Accelerating career growth: The 3 things your organization needs to know

In today’s fast-paced workforce, career growth is critical for retaining and engaging top talent. Employees are eager to enhance their skills and knowledge to pursue career advancement opportunities.

Studies continue to reveal how important it is for employees to clearly view progression in their current roles. A recent research study from Lighthouse Research & Advisory and Cornerstone People Research Lab, “Ready, set, grow: The building blocks for high-impact talent mobility,” found that 70% of people were more likely to stay with their organization if they had continuous learning and training. And employees also ranked the top benefits they saw from increased career mobility. Those benefits included being:

• More satisfied at work

• More comfortable about their next career move

• More likely to feel valued by their organization

To better engage your top talent, your organization can establish a dynamic career growth culture that supports your efforts to promote professional growth and career advancement. By implementing effective development strategies that cater to the best and brightest employees, you can ensure that as your people grow, your organization does too.

In today’s rapidly changing work environment, it's essential for employees to take personal responsibility for their career development. Rather than relying solely on their managers or HR departments to guide their professional growth, employees can proactively seek out learning opportunities and explore different skills to build their expertise within the organization.

Our research found that the number one way talent preferred to learn new skills was through experience. This can involve taking online courses, attending industry events and networking with coworkers. By investing time and effort in developing their skills, employees can become subject matter experts in their roles and make a significant contribution to your organization. They can also proactively personalize their own career path by asking questions, reviewing career options and leveraging AI-powered technology to explore exciting opportunities.

You can support your employees with the tools to create a personalized enrichment and development plan that identifies the areas where they need to improve and sets specific goals for their own professional development. This approach not only benefits your people but also adds value to your organization by promoting a culture of continuous learning and innovation. Those people and organizations who take initiative and demonstrate a commitment to ongoing professional growth and development will be well-positioned to thrive in today’s competitive job market.

High-performing organizations have a culture of employee development and continual career coaching that support employee talent mobility. Employees with career-supporting managers are two times more likely to stay with their organization. And a significant majority (73%) of employees express interest in learning about new roles within their organization. Effective career coaching can be a valuable tool for helping employees identify their strengths, interests and professional development goals while partnering with talent leaders. However, workers who are unaware of internal career growth opportunities are 61% more likely to consider quitting or seeking alternative positions at other companies.

Coaching careers to the next level is critical for enhancing employee engagement and retention to ensure your workforce is better equipped to contribute to your organization’s success. The professional relationship between employers and employees must go beyond recruitment to include a genuine atmosphere where employees feel high levels of connection, value and belonging.

Organizations investing in employee development and talent mobility support a more future-ready workforce with higher rates of employee satisfaction. Pairing curated content with AI-powered technology is essential for fueling career growth. More than half of employees report that having visibility into available career growth within their organization made them more likely to stay in their job. AI technology helps HR professionals discover new ways to quickly identify and categorize employee strengths to close skills gaps.

Technology is a powerful tool that you can use to produce extraordinary results. Organizations with better engagement, revenue and retention metrics were 65% more likely to utilize technology to offer career visibility. Talent leaders can use AI to make better decisions and provide personalized learning and development opportunities for their organizations. This intelligent tech can accurately benchmark and assesses skills so you can strategically deploy projects, goals, roles and personalized learning opportunities. With the help of AI and machine learning, your organization can access recommendations for development opportunities, auto-tagged content and accelerated career mobility with auto-generated career and job paths.

To build a successful future, your people need transparency from your organization. Career growth is a shared mission and a collaborative effort between employee and employer. It's on your organization to support them with career opportunities, technological resources and managerial support. Harnessing HR technology with active manager coaching and employee development is an excellent start to forging a path forward for everyone.

To learn more about meaningful and scalable growth opportunities to turbocharge your talent mobility, read "Ready, set, grow: The building blocks for high-impact talent mobility" today.

To learn how to creatively conquer the business challenges of tomorrow and ensure your people feel passionate about work, download this eBook
co-authored by Dr. Edie Goldberg, an expert in the future of work and talent management.