Less than half of employees feel satisfied about their career development with their current employer, according to research agency Gartner.

A survey among 3,500 employees found that attempts to close the gap on employee career growth expectations can have up to a 45% positive impact on employees feeling supported in their career growth.

This compared to just 8% when organizations “simply try to meet” expectations for growth.

According to the research, three main “environmental shifts” are disrupting efforts to address this: Higher employee expectations, a changing workforce, and a rapid shift in skills due to technological advancements.

Speaking to UNLEASH, Keyia Burton, Senior Principal, Advisory in the Gartner HR practice, said organizations are now “under pressure” to deliver and provide opportunities for growth.

“Employees have higher expectations for developing their careers, with many wanting to explore career paths and 55% expecting a promotion within two years.”

To head off potential dissatisfaction, HR leaders should be providing support to line managers to begin direct engagement on the topic.

Moreover, this can also help employees find the right career path, with less than one in three having a “clear sense of how to progress in their careers over the next five years,” Burton added.

The need for transparency is real

Gartner also highlighted three primary ways HR leaders can address this trend: Identifying what employees value out of work, help employees navigate “all possible options” for growth, and transparently communicate what is feasible for the organization to deliver.

While Burton emphasized the need to create “clear and actionable” career growth opportunities, she also explained that achieving these objectives will come as a challenge to some, particularly when it comes to providing transparent communications.

“Without clarity around career progression employees assume the rapid career growth they want is feasible for the organization.”

At leading organizations line managers and HR leaders correct these assumptions by transparently communicating what career growth actually looks like at the organization.”

However, transparent communication is also the “most challenging” element for HR leaders overall, as it requires not only buy-in from leadership but also follow though from managers across the organization.

Leaders are hesitant to “openly share” information about growth, Burton said, as they are “fearful” employees won’t be satisfied with the reality of what opportunities can be provided. As such, they may seek these with other employers.

Despite providing more resources for managers, relying on them to fulfil their responsibility to have “candid conversations” with their staff on the reality is risky, managers themselves are “uncomfortable doing so and are fearful of negative impacts these conversations may have on their teams.”

This, Burton states, means organizations need to take steps to prepare for higher turnaround in advance, including increasing headcount in anticipation of higher attrition over the first year and streamlining onboarding processes.

“Ultimately, however, the remaining employees will be more likely to feel supported in their career growth and to exhibit higher engagement and performance.”

Identify values and adopt clear processes

One of the main ways to ascertain and deliver on what employees expect from their career development has been to simply ask them.

However, Gartner highlighted the inefficiencies of this, as response will be “too broad and too general”, making it difficult to use the insights to satisfy employees’ expectations.

“When employers truly understand what their employees value personally, they can increase their employees’ sense of purpose at work, which in turn, makes employees 4.1 times more likely to stay with the organization,” added Lisa Mitchell, Principal in the Gartner HR practice.

More transparent communication can be beneficial to HR leaders and managers in this regard, as are clear process and frameworks in place for employees.

“When organizations do so effectively, employees feel supported in their careers and there are positive business outcomes,” said Burton.

“These outcomes include an increase in the likelihood that an employee will be a high performer by up to 39 percentage points, an increase in employees’ intent to stay at the organization by 19 percentage points, and the likelihood that employees are fully engaged can increase by up to 61 percentage points.”

Technology also has part to play, with “leading organizations” currently using artificial intelligence tools to analyze historical career journeys of employees in higher level positions with similar profiles.

These compile an inventory of most common skills and experiences past employees gained during their upward trajectory through the organization, Burton explained, which can then be compared by current employees to their existing skills and match their own areas of growth required.

“Once employees know what they need, they are better prepared to create actionable development plans and pursue the opportunities that are most relevant to their intended career growth”.