
• Improved employee performance and productivity
• Better internal talent pipeline management

Career pathing is a valuable tool for both you and your employees. By investing in effective community-led development tools, you’ll improve employee performance and nurture a more engaged workforce.

3. What are some major challenges in career pathing? 

The major challenges faced by organizations in career pathing include keeping up with rapidly changing organizational demands and overloaded people managers. Traditional career pathing is time-consuming and simply can’t keep up with the modern matrix of roles and responsibilities within organizations.

Putting the burden of personalized career pathing on managers is unfair and unrealistic. But using systems to map career paths lacks the personalization employees desire and is often too slow to remain relevant. As a result, companies find themselves saddled with high rates of employee turnover, unsatisfied employees, and failed efforts at internal mobility.

Tackling modern challenges in career pathing requires building a people-driven employee development solution that captures the best of both worlds.

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