How HR Can Support Career Resolutions for a More Engaged Workforce

A sense of career progression and development is critical to ensuring an engaged, motivated workforce. If employees feel they can achieve their career objectives, they’re more likely to stay in a job and remain committed and productive for an employer. A recent study by Jobseeker.com indicates that the majority of workers make career resolutions each year, but most people fail to complete them. In this article, we’ll discuss how creating a supportive environment for employees to fulfill their career resolutions can lead to a more engaged workforce and a more productive organization.

What are career resolutions, and why are they important?

The study by Jobseeker surveyed workers to ask them about their annual career resolutions. The results indicated that 85% of employees set career resolutions for 2024. These resolutions included elements of professional development and career advancement, including the following objectives:

• Developing hard skills
• Improving work-life balance
• Improving soft skills
• Gaining promotion
• Expanding networking connections
  
  

Career resolutions set out objectives for the year ahead and provide employees with a sense of purpose. Making progress with career resolutions can help employees to feel motivated, and that their career is heading in the right direction. In the potentially stressful, high-pressure world of work, having a clear objective for your career progression and development can help you remain focused.

For employers, supporting workers to achieve their career resolutions is one of the keys to a productive, engaged workforce. If employees feel you’re interested in supporting them to achieve their goals and that you’re ready to provide the tools for them to reach new heights in their careers, they’re far more likely to commit to you as an employer. Increased job satisfaction goes hand-in-hand with reduced staffing attrition, potentially saving significantly on recruitment costs, as well as the time and energy it takes to fill staffing vacancies.

Barriers to achieving career resolutions

While career resolutions are widespread, and can have numerous positive effects for both employees and employers, Jobseeker’s study also reveals that the vast majority of workers aren’t able to complete their objectives. For 2024, just 9% of employees who set a career resolution managed to fully complete it. This points to an obvious disconnect between the wishes of employees for their career development, and the things they’re able to achieve in reality.

The three most common barriers to achieving career objectives are:

• Job market competition
• Lack of resources
• Work-life balance

Job market competition could relate to the pressure employees feel over their own job security or the struggles of finding a suitable role in a competitive job market. Lack of resources can equate to inadequate support from employers around professional development, or a lack of personal resources to enable people to pursue their objectives. Finally, the challenges of work-life balance affect workers of all ages and all levels of seniority, and simply mean that employees often don’t feel they have the time to dedicate themselves to professional development.

Strategies for fostering a supportive culture of career development

Thankfully, though, there are plenty of things employers can do to help workers realize their career objectives. Implementing these actions can make the difference between a disengaged, unmotivated workforce and one that’s more productive, committed, and positive about their career progression. Take a look below at some useful strategies to support employees with their career resolutions:

Personalized learning programs

Fostering a culture of continuous learning can have transformative effects for organizations and their employees. If employers provide training and development opportunities for their staff, they get the benefit of an upskilled workforce while saving on the costs associated with recruiting better-qualified candidates. For employees, the empowerment that comes from having opportunities to learn and develop on the job can provide a fresh sense of purpose and motivation.

Creating this culture means having open, honest conversations with colleagues about their career development and creating bespoke, personalized learning programs that equip employees for their desired progression while serving the needs of the organization. Limited resources were cited in Jobseeker’s study by 60% of workers as a reason for not completing their career objectives, while investment in internal training programs is shown to provide employers with a significant return. As such, creating personalized learning programs has a considerable upside for both employees and organizations.

Clear career progression pathways

If employees can’t see a clear progression pathway for their career, it can be easy to lack motivation and ultimately become less productive. For employers, a stagnant, unmotivated workforce is sure to hit productivity levels and can make it a struggle to recruit the best talent. One of the ways to combat this is to ensure there are clear, well-documented pathways for employees’ career progression.

Some ways to make career progression opportunities more accessible to employees could include:

• Formalizing the policies and thresholds for employees to achieve promotion
• Recruiting internally through promotion wherever possible
• Adding goal-setting as a formal process in employee appraisals
  
  

AI-driven workflow optimization

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the power to reduce the burden of various everyday tasks for employees. A lack of resources and time, and the challenges of achieving a healthy work-life balance, are some of the most significant barriers to employees achieving their career goals. AI tools offer the potential to free employees up from some of their more time-consuming, repetitive tasks through automation, to focus on their personal and professional development.

As well as taking responsibility for various repetitive everyday tasks, AI tools can offer support to employees for various training and learning needs. AI assistants and chatbots are valuable resources for learning new skills, while bespoke AI training tools offer the possibility for adaptive learning and tailored development programs.

Flexible and supportive work environments

One of the key challenges facing employees in trying to achieve their career goals is the pressures of work-life balance. If the work environment is too high-pressured and stressful, this can leave little time for pursuing other activities, including professional development.

Creating flexible, dynamic, and supportive work environments is a key way to support employees toward fulfilling their career resolutions. Flexible working policies tend to be high on the list of employee preferences and candidate demands. As such, creating this type of work environment can be an excellent way to attract the best talent, as well as help your organization retain its current employees.

Some of the best ways to instill a positive work-life balance in your workforce include:

• Remote or hybrid working policies
• Flexible working hours 
• Physical and mental wellness programs 
• Recognition for outstanding contributions and high achievement