Career pathing: a complete guide for HR managers

Continuous on-the-job training is critical to professional success. Robust learning and development (L&D) programs tie back to business outcomes like employee performance and retention; when job turnover peaked in 2018, 94% of professionals agreed that L&D investments were their top priority when deciding whether to remain with a company. (1)

Employees are increasingly signaling that they crave learning opportunities relevant to their roles and desired career paths, and providing clear frameworks for career growth — known as “competency frameworks” or “career progression frameworks” — is one of the most impactful ways to drive employee satisfaction and improve retention.

Creating a career pathing model may seem challenging, but this guide will break the process down step by step. We’ll cover the following topics:

• “Career pathing” definition
• Why a career growth plan matters
• How managers can build a career path strategy
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1. CNBC, 2019
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What is career pathing?

Career pathing — also called career mapping — is a practice that outlines potential promotion strategies for team members based on their professional trajectories. For example, a department within an organization may have distinct career tracks for individual contributor (IC) growth and manager growth. These tracks encompass clear guidelines about career progression and can inform employee development programs for people leaders.

For career pathing to be effective, it’s vital for managers and HR leaders to know the direction team members want to take in their professional lives. For example, even if certain colleagues have similar titles, some individuals may crave lateral or non-vertical internal growth opportunities, such as jumping from the marketing to the operations team. Or, they might prefer developing as a specialist over diving into people management. Many people wrongly assume the only way is up in the professional world — but a recent survey found that one-third of employees aren’t interested in becoming a manager — ever. 

With that in mind, it’s key for team leads and HR professionals to ask pertinent career development questions to dig into different employees’ professional journeys and understand how they’d like to progress professionally.

Why career pathing is crucial in 2024

Career pathing models help employees picture a future with their employer. That’s because professionals with career paths have more defined goals to work toward and a clearer growth structure to guide them, so they’re less likely to look elsewhere for advancement. Career pathing also helps engage team members as it shows them the precise competencies they need to acquire to advance and in what time frame.

This can have a big impact on retention and a company’s ability to build cohesive teams over time. Indeed, our 2023 State of People Enablement Report revealed that 52% of job seekers would stay with an organization that encourages feedback, goal-setting, and learning.

Last, career pathing helps managers and HR leaders develop a deeper understanding of expected skill sets at each level and company department. They can then use that information to recruit the right people and craft role- and level-specific compensation packages. Indeed, by adopting career pathing alongside a compensation benchmarking tool, organizations can significantly improve satisfaction through improved enablement and fair recognition.

✏️ Structured compensation and leveling frameworks are critical for retaining top talent. 

Detailed benchmarking data helps employers pay their team members equitably. It also fosters a fair work culture where employees understand how to improve and achieve compensation increases.

How does career pathing support professional development?

Career pathing is an effective talent development method as it centers career development conversations around an employee’s actual skills and growth potential.

Furthermore, career pathing models enable managers to support their reports’ soft and hard skills. Gauging someone’s current capabilities against the skills they need to advance is an essential step in understanding where they should be placed on a career development path.

A competency framework outlines the skills an employee needs to advance in a company. These frameworks detail the skills relevant to the position and the organizational culture. For example, if your business thrives on active listening, effective communication, motivation, and project ownership, then competencies related to those skills should determine an employee’s advancement — from junior to senior level and beyond.

In addition, with competency frameworks, managers can better provide their teams with structured and actionable feedback as they know the skills that are expected within each role and can therefore better support their reports’ development. 

Though these frameworks differ by organization and role, solutions like Leapsome AI can help companies draft them in just a few minutes. As a result, HR leaders and managers are well-equipped to support people’s professional development without an overwhelming time investment upfront, especially if they’re new to career pathing. 

Tips to help managers develop better career paths for their team

Managers are the best candidates for handling career pathing conversations because they know their reports’ strengths and weaknesses best. Moreover, they’ve already worked to establish close working relationships with their team members. Many employees feel more comfortable discussing career progression with their managers than those they spend less face time with.

‍However, many managers feel ill-suited to handling career development discussions. Perhaps they don’t know how to start these conversations or don’t have the appropriate tools to provide employees with actionable feedback.

Overcoming these obstacles is critical to establishing effective competency frameworks for employees. Here are a couple ways that HR team members can support managers in doing so:

Implementing a dedicated competency framework tool

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Career progression frameworks — or competency frameworks — outline the various professional paths within an organization. They map out the role responsibilities and competencies that are expected at each level, giving managers tangible information about how their direct reports can progress in their careers. They also promote fair upward and cross-functional mobility by detailing when team members in different roles can expect promotion — and how to get there.

Several factors, including culture and industry, impact the roles within a company; if you’re starting from scratch or looking to refine your career development process, consider using a tool like Leapsome to eliminate the unknowns of developing a career pathing strategy.
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‍🤔 Curious what a career progression framework might look like for your organization? Download our free competency framework template today to get started.

An effective tool will empower teams to take the following steps when developing their career progression framework:

1. Evaluating their current career progression framework
2. Setting goals for their new career progression framework
3. Establishing a timeline
4. Assigning project ownership
5. Deciding between general and team-specific frameworks
6. Determining how career progression “levels” will work
7. Aligning on the competencies employees will need to move to the next level
8. Setting up compensation bands for each role
9. Rolling out their career progression framework

Encouraging career growth discussions during 1:1s

To truly empower team members, managers should also use one-on-one meetings to delve into career development talks. 

Encourage managers to ask their direct reports questions like:

• Where do you see yourself in five years? This question helps understand an employee’s long-term vision and identify potential skills gaps.
• What motivates you at work? Understanding team members’ motivators helps managers guide them in their career development more effectively.
• What other roles in the organization interest you? This question assesses an employee’s transferable skills and explores internal mobility opportunities. 

Discussing long-term goals with reports also leads to more productive performance reviews and relevant L&D opportunities.

Managers can use data-driven tools like Leapsome Reviews to further accelerate their performance evaluation strategy. This solution automates review cycles and leverages employee data to better understand where team members fall within established competency frameworks.

How Leapsome can boost your career pathing strategy

Managers who prioritize strategic communication about career pathing can significantly improve employee engagement and boost morale. Providing top performers with an actionable roadmap to success also helps cement their loyalty and reduce turnover. However, no career development framework should look the same, so it’s time to ask yourself: What career pathing solution best fits your organization?

Leapsome provides solutions that respond to your company’s unique needs. With Leapsome Reviews and Competency Frameworks, managers can customize and visualize employee performance reviews and progression plans. 

Development tracking empowers managers to provide team members with actionable feedback on improving and progressing on their career paths. Once employees improve their skills by leveraging a tool like Leapsome Learning, our compensation benchmarking capabilities, powered by Mercer, ensure that they receive the recognition they deserve. 
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👣 Build a people-centered career pathing framework

‍Leapsome’s automated feedback cycles and data-driven insights allow managers to understand and work toward employees’ diverse career development goals

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