Career Progression

Career Progression Framework: What It Is & How to Build One

A career development framework or plan is best summed up by the age-old interview question: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

You’ve most likely heard or asked this question – or a variation of it – during a performance review or annual performance review. In this article, we present our professional development guide designed to help both employees and HR managers.

What is career advancement?

Career development is both the feeling and reality of an employee progressing in their career. This often occurs through the development of new skills, promotions, title changes, raises, and other forms of “advancement” within a single company.

As part of the broader narrative of career progression, it is important for companies to think about how employees progress through the company. And most importantly, how they learn, develop and use new skills to support the company.

Is career advancement important for employees?

Some employees know exactly what job title they want to see on their LinkedIn profile in the next decade. But for most, the future is not so clear. In fact, for 60% of UK professionals, career development is an important part of a job offer, and this includes more than just promotions and pay rises.

The average British worker wants:

• Gain more industry knowledge

• Develop their skills

• Feel fulfilled in your work

But even those with lofty career goals may not know what steps they need to take to achieve their goals – but they want to find out.

What is the most common form of career advancement?

Some, but not all, employees advance their careers through job hopping. This means that they work at one company for a short period of time, around six months to a year, and then move on to another company at a higher level.

While this may be good for the individual, this type of turnover is not ideal for the companies they move between.

How is professional development related to career structure?

Career structure is essentially the way a job is “designed” for future advancement. When creating a career development framework, you really need to ask yourself: How does our organization currently manage career structure?

Because the way you structure roles (and even how you structure a department) will have a critical impact on how they progress within your company. Career structure is also important because it gives a role meaning from day one.

Career development plan vs. career development plan

A career development plan describes the steps a person can take to advance their career within a specific organization, while a career development plan is a broader strategy that encompasses the person’s overall professional growth and development.

Career progression plan:

• Outline the steps for advancement within a specific organization
• Vertical movement and conveyance
• Developed by organizations

Career development plan:

• Covers all professional growth and development
• Acquisition of skills and knowledge
• Developed by individuals

What is a professional development framework?

To provide your employees with thoughtful and strategic career and professional development, you must first create a good professional development framework.

Simply put, a professional development framework supports the long-term development of your employees in a structured way. It serves as a professional roadmap for the employee, with each new title bringing them one step closer to their ideal position.

7 Benefits of a Professional Development Framework

By creating a framework for professional development, you create a better workplace. More importantly, you’ll align your company’s goals with your employees’ goals, improving alignment, communication, and long-term success rates.

Here are seven more reasons why you should create a professional development framework:

1.Employees feel valued

How do you make your employees feel valued and supported? While flexible hours and other benefits like free meals are a plus, you can’t beat investing in your employees’ future.

A professional development framework shows your employees that you are investing in their happiness, development, and success for years to come.

Motivating employees is one of the most important skills in human resources management. Here are the other nine.

2.Employees can gain clarity about their careers

Few employees start a new job or join a new company without knowing exactly where they will develop. With a professional development framework, employees can discover what they really want in a job, set their goals, and create a viable long-term career plan without having to leave your company.

3.It will increase employee motivation

When employees cannot advance in their careers, they are not motivated. When you help your employees set clear, realistic, and timely goals in the form of a career plan, they will know what they are working toward and will be more motivated to achieve those goals.

4.It helps build trust

When you use an organizational chart or similar to reveal how your company is structured and how an employee can advance within it, you show them that there are no hidden secrets to being successful.

This level of transparency can help you build more trust with employees.

5.It improves employee-manager relationships

Creating a framework for professional development requires lots of open and honest conversations; You will discuss the employee’s job performance, goals, difficulties and strengths.

Through excellent communication, you can improve relationships with your employees and strengthen workplace culture.

6.Employee retention will increase

In a recent survey by CV-Library and Robert Walters, soft benefits such as a clear development plan and development/training courses were cited as the most important means of convincing employees to stay in their current position.

While the goal of a professional development framework is to help employees advance, offering a development plan and opportunities can also help them stay with the company.

7.Productivity will prevail

Eighty-one percent of UK employers believe their employees perform better when given development and training opportunities. When you create a framework and invest in the development of your employees, you are also investing in the growth of your company. This can also be done through a professional development plan.

Create a professional development plan in six steps

Creating a professional development plan is an investment of time and resources. It’s also a blueprint for your business and can mean the difference between long-term and short-term success.

Here’s how you can create a career plan for your employees:

1.Start with an organizational chart

Create an organizational chart to define your company’s overall employee structure. Your organizational chart should include a hierarchy of departments as well as the individual positions within each department. Once you’ve created your organizational chart, consider how you could streamline your business or reduce costs by creating new features or merging teams.

2.Evaluate current employees and their positions

Conduct a company-wide employee engagement survey or pulse survey that allows employees to self-assess their work and share their career goals.

If possible, you should meet with employees face-to-face to discuss their responses:

• How have you performed in your current role?

• Where did they particularly excel and where did they have difficulties?

• What are your individual career goals?

• Do they have the skills required to take on a leadership or management role?

3.Define key role development

Regardless of where an employee is in their career – whether as an intern, junior employee or manager – they should know what tasks they could take on in the future, what responsibilities they have and what they need to do to move forward.

For each role in your company, starting with the most important, define the following points:

• The designation

• The associated tasks

• The responsibilities

• The expectations

Next, break down what someone in this role needs to accomplish to reach the next level in their career, such as:

• A certain level of education

• A list of required soft skills

• A list of required hard skills

• A minimum number of years in the role, industry or company

• Goals to be achieved in the short term

• Goals to be achieved in the long term

4.Implementation of training and development solutions

To advance within the company or gain expertise, an employee may need mentoring, coaching, or access to learning and development courses. Review your company’s learning and development resources and budget to see what can be done to support each employee or department in their growth.

5.Consider lateral entry

Some employees don’t want to be managers or supervisors – and that’s okay. You may want to make horizontal rather than vertical career changes.

But how does this affect their professional development within the company?

The Solution: Instead of pushing employees into the role of people manager, every career development framework should offer two paths:

• One that will lead them to a leadership role

• A path that leads them to a higher title in their current role (or a similar role).

This way, when the time comes, they can decide which path is best for them.

Buffer has embraced the idea of horizontal career growth for engineers.

Team member Katie Wilde says: “To deliver great software, we need to encourage engineers to develop horizontally: expanding their knowledge and thought leadership as engineers and doing the work they do well even better. Management shouldn’t be the only option for be growth and advancement!”

6.Review, revise and approve

Once an employee’s professional development framework is established, the manager and employee should meet to clarify all details, answer questions, and revise the framework if necessary.

Best practices: Try to design this process together to increase employee buy-in and increase the likelihood of successful implementation.

Once the framework has been approved by the manager and employee, a member of the HR team should review it to ensure that the process, budgeting and resources align with the company’s capabilities and best practices.