June 14, 2018
5 Min. Read
If you’re a human resources management professional, or you work in any kind of management role, you may be wondering how you can keep your employees motivated, boost employee engagement, and ensure that they are willing to undergo all required corporate training at your business.
The answer? Career paths. There are many things that are out of your control, as an HR professional – but one thing that is completely within your control is the development of clear career paths for your employees.
A worker who can be motivated by a clear opportunity for advancement is much more effective, and building an organizational structure with clear career paths has a number of other benefits. Learn more about these below!
A Clear Opportunity For Advancement Provides Motivation And A Tangible Goal
It’s hard to overstate how important this is for the psychological motivation of your employees. Tangible rewards are incredibly effective at motivating employees, according to multiple studies.
And it’s easy to understand why. When you know that your hard work is not going unnoticed, and that it may be helping you develop your career, you’re much more likely to give it your all, and put in the extra effort required to achieve that reward.
In contrast, if there is no promise of any kind of reward, such as career advancement, employees may begin doing the “bare minimum” to meet their job requirements. And, in a way, this is understandable – even though it’s not ideal. Why would a worker put in extra hours and effort if they don’t know the benefits that could be gained by doing so?
This is the #1 reason to focus on developing career paths for your employees. It’s an incredible motivational tool – and can drive them to focus more on training, eLearning, and becoming more effective at their jobs.
The Development Of Employee Skills Makes Your Workers Better At Their Jobs
Here’s one of the other big benefits of defining clear career paths. Even before an employee takes the next step, and becomes a manager or otherwise moves into a more important role in your organization, their efforts to become a better employee will pay off.
As they focus on interactive training and the development of employee skills, they will become more effective workers – allowing you to benefit from higher profits, and a more independent and experienced workforce.
Let’s take the example of a cashier, who is training to become a manager. The skills they develop – such as helping other employees with POS systems and dealing with unhappy customers – are useful not just when they become a manager, but before they move up in your organization!
They can use the knowledge they’ve gained during eLearning and interactive training in real-world scenarios – which makes them more effective workers, even before they move up the corporate ladder.
Career Paths Can Boost Employee Engagement And Corporate Loyalty
Engaged employees are happy employees. Employee engagement is a bit of a “buzzword” in the HR industry – but essentially, it means employees who are excited about their work, motivated, and willing to engage positively with their colleagues, supervisors, and workplace.
Because of this, HR managers and other supervisors should be looking to boost employee engagement whenever possible. There are many ways to do this, such as:
- Encouraging managers to have “open door” policies
- Hosting employee appreciation events
- Rewarding effective, competent employees
- Hosting volunteer days
There are many other such examples – and they are all effective at helping boost employee engagement. But the power of career paths for employee engagement is often overlooked. Multiple studies have shown that career development is one of the best ways to help disengaged workers become more effective, and boost engagement rates.
The reason is simple. Disengaged workers usually feel overlooked, overworked, and like their efforts are not being recognized by the company. This leads to feelings of dissatisfaction, which can manifest as poor performance, tardiness, and other such problems.
Investing in career development turns this on its head. If you make it clear that you value an employee and that, if they continue performing well, there is a way for them to move up in your organization, they are likely to become more engaged at work.
Create Clear Career Paths And Invest In Employee Career Development – Starting Today!
Engaged, happy employees are effective employees. And one of the best ways that you can boost employee engagement as well as happiness and morale is by creating clear employee development paths – and investing in employees who have promise and potential.
By doing so, you’ll increase employee performance and loyalty, and help them develop skills that will serve your company for years to come.
