One thing we’ve learned in recent years is that the career jungle gym is replacing the career ladder as more people make pivots to find job fulfillment. A reported 49% of employees make a dramatic career change, and 78% of those do so because they weren’t fulfilled.
While employees are increasingly interested in nonlinear careers, 57% think it would be easier to go to a new company to make a change. That’s because internal mobility–the opportunity and support to make career changes within a given company–is often overlooked or incomplete.
While many larger companies have internal mobility policies in place, those are often focused on the final step in career changes: applying to the role. Most don’t have the formalized support for thinking through what roles an employee might aspire to based on their passions and strengths, or the resources to help them prepare themselves for those roles. For smaller companies, the ability to expand and change roles is even less formalized.
Those first two steps in the process can be the most important though.
On OwnTrail–the platform that helps people share their authentic journeys and achieve their next milestones–we see that it can take quite a bit of unpacking to think beyond the often-linear goals that employees have been reciting for years. When they’ve been taught to think in terms of predefined next rungs on the career ladder, it requires reflection and inspiration to imagine all the other possibilities that could fulfill them even more.
Employers of all sizes can help employees explore possible career paths through initiatives such as journey-mapping and sharing (OwnTrail offers a great workshop on this!), job shadowing, and open calls for projects outside a person’s regular responsibilities. For larger companies, these might look like more formal policies and programs. And for startups, career exploration can often emerge organically as employees wear multiple hats and there are always more jobs to be done.
The preparation step can take a lot of different forms. Some career changes will require more structured training and education, while some just require a mindset shift and vote of confidence. For the full spectrum of preparation, it can be really helpful for employees to have visibility into the many paths that others have taken to reach a given milestone, to experientially observe that there’s no one right path to get there. Exploring the trails on OwnTrail is perfect for this. Matching employees with a mentor that’s already in the role they want to move towards, and encouraging employees to take on side projects outside their normal scope, can also be great ways for companies of all sizes to help prepare someone for a career pivot.
For a company to truly provide internal mobility, and the employee retention and growth that comes along with it, those first two steps need to be intentionally and transparently supported. From there, any processes for applying to roles, or even support for creating new roles, should be in place to help facilitate transitions.
The future of work is non-linear, and the employers that embrace that will end up with the happiest and most successful employees.
Author: Rebekah Bastian
Rebekah Bastian is a creator. She’s created a startup, a tech movement, a book, multiple written, visual and aerial art pieces, and two humans. She is the CEO & co-founder of OwnTrail and was previously vice president of product and vice president of community and culture at Zillow. Rebekah is the author of Blaze Your Own Trail, a board member of JPEG Morgan and Bellwether Housing, a contributor to Forbes and an investor and advisor to AuthenTech and Web3 companies.
