Career development might sound like a simple buzzword, but the fact is, it brings significant benefits to organizations that take the time to invest. LMS software and a career development plan are two ways employers can emphasize employee growth.

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This post will examine both of those approaches and provide a framework your business can use for successfully developing your employees. Are you an employee looking to build your career? Well, this article also has valuable insights for you. If your company doesn’t currently invest in career development, use this guide to make a case for why it’s necessary.

Article Roadmap

• What Is Career Development?
• Why Employers Should Care About Career Development
• Strategies to Promote Employee Growth
• Benefits of Developing Talent
• FAQ
• In Summary

Key Takeaways

• L&D budgets were the highest in six years in 2022 due to a rise in purchasing power.
• 94% of employees say they’d work longer for organizations that offered L&D programs.
• Employees need organizations to focus on their career development — 63% said they quit their jobs due to few or no training opportunities.
• The skills gap has increased — 58% of employees need new skills to do their jobs effectively.

What Is a Career Development Plan?

Career development is the process of advancing along a career path. A career development plan is the strategic process of continually honing current skills or gaining new ones. It promotes ongoing learning throughout a person’s lifetime, equipping them to transition to new roles and prepare for future positions in line with personal and professional goals.

The primary definition of career development applies to employees, making it a personal undertaking. In other words, a person can pursue a career development plan whether or not they receive aid from an employer. It should encourage employees to nurture their talents and come up with ways to reach set objectives.

However, career development can be approached from a company standpoint as well. In this case, the focus is on facilitating the growth and development of employees. There are several ways to accomplish this — using software to deliver training and helping employees create a plan are two of the most effective.

Employer Benefits

Today’s organizations face a diverse and potent set of challenges: the war for talent, disruptions due to technology and global changes and a 2021 voluntary turnover rate of 25% in the U.S.

That means that the ability to retain top talent is essential, and organizations are recognizing the importance of doing so. For example, nearly 75% of L&D leaders surveyed in LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning Report agree that L&D has become far more influential in the last year.

Additionally, L&D budgets have reached a six-year high due to increasing spending power, meaning that budgets are increasing while facing fewer constraints.

It may be tempting to question the wisdom of investing in employee development if they’re bound to take their spiffy new skills to another company at some point — even a competitor.

That’s the wrong way to look at it.

In reality, helping employees plan their career growth makes them less likely to walk out searching for another job.

Career development is a great way to meet changing demands for skills. It can:

• Help employees reach their potential
• Facilitate short and long-term goal-setting
• Evaluate progress to identify strengths and weaknesses
• Prepare employees for career advancement

So the question isn’t, “Can we afford to invest in developing employees?” It’s, “How can we not afford to?”

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Strategies To Promote Employee Growth

Career development isn’t always an easy journey. Not everyone knows where they want to end up or how to reach that desired destination. However, you can make this process easier for employees by providing them with the tools they need to grow and be successful.

Let’s look at a couple of ways you can do this.

1. Help Employees Create a Plan

Ideally, employees shouldn’t have to navigate the process alone. They need to take ownership, yes, but managers can play a critically important role too. One of the top ways to aid an employee’s goals is by helping them craft a career development plan.

Process

Let’s go over the process:

Step 1: Plan your meeting

Before jumping headfirst into creating a plan of attack, let your employee know the general idea of your meeting. This gives them time to wrap their minds around what they want. Doing so also saves you a few awkward silence moments while they pause to think about big questions like, “What do you want to do for the rest of your life?”

If they can provide you with some feedback, use that information to start gathering useful resources for their objectives.

Step 2: Have a conversation

You can’t help employees build a career development plan template without first knowing what they want. The best way to find out is to have a meeting to discuss their aspirations, goals and interests.

It’s important to know what makes them tick and where they want their career to go. Digging deeper into that could involve learning what they’re passionate about, whom they look up to and where they’re naturally gifted.

You can then suggest opportunities and make recommendations based on that information.

Step 3: Create the plan

Once there’s a framework in place, you can build the career development plan template. You should focus on two critical pieces: helping your employee define goals (if they don’t already have a clear idea of what they want) and putting an action plan in place.

A career plan is a thorough evaluation of where an employee is, what they want and how to move from point A to point B in the most effective fashion. It should include:

• The field of work they’re most interested in
• An assessment of where they are now
• Short and long-term goals or end destination to shoot for
• Several concrete steps they can take to get there, using SMART goals
• Potential obstacles and ways to overcome them
• A timeline for measuring progress and re-evaluating

Step 4: Point them toward resources

This step can take many forms. Here are a few things you can do to help:

• Recommend a training course the company offers that will teach them vital skills.
• Offer them a promotion in line with their career goals.
• Propose a lateral move that will set them up for success down the road.
• Suggest potential benefits, such as tuition assistance.

Step 5: Follow up
Career development isn’t a one-and-done approach. You should follow up with employees to see how they’re progressing with their action steps and if their plan has evolved since it was created.

Checking in also shows that you care. It’s not about giving the employee an initial boost only to disappear, never to be heard from again. Employees are more motivated to perform well, follow through on their plans and do what it takes to succeed if they know you’ve invested in their career growth.

Follow-ups can happen during performance reviews (annual and otherwise), but they don’t have to be limited to those times. Setting up a quick time to review where things stand and revise the plan can be just as effective.

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Planning Pitfalls

There are some things you should be aware of when creating an employee career development plan.

• Avoid making promises. Helping employees with their plans doesn’t translate to any sort of guarantee. You need to be clear that you’re happy to help but can’t make any promises about the outcome. People change, and companies steer in new directions — there’s too much internal and external uncertainty to guarantee anything.
• Don’t end up executing the plan. In this scenario, you’re Gandalf and the employees are hobbits. You’re the guide. You can help them move in the right direction and give them career development plan ideas. But your job stops there. Ultimately, it’s up to your employees to follow through on the plan.
• Understand local laws. The last thing you need is to get into legal hot water by accidentally implying something you didn’t intend. That’s why you need to stay away from those promises. HR laws vary by region, so know what applies to your situation, especially if you have a global workforce.
• Say no to a cookie-cutter approach. Every employee is different, so every plan will reflect their unique journey. Trying to box them in will only backfire.
• Don’t do their job. You can’t be like the college whiz who does all the work to help the team ace their project. Employees need to own their career growth. You can suggest resources you know about, but researching additional options is up to them.

2. Leverage Learning Tools to Assist Employees

A learning management system is a perfect place to start when looking to boost career development opportunities. You may view these solutions more in light of providing critical job skills and certifications. However, LMS software is one of the primary ways your organization can provide training for your employees.

The admin console in Cornerstone LMS. Source

These systems come with a range of tools for building and managing digital courses. Some support classroom learning as well. With an LMS, your employees can access a host of classes that cover topics far beyond the scope of their current job.

Many LMS solutions can import third-party content, such as courses from Udemy, OpenSesame and LinkedIn Learning. This is valuable since it removes the need to create an entire library of content from scratch. It also provides you with a more extensive set of courses to offer employees.

Access curated courses designed for knowledge retention.

However, as Josh Bersin points out in his HR Prediction for 2022 report, corporate training is shifting towards new online content players. And while an LMS still plays an important role, its prominence at the center of corporate learning has been displaced by other tools, Bersin says.

His list of new systems includes:

• Learning experience platforms
• Micro-learning systems
• Program platforms
• Content libraries (for gaining access to third-party content)
• Assessment, VR and virtual learning tools
• Learning record stores (for storing data typically found in an LMS)

The landscape is ripe with opportunities for companies willing to invest. The challenge is navigating the path and determining which systems are best suited for your business.

To receive the best ROI, you should examine any solution through the employee development strategy lens. What functionality does a platform need to support those strategies? The right platforms should facilitate learning, not just look good on paper.

(If you want to get a jump start on determining your LMS requirements, check out our free template.)

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Primary Benefits

Every company wants engaged, satisfied employees who stick around for the long haul. Investing in career development planning is one of the best ways to make that possible. What’s more, there are plenty of other benefits related to talent development.

1. Reduce Costs

63% of respondents in a 2021 Pew Research report said a lack of career advancement opportunities led them to quit their jobs. So while investing in company-wide career development may not come cheap, the revolving door alternative is much less cost-effective, especially for top talent that demands higher salaries.

2. Fill Skills Gaps

By offering learning opportunities, organizations can ensure workers have the required skills. The issue of skills gaps is an increasing topic of conversation, and for good reason. According to Gartner HR research, 58% of the workforce will need new skill sets to do their job successfully.

This is where LMS systems come into play. Utilizing the learning tools provided, employers can upskill current employees and give them the experience needed to excel in their position. Without it, employers may find themselves searching outside of the organization for talent.

Identify training needs for individuals, teams, and your organization.

3. Prepare for the Future

Companies can lay a strong foundation for future success by focusing on creating a skilled workforce. Succession planning is one key area where organizations can apply this approach. It provides the means for identifying and cultivating the next generation of leaders to ensure long-term stability and prosperity.

4. Create a Strong Company Culture

Businesses that want to capture that elusive sense of culture need to start by showing they care about employees. And as we’ve seen in the statistics, one of the best places to do that is by enabling and promoting career development.

5. Achieve Business Objectives

Without a skilled workforce, it’s impossible for a business to compete. Any strategic goals put in place by the executives require capable employees to produce the desired outcomes. The more training employees undergo, the better equipped they become to contribute to an organization’s growth.

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FAQs

Why should I care about career development plans?

While career development plans get designed for employees, employers reap benefits from assisting their workers with creating it. In doing so, employees understand that you have a genuine interest in their personal goals, thus increasing the likelihood they’ll remain with your company for a longer period of time.

Do note that it’s not a manager’s responsibility to hold workers accountable for reaching their milestones. Rather, they’re there to guide the employee’s journey to achieve the benchmarks themselves.

What is a sample format for a career development plan?

The general composition of a career development plan template is as follows:

• List any career interests, i.e., a field of work or other passions
• Assess your current position
• Determine short and long-term goals (1-5 years, +5 years)
• Use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) goals to plan out steps to achieve goals
• Weed out potential problems
• Create a timeline to measure progress and assess

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In Summary

Creating effective career development plans can have a significant impact on employees and employers alike. Assisting workers with a plan and leveraging software are two key ways to aid their growth.

In return, you can expect to see benefits ranging from lower costs and stronger company culture to increased employee satisfaction and performance.

The tools available to facilitate career development planning come in many forms. Learning management systems, professional programs, third-party resources (e.g., LinkedIn Learning courses) and virtual reality tools are a few examples.

The route to choosing an LMS, in particular, can be daunting. If you’re at that stage, we’ve put together a free comparison guide to help you sort through your options.

How are you facilitating career development plans at your company? What obstacles are you facing? Are there any examples you can provide? Let us know in the comments!