Today’s workforce landscape

The last few years have brought immense change and uncertainty to jobs, career expectations, and company necessities. This worldwide shift caused many people to pause and reevaluate what they want and need from employers, leading to what’s known as the Great Resignation. 

While this has proven to be a challenging time for companies, it provides an opportunity to shift the organization’s priorities and be a company that people flock to instead of flee from, specifically the frontline workforce.

Frontline workers are the boots-on-the-ground representation of your company. They act as the face, heart, and soul of the company. They have the power to influence every single customer they directly or indirectly interact with throughout their day.

What leads to such high turnover rates among frontline workers, and why is it critical to change this?

We’ve seen three large factors that are influencing these high turnover rates:

1. A lack of growth opportunities. Employees who don’t see a clear path to advancement easily disengage.
2. Feeling undervalued or overlooked. Employees who feel they aren’t appreciated or are easily replaceable aren’t likely to go above and beyond.
3. No career guidance. Employees who don’t have direct career guidance easily get overwhelmed and discouraged.

These high turnover rates lead to increased recruitment and training costs, loss of time and resources spent training new employees, and decreased productivity and morale, among other negative consequences. 

Managers are seeing these impacts firsthand and know they need to shift their focus to retaining their employees and ensuring they want to experience growth within the company. Promoting the want to grow within your company aligns employee’s personal aspirations with your company’s needs, achieving a win-win situation for employer and employee.

How do companies drive internal career growth through personalized experiences? 

Addressing these challenges, how can companies promote a culture of growth and commitment? In a recent webinar, Pathstream’s CEO, Eleanor Cooper, weighed in on this discussion. She stresses that “merely recognizing an individual is not enough; it’s about appreciating and acknowledging their unique strengths, ambitions, and value they bring to the table.” 

According to Gartner, 80% of employees stated that personalized learning opportunities would significantly increase their commitment to the company. There’s a large gap between employer needs and employee expectations. According to Eleanor: 

“There’s a significant opportunity to unlock the overlap between where the agent wants to be and where the company needs them to go. Many organizations have robust career benefits and resources, but individuals often need help finding them. We need to assemble these pieces into a meaningful, achievable personalized experience – where we recognize individual strengths and potential and align the resources to help them grow in a way that benefits both their goals and the company’s needs.”

This means implementing a scalable, personalized experience for employees focused on fostering a meaningful relationship.

Seeing personalized growth firsthand 

The success of this strategy was seen firsthand with Arun, a Resolutions Coordinator turned Business Analyst at Walmart. He accepted a position working in the contact center for Walmart after moving to the United States. 

Walmart’s thorough education benefits offer a selection of courses, including a course in data analytics with Tableau. Arun saw this as an incredible opportunity to learn new skills and establish a new career path. While still completing the course, he utilized his knowledge to increase productivity in his current role before securing a promotion six months later as a business analyst. 

Arun is just one among thousands of real-life success stories we’ve had the pleasure of witnessing. Through detailed surveys and research, we’ve identified three strategies that make achieving this growth achievable and significantly effective.

Three strategies to include in your tailored approach

Including continued education in your company’s benefits package is a powerful way to set your company apart, but it can’t stop there. It is crucial to enhance this benefit by implementing a personal touch beyond their onboarding experience. Connecting the dots between individual aspirations and broader company needs and objectives ensures growth that benefits both parties.

Here are three differentiators you can implement to empower your employees to want to achieve growth with your company.

1. Career coaches. 

Technology offers great direction, but genuine personalization emanates from human touchpoints. Dedicated career coaches can guide your employees by helping them decode their unique strengths, guide skill development, and bridge the gap between their aspirations and company needs and opportunities. 

This resource makes their growth feel like a tangible reality and gives them direct contact to rely on. With over 69% of frontline workers reporting low sponsorship and mentorship, career coaches provide the individual guidance and support your employees are searching for while helping them grow within the company (McKinsey).

1. Personalized tools and resources.

It’s crucial to provide easily accessible and digestible tools, resources, and support to help your employees discover and navigate opportunities that resonate with their goals. Promoting and having these resources available shows your employees that their employer is genuinely invested in their growth and success within the organization. These resources can continue to serve your company’s needs and are easily scalable to offer a company culture where diverse career aspirations can flourish within the broader organizational landscape. 

1. A clear path to success. 

With 89% of HR leaders believing career paths are unclear, your company must offer a clear roadmap of opportunities. This helps your employees visualize how their aspirations fit the company’s vision. Talent advancement and opportunity are critical ingredients in keeping employees engaged, ranking as a higher priority than pay or benefits alone. 

Communicating career advancement through formalized career paths, job rotations, or mentorship programs provides an energizing culture for employees leading to increased satisfaction and retention. Implementing these personalized strategies is a powerful path to a new era of employee engagement and growth.

How Pathstream can help your organization 

Implementing personalized career development strategies might seem daunting, but Pathstream is here to simplify this transformation. Our platform is designed to turn your workforce from merely engaged to passionately committed, nurturing their growth alongside your company’s success.

What Pathstream offers:

• Strategic career pathing: We provide clear and structured career pathways, helping employees understand and follow the steps needed to achieve their professional goals.
• Personalized career coaching: Each employee gains access to dedicated career coaches, ensuring personalized guidance and support tailored to individual strengths and ambitions.
• Upskilling, reskilling, and redeployment: Our courses in essential digital skills empower your employees to stay ahead in today’s fast-paced work environment, adding value to their roles and your organization.

We have successfully partnered with over 20 Fortune 500 companies, including household names like Walmart, Amazon, JP Morgan, and Chipotle. Through our interventions, these companies have seen significant reductions in turnover costs, sometimes as much as $30,000 per employee.

Ready to see how Pathstream can make a difference in your organization? Learn more about our impactful approach and start the journey towards a more engaged and growth-oriented workforce.