Employees don’t feel supported in their careers.
While 75% of employees would prefer to stay and grow with their organizations, less than half see a clear path for advancement in their current company. Only 46% report feeling supported in their career aspirations. But manager-employee career check-ins help employees feel much better supported. And there’s also a clear tie to important outcomes like productivity and engagement.
Only 48% see a path for advancement in their current company.
While 75% of employees would prefer to stay and grow with their organizations, less than half see a clear path for advancement in their current company. Only 46% report feeling supported in their career aspirations. But manager-employee career checkins help employees feel much better supported. And there’s also a clear tie to important outcomes like productivity and engagement.
Only 48% see a path for advancement in their current company.
Only 38% of employees feel both their performance and career aspirations are fully supported by their organizations
Employees are thinking more deeply than ever about their career development — and specifically how to develop skills, grow, and advance in their current company.
To stay and thrive, employees want more and better conversations about growth and to feel that someone cares about their development. This is part of the employee deal: Employees want to feel that in exchange for their eorts, their employers are committed to investing in their growth and advancement.
While 38% told us they felt supported in both their career aspirations and performance, 28% said they felt supported in performance goals only. More than a quarter (26%) said they did not feel their organization supported them in either their performance or career aspirations.
Fewer than 1 in 2 employees see a clear path for advancement in their current company.
The disconnect is troubling: As we saw mentioned earlier, 75% of employees prefer to grow and advance at their current organization but less than half (48%) see a pathway for advancement.
The news is worse for front-line employees. Only 40% of individual contributors saw a way forward. This is skewed a bit. Many employees at the higher levels were also older workers who indicated they didn’t need or want career development or advancement because they were already at the top of their careers or close to retirement.
This begs the question, “Are employees getting adequate conversations around career development?” The answer is no.
About half of employees are getting check-ins on career, advancement, and growth more than once a year. A quarter of employees have check-ins more often, but another quarter receive no check-ins about their careers at all.
Employees are most likely to think their manager cares about their career growth — but 1 in 3 don’t think anyone cares.
- My manager 56%
- No one 30%
- HR 13%
- Someone else 18%
In Finding 1, we saw that trust in managers is as high as it is in teammates. Employees echoed that same sense of confidence in their managers when we asked who at their company supports them. More than half of respondents said the person who most cared about their advancement at work was their manager.
Still, that number (56%) leaves a lot of room for improvement, and 30% of people said that no one cares about their career growth.
It is worth noting that — as with trust — employees do not think many in HR have their back when it comes to career development.
While this may feel disheartening, given the outpouring of eort by HR to protect employees and enhance their well-being, it simply indicates that there is more to be accomplished.
Employees are most likely to think their manager cares about their career growth — but 1 in 3 don’t think anyone cares.
- My manager 56%
- No one 30%
- HR 13%
- Someone else 18%
In Finding 1, we saw that trust in managers is as high as it is in teammates. Employees echoed that same sense of confidence in their managers when we asked who at their company supports them. More than half of respondents said the person who most cared about their advancement at work was their manager.
Still, that number (56%) leaves a lot of room for improvement, and 30% of people said that no one cares about their career growth.
It is worth noting that — as with trust — employees do not think many in HR have their back when it comes to career development.
While this may feel disheartening, given the outpouring of eort by HR to protect employees and enhance their well-being, it simply indicates that there is more to be accomplished.
Satisfaction with career development conversations translates into internal career mobility.
Always
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Employees who are satisfied with career and development check-ins are also more likely to say they are always engaged and productive.
Engaged
Productive
“Never/not at all” < 1% of respondents.
- Always/Very 75%
- 82%
- Sometimes/Somewhat 54%
- 61%
- Rarely/A Little 47%
- 58%
People who said they are always satisfied with the career conversations they have with managers were also less than half as likely to be looking to join a new company this year (20% versus 59%).
Additionally, these employees were up to 28 percentage points more likely to say they are engaged and putting in extra effort and up to 24 percentage points more likely to say they are always productive. This data shows that when you take care of your employees, they will take care of you.
Read our recommendation
4
Focus on career development discussions and career pathing.
Career pathing works. If you haven’t done so already, make sure manager-employee conversations are frequent and structured. Managers should be encouraged to regularly include questions about the employee’s career aspirations and discuss opportunities for building related skills. These should be documented, added to the employee’s performance plan, and discussed regularly to monitor and promote progress.
Examine the effectiveness of your upskilling and other L&D programs. Unless courses and progress tie into an employee’s performance, managers won’t necessarily see the impact of the employee’s efforts. Without this visibility, the ability to level up and be promoted may not come to fruition. Make sure learning is expressed as a goal and be sure that HR can track the impact of learning on career development and advancement.
