A third ‘unlikely to fulfil career aspirations’ without changing roles

A third of employees say they’re unlikely to fulfil their career aspirations in their current organisation, according to the CIPD’s latest research into employees’ views on working life.

This autumn’s CIPD Employee Outlook report, produced in partnership with Halogen Software, has found there’s considerable room for improvement when it comes to employee development and career progression. The report reveals that 33% of employees say they’re unlikely to fulfil their career aspirations in their current organisation. The research also throws up a notable sector difference, with employees in the public sector being significantly more likely than employees in the private sector to say they’re likely to fulfil their career aspirations in their current organisation.

Claire McCartney, Associate Research Adviser at the CIPD, commented: “Despite this positive outlook from public sector employees, the fact remains that employees in this sector are most likely to suffer with excessive pressure at work and exhaustion. This shouldn’t be overlooked, as it can create real problems for employers and individuals. Previous research has shown that the public sector also has the highest levels of absence and number of employees coming into work ill by some margin, so it’s crucial that employers address these issues before workers burn out and satisfaction levels take a nose dive.”

And it’s not just career aspirations—over a quarter of employees disagree that their organisation provides them with enough opportunities to learn and grow, and almost a quarter are dissatisfied with the opportunities on offer to develop their skills in their roles. Additional cause for concern comes from the noticeable implementation gap between the training that employees say they would find useful, and the training they actually receive. For instance, 92% of employees said they find job rotation, secondment and shadowing useful, but only 6% have experienced it in the last 12 months.

In response to these research findings, the CIPD is calling on employers to work in partnership with employees on their jobs and careers to align both organisational and individual needs. With historical hierarchical progression routes becoming less typical, it believes that employers need to think more creatively about development opportunities and giving employees access to a broad range of diverse experiences will be vital if organisations are to hold on to valuable staff.

Claire continued: “In today’s world of work, organisations are increasingly expected to think about the two-way employment contract, giving employees opportunity to develop transferable skills that will support them throughout their careers, not just in their current roles. This can be a mutually beneficial arrangement – employees can have more autonomy over their career paths, and employers can be more agile to shape their workforce to fit their business needs.

“But in order to hold up their end of the deal, employers need to position line managers to support employees’ career progression. This should include having regular development conversations with employees to help them take the steps needed to develop and fulfil their potential. They also need to choose training and development that is right for their staff, not just the most economical. To do this, they must ensure that they are listening to what their employees need in order to make sure training and development is relevant and effective enough to plug skills gaps, as well as improve employees’ ability to do their jobs well.”

The Employee Outlook is CIPD’s twice-yearly tracker survey of UK employees to identify their opinions of, and attitudes towards, working life today. The survey has been running since 2009 and has collected a wealth of trend data.