Lisa Shuster, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the Chief People Officer for iHire, an industry-specific recruitment platform.
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The past few years have led people to take a step back and consider what’s really important in their lives, including what they want in their careers. As a result, the workforce has become increasingly focused on finding jobs that align with their values and aspirations and offer opportunities to grow professionally and personally. Therefore, a role that makes one feel stagnant can quickly lead to dissatisfaction, burnout and, ultimately, turnover.
Providing associates with clear growth and advancement opportunities and support for their career goals are effective ways for employers to improve retention, engagement and performance. Today’s workers want to understand what the future has in store and how they can get there, and if their employer cannot support them, they will look for work elsewhere. To that point, one in five employees who left a job in the past year did so due in part to "a lack of growth and advancement opportunities," according to iHire’s 2023 Talent Retention Report.
Enter career pathing and latticing as powerful retention and engagement strategies.
What are career pathing and latticing?
Career pathing involves mapping out the next steps in a person’s career trajectory on the proverbial corporate ladder. What subsequent roles might they hold and how can they attain promotions?
For example, an HR specialist’s career path may involve progressing to HR manager then HR director, and a sales account executive may jump to sales manager then sales director. Regardless of the role, investing in your employees’ professional development provides career clarity, improves morale and gives employees achievable goals that can boost performance.
However, not all paths are straight or steps up, and that’s where career latticing comes into play. Career latticing involves helping employees develop more dynamically. They may move laterally to a similar role that uses their transferable skills, shift to an entirely different position that more closely matches their passions and strengths or try something completely new.
For instance, a social media marketing specialist with a strong interest in data could eventually move laterally into an analytics position with the business insights department instead of moving upward into marketing management.
What are the benefits of career latticing?
As with career pathing, latticing engages, motivates and retains talent, but it also fills skills gaps and prepares businesses for growth. Latticing especially assists in succession planning—leaders can look at top performers and determine which proficiencies they’ll need to take on higher-level roles. For example, giving a promising mid-level manager in accounting some HR responsibilities involving cross-team collaboration can help develop them into a senior leader for the HR department.
Another benefit of latticing is that it can prevent turnover among associates not quite ready for a promotion. Keep them engaged and demonstrate that you are investing in their growth by assigning them to projects with other teams or tasks that require stepping outside of their comfort zone. These tactics also work if career pathing stalls, such as during times of economic uncertainty.
While any employee can benefit from latticing, it tends to provide the most value for people early or late in their careers. For someone early in their career, latticing can prepare them for promotion by expanding their skill set. For a worker later in their career, latticing can help them make a change and follow their passions and not necessarily move up.
Career pathing and latticing begin with your job ad.
Career pathing and latticing must be present in all areas of the employee life cycle, from recruitment and onboarding to performance management and retention. However, career pathing and latticing begin with your job ad.
In the current employment market, candidates want to know the possible progression for their careers. To attract the right talent, show how growth is part of your company’s culture.
In your job ad, you might say: “At [Company Name], we are deeply committed to the growth and development of our team members. We believe in fostering a culture of internal mobility, where our employees have the opportunity to explore diverse roles and progress in their careers.”
Work to support and motivate your employees.
As employees follow their path or lattice, they’ll need support, guidance and motivation. Provide opportunities (and encourage them to seek out such opportunities on their own) that allow them to attain new skills and develop their strengths. If possible, reimburse associates for the cost of training courses, seminars, certifications, conferences, events, memberships to professional organizations and tuition.
If employees are on a career path, compensation is a major motivational component, as promotions typically come with pay raises. With latticing, however, there’s not always a raise involved with progress. Bonuses and recognition can be effective, but communication is the most impactful motivator.
Managers should continuously facilitate back-and-forth dialogue about employees’ development. How will their growth benefit not only the company but also the individual? How will it make them more marketable and enhance their résumé? In addition, managers should track their team’s progress in following their paths or lattices and discuss it at least quarterly.
Make growth part of your culture.
In reality, not everyone is going to stay at the same company forever. Turnover is bound to occur, so reframe your thinking. Move away from the stigma of talking with your employees about what they truly want to be or do with their lives.
Managers should know their associates’ career goals, even if they have nothing to do with their current role. How can you help them get there? Could you create a new role in the company that matches their strengths and ambitions? Can you find ways to help them collaborate with other teams or departments to achieve their dream job?
Empowering your people to reach their goals can mean happier, more engaged employees. Use this mindset to nurture your culture to become one that advocates for growth, development and job satisfaction. In the end, you can recruit new talent and keep existing associates aboard as long as you can.
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