Overcoming the Top 5 HR Risks: #4. Career Planning & Progression

Jeff Agranoff, HR Consulting Principal, Grassi Advisors & Accountants

#4. Career Planning & Progression
Your responsibility to your employees should not end with providing them a salary and job responsibilities. Employees will want to stay with employers who also value and enable their career progression. If you do not have one already, design your organizational chart by department to map out the progression of positions available in your company. Include descriptions that allow employees to understand how the roles are gradually elevated and connected.

Make sure your employees understand their current roles and where they are headed, as well as the skills they need to acquire to reach the next level. Performance evaluations are an excellent time to communicate and measure this progress. If you do not have a formal employee evaluation program to enable regular feedback on performance and goal setting, you are missing out on one of the most important and cost-effective ways to earn the trust, respect and loyalty of your employees.

To the extent possible, support your employees’ continuing education and advanced degree pursuits, through in-house education, tuition assistance and mentorship programs. But don’t only have these programs available – communicate and encourage involvement from your eligible employees and remove any internal obstacles to their success.

Another way to help your employees develop their careers and become further invested in your organization is cross-training. Giving them exposure to other roles within their skill sets will not only increase their qualifications but also make your organization less susceptible to lost employees. When an employee leaves or is out on leave, having backups in place will benefit both the business and the employees involved.

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