It’s a common refrain in today’s workplace: career development and growth opportunities are crucial for keeping employees engaged and committed. Employees are increasingly vocal about their desire for professional advancement, yet many companies worldwide are still falling short in providing adequate learning and growth pathways.
This gap between employee aspirations and employer offerings is a significant concern for HR leaders. Addressing this disparity is essential to curb unnecessary employee turnover. As organizations rethink their talent development strategies to bridge this divide, a fundamental question arises: who is truly responsible for an employee’s career development program? Is it solely on the employee, the manager, or the organization itself?
The Challenge of Ownership in Career Growth
The concept of ownership in career development exists on a spectrum. At one end, you have environments where managers and leadership heavily control an employee’s career trajectory. Conversely, at the other extreme, some organizations place the entire onus on the employee. However, this employee-centric approach often comes with a catch. Some companies claim to empower employees to manage their own careers, but in practice, they fail to provide sufficient support or actively encourage internal mobility and growth.
For employees to genuinely take ownership of their careers, they need more than just lip service. They require tangible access to personalized recommendations and transparent opportunities that genuinely facilitate skill enhancement and career progression within the organization.
A Three-Way Partnership: The Key to Effective Career Development
The reality is that the responsibility for nurturing and developing talent isn’t the burden of a single entity. Instead, effective career development flourishes as a three-way partnership between the employee, their manager, and the organization. The initial spark, the desire to grow and learn, must originate from the employee. They need to be intrinsically motivated to seek development. However, managers play a vital role in facilitating and enabling this growth. Without a manager’s encouragement and active support, employees can easily become disengaged and demotivated, increasing the risk of them seeking opportunities elsewhere.
Furthermore, for employee development to truly take hold, organizations must invest in providing the necessary training, accessible resources, and well-structured programs. These initiatives should empower employees to acquire new skills, explore diverse roles within the company, and identify clear pathways for career advancement. Adopting a three-way partnership model, where the employee, manager, and organization are all actively involved, has proven to be a remarkably powerful and successful strategy for fostering career growth.
Nick Holmes, VP of Employee Experience at Fishawack Health, recognized the power of this three-way partnership in transforming talent development. By implementing a talent marketplace that intelligently connects individuals with potential roles and various career development opportunities within the organization, Fishawack Health accelerated its progress toward key business objectives. This platform effectively put employees in the driver’s seat of their career journeys while equipping managers, HR, and business leaders with the essential tools to champion employee growth. The tangible results at Fishawack Health include heightened employee engagement and retention rates, alongside a significant boost in internal mobility.
When employee development is embraced as a shared responsibility across these three key stakeholders – employees, leaders, and the organization – it creates a mutually beneficial scenario. Employees feel empowered to expand their skill sets and advance their careers, managers are enabled to cultivate high-performing and motivated teams, and the organization as a whole thrives through a more skilled and engaged workforce.
