The ideas behind career development make perfect intuitive sense — by providing opportunities for professional advancement, companies can increase employee engagement, raise morale and feel confident that they’re caring for the people who work there. But along with our intuition, there’s actual data that substantiates these feelings — career development is statistically linked to business results, making it a win-win for both employees and their companies.
Essentially, engaged employees are more likely to stay with their companies, offer discretionary time for company activities and be more productive overall, which leads to happier clients, which in turn leads to higher profits. Companies that then give back to career development efforts can then create a “virtuous circle” in which higher engagement keeps the cycle moving indefinitely.
The following infographic, which my colleague Melissa Barry and I recently developed with our Ketchum Digital group, illustrates some of the data supporting the fact that career development positively impacts a company’s success. (Click on it to see a large-scale PDF version.)
- Click to enlarge.
At Ketchum, we’re big supporters of career development, and we’re happy to point out that the data proves it. That’s one of the reasons why we recently updated Ketchum’s Career Development Toolkit, which gives colleagues the necessary tools and materials to take the ideas in this infographic to heart and take control of their careers.
Regardless of your industry, if you find yourself delaying career development talks with your people — reconsider. These conversations are more worthwhile than many of us imagine, and pay dividends to both the business and the employee.
