After 18 months of research and hundreds of in-depth interviews, we’re sharing new insights about the emerging category of Employee Development and what drives people’s careers. The data shows that what matters most to people in their careers is making an impact (37%) and finding a meaningful purpose (34%) rather than chasing roles, titles, and promotions. Just behind these drivers, nearly a third of employees care about work-life balance.
The most significant research findings include:
- Most people are more concerned with finding a meaningful purpose and making an impact aligned to their drivers than they are with pursuing titles and promotions.
- The majority of employees highly value transferable skills like communication, active listening, and problem-solving when compared to more job-specific skills. They are interested in strengthening these broadly applicable skills for use across different career paths.
- A large majority (79%) of employees said they wanted to have career-centric conversations with their manager as frequently as monthly or quarterly. Only 2% thought annual career checks were sufficient. Such conversations could be easily incorporated into existing performance management processes.
- Only 15% of employees said they were “very confident” in their progress toward a long-term career vision.
“Almost half of all employees have what we call ‘skills anxiety’ about their growth opportunity at work,” said Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst. “In today’s world of disruption, giving employees a fantastic development experience at work is one of the most important engagement and retention tools companies have. Development goes beyond traditional corporate learning. Companies need to invest in robust development that supports role mastery and career development.”
There is a market need for a seamless and comprehensive solution for companies who want to deeply invest in their people. And, now more than ever, it is needed. Today’s companies are experiencing a high degree of turnover and disengagement.
Even with a loyal employee base, managers need the right tools in order to provide each employee on their team with individualized growth or development opportunities. Yet, many organizations don’t have a framework to support new managers or their employees as they chart their careers.
“Creating a clear, actionable career plan is more important than ever. Almost 40% of employees said that creating that plan is the single most meaningful tool for achieving long-term career goals,” said Mitch Benson, Senior Vice President of Product at Instructure. “Research shows that people stay in jobs that provide them with ample learning and career development opportunities, demonstrating a clear need for employers to focus on Employee Development as a front-of-office strategy to complement back-of-office HR systems.”
Instructure has spoken with hundreds of employees and companies in order to create a new employee-centric development experience while also providing organizations with a way to listen to and take action on their employees’ feedback.
Companies that are interested in learning more about Employee Development are invited to join the Bridge Employee Development beta program. The beta program will allow users to try and provide feedback on the platform while benefiting from software designed with the employee in mind. It is open to companies globally with more than 250 employees.
“We are proud of our employees and the culture they create at RainFocus. That is why we believe people create all value,” said Robert Buckley, SVP of HR at RainFocus. “We know that career development and learning opportunities are among the most important things a company can do to create a loyal, engaged workforce and Bridge helps us create that culture of growth.”
To learn more about the Bridge Employee Development Platform Beta Program, visit www.getbridge.com/solutions/use-case/employee-development/ or contact:
Bridge North America: +1 877.576.5364
Bridge EMEA: +44 (0)800 098 8889 (London, UK)
Bridge APAC: +61 1300 299 510 (Sydney, Australia)
