Why career development pathways matter
According to a 2022 report from Pew Research Center, 63% of employees leave their jobs due to lack of advancement opportunities. This is second only to compensation as the main reason why top talent leaves a company.
Top talent in particular want to know a roadmap for how their skills will evolve, how they can advance into new roles, and how the organization is investing in their future.
When career development paths are weak, or worse, non-existent, employees feel stagnant. They may face limited learning opportunities, unclear promotion criteria, or outdated training programs that don’t match their new skills. This challenge is even greater in a distributed or hybrid workforce, where remote employees often feel even more disconnected from mentorship and advancement opportunities.
The decision to leave an organization due to lack of career development does not happen suddenly. The alarm bells will ring sooner if only someone listens.
Warning Signs About High-Performing Employee Turnover
Disengaged: Employees show less enthusiasm in meetings, contribute less, or avoid new projects. Decreased spontaneity: People volunteer less for new tasks, projects, or impossible assignments that they once worked on. Frequent frustration: Employees often express frustration about lack of growth, unclear goals, or feeling “stuck.” Increased absenteeism or disinterest: Frequent sick days, tardiness, or withdrawal from team activities.
In some cases, despite your ability, the quality of your work and productivity may begin to decline. Employees start looking for new opportunities.
Weak career development paths are costly because hiring a replacement is costly and time consuming.
Building a career development path
The solution lies in strengthening career development pathways.
Deliver a learning journey personalized to your role and future skills
Every employee is unique and can be trained to follow different trajectories of career goals and future skills.
Learning and development (L&D) can create customized learning pathways in a learning management system (LMS) based on dynamic skill topographies, employee curiosity, and organizational needs.
A one-size-fits-all approach no longer works. Employees expect a learning path that aligns with their role, career goals, and future skills in demand in the industry. An LMS can map role-specific journey-blending microlearning, simulations, and certifications so learners see a clear line between what they’re learning today and where they’re going tomorrow.
Build reskilling and upskilling programs to prepare your workforce for tomorrow’s jobs
As technology and market demands rapidly evolve, the shelf life of current skills is becoming shorter. Organizations need to focus on continuous reskilling and upskilling.
Short, modular e-learning courses can help employees acquire new technical, digital, or leadership skills within the context of their work flow. This allows organizations to future-proof their employees without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Provide a clear role progression framework with transparent expectations
Learning pathways must be linked to a visible career framework. Employees need to understand: What skills do I need for my next role? What training do I need to prepare for promotion? When e-learning pathways are tied directly to performance milestones and progression metrics, learners view training as a bridge to advancement rather than a compliance checkbox.
Take advantage of mentorship, coaching, and AI-powered career guidance
Blended learning combines e-learning with mentorship, coaching sessions, and AI-powered recommendations to create a holistic pathway. For example, an AI-powered LMS suggests personalized courses based on skill gaps, and mentors provide real-world guidance and feedback. This combination of support systems allows employees to grow with clarity and confidence.
scenario
Let’s look at the scenario through narrative contrast.
Weak career development path
Jenny, a middle manager, feels stuck because she can’t find opportunities for growth. Although she has completed general leadership training modules, these do not connect to her role or career aspirations. It’s unclear what skills she needs to get into a senior role, and she feels directionless without guidance. Her motivation decreases and she begins to explore outside opportunities.
Career development pathways carefully selected
Through the LMS, Jenny is enrolled in a personalized learning journey tailored to advanced leadership skills. She takes targeted courses on strategic decision making and practices scenarios in simulations. At the same time, AI will be used to provide career suggestions for microlearning nuggets and courses that align with her growth areas. In addition, senior students will act as guides to help you improve. Jenny now has a clear career path and finds it rewarding.
Impact: Employees who see transparent growth opportunities supported by learning and mentoring are more likely to stay with the company and invest in their careers.
When organizations design robust career paths, they demonstrate a commitment to employee growth, build loyalty, and significantly reduce turnover. In a competitive talent market, career development is more than just an HR initiative. It’s a business imperative.
conclusion
Powerful e-learning pathways turn uncertainty into opportunity, empowering employees to reskill, upskill, and adapt to evolving business needs.
To help our partners deliver continuous learning to their employees, we continually innovate and enhance both our technology and services to support flexible, personalized, and impactful development experiences.
At Tesseract Learning, our learning and visual architects take an innovative approach to design, develop, and deliver effective L&D programs across a variety of skill sets and sectors.
Our learning platform, KREDO, leverages AI models and algorithms to increase efficiency throughout the training lifecycle. AI-powered analytics and automation enable the curation of personalized learning paths and experiences tailored to individual needs. This mobile-friendly LMS helps you scale your corporate training. KREDO lets you create courses in minutes and even suggests courses tailored to your employees’ growth areas.
If you would like to learn more about our products and services and how we can support you, please contact us.
Credo
KREDO is Tesseract Learning’s answer to successful learning, enabling learners to do more and learn more in less time through an exciting, continuous learning journey.
