Finding staff, keeping staff: what used to be everyday routine now counts as the supreme discipline in management and HR departments. Retention is more than ever an important key to business success. And in a fiercely contested labour market it is a real challenge, particularly for the mid market. Attractive and transparent development paths play a leading role when it comes to retention.
From the employees' point of view
As we know, management has a broad spectrum of monetary and motivating offers available for retaining people: good pay, attractive additional benefits, flexible working models. A particularly convincing argument for employees to join a company and stay is the career and development opportunities on offer. For many people, personal development and individual career prospects rank on the same level as a good salary. Logically enough, an employee only stays with a company if they can see themselves there in future as well. According to the trend study Mitarbeiterbindung 2030, conducted by F.A.Z. Business Media in 2022 on behalf of Cornerstone, missing career opportunities are consequently, alongside insufficient pay, the most frequent reason for resigning.
From the company's point of view
Taking the company's perspective, building and expanding competences is elementary for economic growth and competitiveness. It is therefore worthwhile for mid sized companies to pay particular attention to internal development options and innovative learning concepts. Standardised development paths are not only relevant to retention. They are also indispensable in the context of succession planning, for developing employees towards relevant roles. If career paths are linked to strategic competence management, internal knowledge can be conveyed and managed optimally towards future relevant roles and positions in the company. At the same time, by developing and qualifying its own staff internally, a company creates an additional option that it can shape itself, alongside the difficult route of hiring externally.
Development paths: thinking in terms of skills
Being able to develop your own competences in a planned way with clear targets is an important criterion for choosing a company and for staying with it. Reskilling and upskilling offers, in other words the opportunity to gain further qualifications and retrain, are becoming more important. It is therefore an essential pillar in HR that the company designs its possible development paths in tune with the times. The options and career paths should be presented transparently and communicated clearly. That way every single employee in the company understands how they can develop within the firm and which further training options are available to them. Continuous development opportunities do not only bind people to the company for the long term. They also provide a feeling of security, transparency and fairness when it is conveyed that everyone in the team has the same chances to advance. Ideally the career options are linked to modern remuneration models. Fair, equal and transparent pay, for instance with a variable element tied to targets, creates additional incentives to develop and to stay loyal to the company.
Taking a strategic and agile approach to individual development
Employees of every kind want to know what possibilities they have to develop within the company. A clear qualification profile should set out vividly which skills and competences have to be built up for the respective goals and what the company offers for further training and development. Which possible learning content is available? Or in what ways is it possible to acquire the competences? Traditional career paths leave little room here. They run strictly straight ahead and are shaped by hierarchy. Modern career and development paths, by contrast, are more democratic, more equal and more flexible. They do not draw the individual path of an employee as a straight track, but sketch it more organically and variably. Future ready development paths are no longer only about hierarchical career steps towards management. A classic example would be the rise from apprentice to operations manager. They are also about professional development towards being a senior expert without a leadership position. Future ready development paths have become far more permeable and flexible in dealing with career changers, retraining or parental part time work. Successful implementation requires internal development models that pursue clear professional and leadership targets with an individual learning strategy, while at the same time leaving enough room for flexible, individual adjustments. That fits the expectations of generations Y and Z for a balanced approach to work and life very well.
With agile competence management, THE MAK'ED TEAM implements a strong framework for attractive career paths and tailored roles. Regular checks and feedback are an important instrument in implementing the development models purposefully: where does the employee stand on their personal roadmap? What has worked well, and what less so? Which mandatory stations and required qualifications do they already have in their portfolio? The development paths are reviewed regularly so that the competences needed for individual career planning are acquired and competence gaps are closed. Continuous individual adjustment of the further training options is important for reaching the milestones people have set themselves. With experienced HR experts, THE MAK'ED TEAM supports companies in successfully developing, implementing and communicating dynamic HR structures. Agile development models take not only employees but the entire company forward with focus.
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