Flexible career development: why it’s the best option for your organization

 Part 4 of a 5-Part Series:

• Part 1: Does your organization have the strategic essentials in place for high-performance career development?
• Part 2: Enabling high-performance career development with technology
• Part 3: The Importance of Aligning Career Paths and Competencies
• Part 4: Flexible career development: why it’s the best option for your organization
• Part 5: Coach your employees to career success

Today’s workforce is made up of several different generations of employees – from baby boomers to millennials – and career paths are becoming less linear as a result. Organizations that accommodate this desire for flexibility have an advantage over organizations that lock their employees into traditionally vertical career paths.

For instance, they are more likely to recruit millennials who want more varied career options and who aren’t likely to stick with one organization (or even one professional field) for their entire careers.

Brandon Hall Group makes the compelling point that these organizations are also more likely to retain baby boomers near retirement age, who want to continue working but no longer want to maintain the same job type or intensity.

There are a variety of ways that organizations can give employees flexible career options. One example is job sharing, in which two (or possibly more) employees work part-time schedules to complete the work it would take one full-time employee.

This can be appealing for people who need reduced hours but want to continue working, and employers get the benefit of retaining experienced employees looking for a greater work-life balance. Unfortunately, despite the many benefits less than half of organizations offer flexible career streams.

According to Brandon Hall Group only 38% of organizations are actively involved in allowing employees to change career streams or levels based on changing priorities.

As you can see from the below graphic, Brandon Hall Group has conducted extensive research on the impact of flexible career streams on business metrics.  

The benefits of having flexible career streams are clear, with the most dramatic differences occurring in increased employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and employee retention.

Coming up, stay tuned for our final post of this career development series on career coaching.