What Is Career Planning? Your Guide to Creating a Continuous Process

"Do your job well" — your employees have probably heard this a zillion times when seeking career progression advice. And while hard work undeniably plays a crucial role in shaping successful careers, there's another crucial element that's often overlooked: strategy. 

It's not just about encouraging employees to put in the hours; it's about helping them take charge of their career trajectory. This is where career planning comes into play, empowering employees to deliberately design their professional term career path and own the journey to success.

Career planning is akin to navigating a vast ocean. Just as a sailor needs a compass, a map, and a clear destination to ensure a successful voyage, individuals require career planning to navigate the complex and ever-changing job landscape. 

This guide aims to demystify career planning and teach you how to set it up in your company as a continuous, dynamic process essential for growth and satisfaction in one's professional journey.

🔮 What is career planning? 

Career planning is a continuous self-assessment and goal-setting process to manage one's career path, development, and growth over time. Career planning involves visualizing what an individual wants their career to look like and the steps they'll take to make it happen.

Career planning would typically require these steps: 

• Understanding one's interests, skills, strengths, and weaknesses. 
• Exploring career opportunities and possibilities.
• Setting short-term and long-term career goals. 

It's important to understand that career planning is different for different people. As an HR professional, you must help employees determine their desired career objectives and support them in chalking out the steps they can take to accomplish their goals.

➡️ Check out our career planning vs. succession planning guide to learn how to use both effectively to bolster your employee management efforts.

What is the purpose of career planning?

Career planning is about aligning, growing, and preparing for the future.

Here's how it works:

• Aligning individual aspirations with organizational goals: Career planning aligns employees with company goals, fostering a sense of purpose and benefits both the individual and the organization.
• Ensuring continuous growth: Supporting employees in career planning promotes ongoing personal and professional development. By encouraging them to assess and enhance their skills, you create a culture of lifelong learning and sustained career growth.
• Identifying and preparing for future opportunities: Through the career planning process, you can assist employees in identifying and preparing for future career paths within and outside the organization. This proactive approach empowers them for career progression and future job search.

➡️ Discover the key objectives of career planning and how they can positively transform an employee's professional journey.

🧩 6 Key components of career planning

The easiest way to foster employee development and organizational success is to understand and implement the key components of a career plan.

Here's a quick breakdown:

Employee self-assessment

Encourage employees to take a moment for self-reflection. Help them recognize their skills, strengths, and areas for improvement. Self-evaluation, identifying interests, and using personality tests can provide a clear picture, making their contributions more impactful.

Goal setting

Work with employees to set SMART goals, encompassing both short-term goals and long-term aspirations. Focus on creating actionable plans with practical steps for achieving these goals, like acquiring new skills or gaining leadership experience.

Career exploration

Support employees in exploring different job roles and industries. 

Encourage networking and informational interviews to expand their horizons. Plus, implement career pathing within the organization to map potential career journeys.

‍Skill development and training

Conduct skills assessments and performance evaluations to identify skill gaps. Offer access to professional development opportunities, such as workshops, training, and certification programs that align with their career options. 

Creating a cross-skilling program can also be beneficial to facilitate their overall skill development, even in areas outside of their primary area of expertise.

Action planning

Collaborate on creating personalized career development plans, serving as roadmaps for goal achievement. Outline clear goals, steps, and timelines, and identify resources, mentors, and strategies needed for success. Consider dynamic career pathing techniques like job enrichment and career mobility to further advance their careers.

Mentorship and coaching

Emphasize the importance of mentorship and coaching in your employees' career development journeys. Connect employees with experienced professionals who can offer guidance, share experiences, and provide support during challenges. 

🏢 How to make career planning a continuous process in your organization?

Starting continuous career planning takes strategic steps and commitment.

Let's explore how you can weave career planning seamlessly into the fabric of your organization.

1. Incorporate it into performance reviews

Make career discussions a routine part of performance reviews. Encourage your team to set and revisit career choices regularly, fostering accountability. This is not just a chance for performance evaluation; it's an opportunity to align personal aspirations with organizational objectives.

2. Enable a continuous learning culture

Nurture an environment of continuous learning by providing ongoing access to training, workshops, and seminars. This approach helps build employee skills while supporting them in their career progression. Invest in a user-friendly training system to keep your team enthusiastic about their career growth.

➡️ Check out these learning management system examples to kickstart your research into the most suitable platform. 

💡 For a deeper breakdown, learn from BCG's and Amazon's excellent employee development strategies.

3. Conduct regular career conversations

Going beyond annual reviews, engage in frequent career-focused discussions with your team. Hold 1:1 meetings to create a safe space for open conversations about aspirations, facilitating personalized guidance. This ensures employee career plans are consistently addressed and adjusted based on changing circumstances.

➡️ Check out our analysis of 1:1 meeting software platforms to facilitate more frequent and focused career conversations.

4. Implement mentoring programs

Establish internal mentoring programs for continuous guidance and feedback on career paths. Consider a hybrid mentorship approach, combining traditional and digital mentoring for enhanced accessibility and effectiveness.

➡️ Learn more about implementing a hybrid mentorship program for your employees.

5. Ensure career path visibility

Clearly outline potential career paths within the company, detailing the competencies required for each role.

Develop a well-defined career progression framework to help employees understand the skills needed for advancement and support them in planning their career trajectories.

➡️ Here's how to create a career progression framework for your team.

6. Enable internal mobility

Promote internal mobility by encouraging transfers or rotations. This allows employees to gain diverse experiences, contributing to their overall development and providing a clear view of potential career paths.

7. Help employees create career development plans

Encourage employees to create a personal career development plan, collaborating with them to regularly review and update these plans. Remember, this should be a joint effort between you and them, ensuring that personal goals remain aligned with organizational objectives.

➡️ Use our template to create a competency and career development action plan.

8. Tailor strategies for different career stages

Recognize the unique needs of early career professionals (think those undergoing mid-career transitions) and individuals in late-career development. Tailor your career planning strategies to address the specific challenges and aspirations of each group.

9. Implement regular feedback mechanisms

Establish regular feedback mechanisms like surveys or meetings to understand employee aspirations and adequately address their career development needs. This creates a continuous loop of communication and responsiveness to evolving career goals, ultimately leading to better business outcomes.

10. Engage leadership in the process

Invite the leaders and senior management early on in the career planning process. Ensure their active advocacy and participation in various initiatives, sending a strong message about your company's commitment to continued employee growth.

11. Invest in suitable technology and tools

Leverage technology and tools to track development and give employees easy access to learning resources. We also highly recommend using AI-based LMS systems to provide employees with efficient and personalized career development support. This is a crucial step that's well worth the additional investment. 

➡️ Check out these tried-and-tested career development tools and AI-based LMS cherry-picked by our team of experts. Learn how to improve career development within your organization with our handy guide.

🤖 The role of technology and AI in modern career planning 

In modern career planning, technology and AI play a crucial role in helping individuals navigate their professional journeys.

Here's how the tech is shaping the career development landscape:

Personalized career pathways

AI delves into individual skills, preferences, and feedback, proposing personalized career development paths. Through analyzing an individual's skill profile and feedback, AI algorithms tailor recommendations for suitable career trajectories, aligning with each person's unique strengths and aspirations. 

👀 Note: Zavvy will soon launch a feature that evaluates an individual's skill profile, suggesting potential career paths grounded in competency matches. Stay tuned!

Skill gap analysis

Using AI-driven tools, identify employees' current skill gaps and foresee the skills needed for sustainable career growth. This can be a handy feature in helping individuals understand where to concentrate their development efforts to stay relevant in their chosen field.

Automated learning recommendations

AI-powered platforms offer personalized learning recommendations to support career advancement. These platforms analyze employee skills, career objectives, and learning preferences to suggest tailor-made learning resources like courses, articles, or videos. 

👀 An excellent example is Zavvy's growth plan recommendations — an AI-driven tool guiding individuals in their career development journey.

Career progression modeling

Lastly, AI models can predict potential career trajectories based on internal and external data. Delving into factors like past career paths, skill sets, and industry trends, these models unveil insights into viable career progression routes. You can then use these insights to make informed decisions about employee career goals and development plans.

In addition, groundbreaking tools like Spotify's internal talent marketplace Echo leverage AI to seamlessly connect people's skills, experience, and goals with growth opportunities within the company. Echo utilizes smart algorithms to identify fitting projects, mentorships, and jobs, shattering old boundaries and fostering continuous growth.

The impact is evident in Spotify's success story:

"More than 6,000 of our band members have engaged with Echo in the past year, and over 70% of the project assignments and 50% of the mentorship assignments have been made cross departments or between employees in different location and/or countries." Michaela Krantz, Talent Growth Lead at Spotify.

➡️ Dig deeper into how you can implement AI in learning and development.

🏆 The benefits of career planning for individuals and organizations

For employees

• Clarifying career goals and pathways: Career planning provides individuals with a roadmap, helping them define and clarify their career goals. By outlining achievable steps and potential pathways, your team will better understand their professional aspirations.
• Enhancing skill development and (future) job readiness: Career planning also fosters a proactive approach to skill development. When you help employees identify the necessary skills for their desired roles, the latter can focus on acquiring or honing these skills, ensuring they are well-prepared for current and future job opportunities.
• Increasing job satisfaction and motivation: Knowing their career is on a deliberate trajectory boosts job satisfaction and motivation. Employees who see the correlation between their efforts and progress toward their career goals are more likely to feel fulfilled and motivated in their roles.
• Improving self-awareness: Career planning encourages self-reflection and assessment. Employees deeply understand their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and values. This heightened self-awareness has a twofold effect: first, it aids in making informed career decisions, and second, it contributes to personal growth.

For organizations

• Aligning employee growth with organizational needs: Career planning facilitates the alignment of individual career goals with organizational objectives. When employees are clear about their career paths, professional development contributes directly to the organization's growth and success.
• Improving retention and reducing turnover: Engaged employees with defined career paths are likelier to stay. Actively investing in career planning proves an organization's commitment to employee development, improving retention, and reducing turnover.

➡️ Explore more about employee retention metrics.

• Cultivating a more skilled and adaptable workforce: Career planning encourages continuous learning and skill development. As employees proactively acquire new skills aligned with their career goals, organizations benefit from a more skilled and adaptable workforce capable of navigating evolving industry demands.
• Creating a pipeline of future leaders: Identifying and nurturing high-potential individuals through career planning helps build a pipeline of future leaders. Offering growth opportunities ensures a smooth transition into leadership roles.

➡️ Shape your future: Master career planning with Zavvy

Zavvy is a valuable ally for HR managers, offering practical tools that bring new life into organizations' career planning process. 

🧭 Our career pathing software facilitates the swift creation of clear, meaningful career frameworks. 

🔁 You can also link career paths and competency models with 360 feedback for fair evaluations, helping individuals recognize and enhance their strengths. This process results in targeted development plans, aligning individual growth with organizational objectives and promoting seamless career progression.

💬 Zavvy's 1:1 meeting software simplifies check-in conversations, enabling meaningful career development conversations and constructive feedback. 

📚 Zavvy also connects skills with practical training measures for continuous development. An extensive learning resources library establishes a seamless link between development goals and accessible courses.

🧮 The skills matrix software offers a strategic understanding of organizational skills, identifying strengths and growth opportunities.

Zavvy's approach streamlines processes and cultivates a culture of continuous development, skill enhancement, and meaningful career growth within teams. 

📅 But don't just take our word for it — get a demo and experience the Zavvy magic yourself.