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.

• 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.

What are the 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.

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 and map potential career paths and 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.

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 a career lattice model, 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 can organizations make career planning a continuous process?

Starting continuous career planning takes strategic steps and commitment.

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.

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.

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.

Free template: Career conversation template

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.

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.

Complimentary guides:

1. Step-by-Step Guide for Developing a Career Progression Framework
2. 12 Career Progression Examples: Inspiration for Your Pathways

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What is 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.

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.

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.

What are the benefits of career planning for individuals and organizations?

For employees

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Foster career development with Deel Engage

Deel Engage combines performance, learning opportunities, and career development into a central platform.

Here are the features you can use to power talent development in your organization:

1. Performance management module facilitates regular feedback in your custom performance review cycles
2. Learning management module provides the resources your people need to grow from a library of external or internal content drafted by AI as required
3. Career management module enables you to create tailored development programs for each role and individual
4. Deel HR, our truly global HRIS solution, manages the entire talent lifecycle compliantly and is always included for free

Book a demo to see how our solutions will help you foster continuous improvement in your workforce.