If you want to grow your business in 2025, there are three big hurdles you’ll need to overcome. First, you’ll need to defy a skills shortage and find talented people. Next, you’ll need to find a way to build employee loyalty in a landscape that shows record levels of disengagement. Finally, you’ll need to weather widespread uncertainty by maximizing your workforce’s adaptability.
Thankfully, there is a single solution that can help you to overcome each of those challenges. Companies that create opportunities for career progression foster a culture that is more engaged, adaptable, and capable. As you resource your employees with an internal talent marketplace, you facilitate both their growth and the growth of your company.
Providing employees with an opportunity for career growth
An internal talent marketplace essentially provides your employees with resources and opportunities to grow their business skills. And it is something many employees say they want.
A recent MIT survey found that 67 percent of employees want to advance their careers. If they don’t get career development opportunities from their employer, they often leave. A recent Gallup poll found that “career growth opportunities” were the top reason employees gave for changing jobs.
Yet statistics also show that nearly half of companies aren’t answering the call when it comes to career progression. A recent study found that 46 percent of employees feel they lack career support from their managers. As a result, 25 percent of employees said they would probably quit during the next six months.
The strong desire for career progression coupled with the lack of opportunities means that companies prioritizing career progression will have a better chance of attracting and retaining top talent. It also means those companies will have employees who consistently work to improve the internal talent pool.
Creating an internal talent marketplace
An internal talent marketplace can take many forms. It can be homegrown or outsourced, scheduled or self-directed, online or in-person. The key is that it meets the employees’ needs and is effective at imparting the skills needed for progression.
Ideally, the marketplace will provide a catalog of offerings available to employees. Internal training opportunities, for example, should be listed with the times they will take place and the content that will be presented. A catalog that shows learning opportunities proactively planned out in advance allows employees to see that their company takes career progression seriously.
In addition, companies should go beyond simply creating opportunities and take steps to encourage employee involvement. Discussing career goals and how they can be achieved can be a part of employees’ one-on-one meetings with their managers. Additionally, managers who see the potential for growth in their employees should point it out and help them chart a pathway to cultivate it.
Common tools for career progression
Conferences are a standard tool used in an internal talent marketplace to help employees gain new skills. With large companies, conferences can be organized internally, with training presented by executives or experts brought in from the outside. Smaller companies can utilize external conferences to provide their employees with learning opportunities.
To support career progression, companies should consider curating conference offerings to create a pathway focused on growth. For example, they can provide opportunities for companies to attend conferences that show how to optimize the use of software platforms employed by the company. Conferences focused on leadership development, especially those that gather experts from the company’s industry, can also provide key training for career progression.
Employees can also get the skills they need for career advancement through continuing education or college classes. Creating reimbursement programs for those types of classes, as well as creating time in an employee’s schedule to help them manage the additional work, can be another aspect of an internal talent marketplace.
Reimbursement plans can be a fantastic way to help motivate staff, and they are also very affordable for companies. Platforms like Udemy and LinkedIn offer a wide variety of learning opportunities that are impactful, up-to-date, and don’t break the bank for smaller companies. Larger companies that offer stipends for continuing education give their employees opportunities to earn valuable certifications, licenses, and expanded or advanced degrees.
Mentoring is another impactful way to support career progression. Whereas training programs generally provide a one-size-fits-all option, mentoring allows employees to personalize their own pathways for growth. By working one-on-one with mentees, mentors can give customized instructions informed by a first-hand understanding of the employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and goals.
When managers mentor, they go beyond simply managing their employees’ schedules and workloads. They become guides who show employees the pathway to career success and help them to find their footing. Studies show that employees at companies that offer mentorship programs not only say they have a clear plan for career development but also feel supported in working on the plan.
Companies that don’t provide clear and impactful opportunities for career progression can’t expect to retain quality employees in today’s job market. By building and maintaining an internal talent marketplace, companies show their willingness to invest in their employees’ futures in a proactive and ongoing way.
