Many organisations are investing heavily in the way career opportunities are both created and communicated. So, why do many employees ask themselves:
“Are these opportunities actually available to me?”
This question surfaced during our recent Roundtable, prompted by findings from our latest Career Pulse research.
Career Pulse is The Career Innovation Company’s evidence based-career skills assessment. It’s designed to help individuals evaluate the skills that support career development and provide organisations with insight into the conditions that really enable career growth.
By drawing on more than 24,000 responses, our latest research found that career growth is supported by many factors, including visible opportunities, career support, manager capability, opportunities to stretch and confidence that the system is fair. Together, these conditions create an environment in which employees are more likely to invest in building and navigating their careers.
That final condition – “confidence that the system is fair” – is one that generated some of the most thought-provoking discussions.
They highlighted a challenge that will be familiar to many organisations. A lot of effort goes into creating fair career processes. Internal vacancies are advertised, career frameworks are introduced and recruitment processes are intended to be transparent and consistent.
However, despite those efforts, employees can still question whether those opportunities are really available to them. Why? It’s because there’s a difference between creating fair processes – and creating a genuine sense of fairness.
From an organisational perspective, fairness is typically demonstrated through consistency. The same process applies to every employee, and the same criteria are used to make decisions.
From an employee’s perspective, fairness means something else. They often judge fairness by whether they believe opportunities are genuinely available to them, not by whether they exist. If people believe certain roles are out of reach, even the fairest process won’t necessarily feel fair.
This reflects one of the broader messages from our Career Pulse research. Employee ownership is more likely to translate into action when organisations create the conditions that really support career growth. Career development is about so much more than creating opportunities. It’s about creating the necessary conditions that encourage people to pursue them; developing career skills, encouraging manager career conversations, offering career supporters, celebrating lateral moves and sharing career stories.
Both our Career Pulse research and the roundtable discussion suggest that when employees trust that opportunities are available to them, they are more likely to invest in their own development, explore new possibilities and see a future for themselves within the organisation.
To receive the Career Pulse research – or for more on creating the right conditions for career development – contact us.
