Companies of all sizes regularly battle challenges like retention, employee engagement, and skilling, while workers typically complain of a lack of direction, security, and investment in their daily work. The HR department shoulders most of these combined challenges, but career pathing is a powerful solution.
Helping employees create a career map and planning for how the company can support them as they progress can go a long way to solving these issues and provide a range of other benefits. In this article, we’ll cover the basics of what career pathing is and what different career paths can look like, and show some of the key reasons you need to start working with career pathing today.
what is career pathing?
Career pathing is when employees plan their professional growth and future organisational roles, with support from the company. By thinking about their ambitions, goals, and personal interests, employees work with the company to create a career map showing the main steps in their long-term progress. A good career path also specifies the knowledge and skills the employee will need to develop to reach their ultimate goals, and takes into account the skills that will be most critical for the organisation in the future.
Many employees' desired path will see them moving into increasingly senior roles, transitioning upwards on the career ladder towards a leadership position. For example, a career path for a salesperson at a large company could see them progressing upwards to a Key Account Manager role, followed by a Regional Sales Director position, and finally ending with a Chief Sales Officer appointment in the C-suite.
However, not all employees strive for a top-level management role. In another career path example, an employee may be interested in moving laterally or diagonally within the organisation, going into specialised roles in particular departments that match their interests, qualifications and talents.
The direction of a career path depends on the individual employee’s goals, passions, and talents. Companies that excel at career planning take these unique qualities into account and support employees in taking the direction they want to take rather than pushing them into a more linear, hierarchical career path.
the key benefits of career pathing.
A purposeful career pathing strategy benefits both employees and the employer. Let’s take a look:
benefits for employees.
- Higher job satisfaction — A lack of career progression is a main cause of employee dissatisfaction. Our 2025 Workmonitor study surveyed over 26,000 workers worldwide (over 1,700 in the UK) and found that 46% would quit a job that didn’t offer career progression opportunities. A career path that specifies a clear road forward is a clear contributor to boosted satisfaction.
- Improved job security — Security is often a concern for employees, especially during times of negative economic outlook. Workmonitor 2025 shows that as many as 82% of workers consider job security as ‘very important’ or ‘somewhat important’ when they think about their careers, both now and in the future. A career path signals employees that they have a positive future in their company, creating a feeling of security.
- Better guidance in learning and development (L&D) — According to Workmonitor 2025, almost half of workers would be likely to reject a job offer if the role didn’t provide enough opportunities for learning and development. Career pathing can help provide these opportunities. Creating a career path means specifying the skills and knowledge an employee will need to build over the coming years. Learning and development is baked into the career pathing process, and employees who embark on a career path will find it easier to prioritise and focus on the knowledge they need to gain to reach their career goals.
benefits for employers.
- Boosted employee retention — Workmonitor 2025 also found that 29% of employees have already quit a job that didn’t offer enough progression opportunities. With the high cost of hiring new staff and the ongoing skills shortage, most employers simply can’t afford high levels of employee turnover. By creating clear career paths, employers can make it more likely their employees will want to stay with the company instead of looking for opportunities elsewhere.
- More employee engagement — Today’s employees need more than just an acceptable salary to perform at their best at work. Research from McKinsey shows that many additional factors are just as important, such as flexibility, a positive social environment, and growth opportunities. By giving an employee a clear path for advancement with a detailed career path, you can boost their engagement and create a positive effect across the organisation.
- Streamlined succession planning — Transitions in company leadership can be hard to handle, even for large companies with multiple layers of management. By creating career paths, companies can help employees with leadership ambitions prepare for future senior roles and have a list of internal successors ready to step in when leadership team members leave the company.
the business case for career pathing.
Developing solid career paths for your employees doesn’t just happen automatically. It demands one-on-one collaboration with each employee over a long period, which requires investing your valuable HR resources. However, this investment will lead to returns:
- Reduced hiring costs — By boosting employee retention rates, career pathing can reduce overall hiring costs. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) benchmarks the cost of hiring a new employee at around $4,700 (approximately £3,800) but notes that for some roles, hiring costs can make up three to four times the role’s annual salary. When retention rates are low and you constantly need to make new hires to maintain the workforce, these costs can become a significant burden. By boosting retention, career pathing can lead to serious savings and help you hold on to the 41% of 2025 Workmonitor respondents who said they would consider leaving an employer that didn’t support their career ambitions.
- More efficient use of L&D resources — According to a survey of business leaders from the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), 96% intend to increase spending on L&D in the coming year. However, increased investment doesn’t always result in improved learning. Career pathing helps you keep learning initiatives focused only on the key skills employees will need to move forward and not on other skills that aren’t relevant. It makes it easier to focus your investment in the right place, making the most significant difference to the organisation’s capabilities.
- Reduced value loss during leadership succession — According to Harvard Business Review, almost $1 trillion of value is destroyed annually among the S&P 1500 index of companies alone due to poor succession planning and inadequate leadership pipelines. When vital skills and company experience is lost and not replaced, finances suffer. Career pathing’s beneficial effects on succession planning can keep value loss to a minimum.
get more insights in the 2025 workmonitor report.
Working on your career pathing is just one way to meet the expectations of today’s workforce. Discover more in our latest Workmonitor report. It’s conducted annually to measure the attitudes, requirements and preferences of over 26,000 workers of all ages from across the globe. Download it to discover the full range of insights and determine what top candidates want from your company.
