In this success story, we share how HR and business leaders of a diversified, European, healthcare company with 16,000 employees partnered with WTW to build a new job architecture framework and career experience that helps their employees more effectively navigate their career development and aspirations within the organization.
For years, career opportunities and career pathing have consistently scored as top drivers of employee attraction, retention, and engagement. Today, facing new work options and shifting talent requirements, employees continue to place a high premium on career development opportunities and work experiences that allow them to build new skills and remain relevant. In fact, career development is so important in today’s competitive talent market, 39% of employers are currently redesigning their employee experience to align with new work and career models, according to WTW’s 2023 Dynamics of Work Survey.
So, when this healthcare solutions provider, which prides itself on its collaborative culture where all employees are encouraged to reach their full potential personally and professionally, had employees express a lack of visible career opportunities in employee survey feedback, HR and business leaders knew they needed to act.
To increase transparency about roles and careers, the organization partnered with WTW to build a job architecture that would help employees understand where their roles fit within the organization and identify new career and growth opportunities.
We partnered with the client to review aspects of their career ecosystem, including their existing grading framework, and re-graded the organization’s top 500 jobs. We developed 10 client-specific levels that reflected responsibility, complexity, and contribution across all jobs within the company and created a framework including 17 job role families often with several smaller sub-families.
Visual of the job role framework established for the organization, which outlines the 17 role families often with multiple sub-families, and the levels which reflect the responsibilities complexity and contribution a role make. Levels are A through J.
WTW employee experience experts also built a new career experience branded as “Talent Navigator” at the company using WTW’s Embark platform to integrate the organization’s existing professional development content and the new role framework to bring career development to life for employees.
Screenshot of the organization’s “Talent Navigator” site built by WTW which helps organize all the information their employees need to navigate their own careers including career maps and the organization’s role framework in one place.
For organizations simplifying their job architecture or creating career pathways, WTW’s Embark can be used to help employees understand their role within their organization and where they can take their career: broaden their career scope, deepen their expertise, develop leadership skills, or master complexity. In turn, employers more effectively retain employees by demonstrating their commitment to transparency and growth and communicating in an engaging – and personalized – way.
WTW’s Embark provided an easy and intuitive way for employees to explore career opportunities across job families by digitally visualizing career pathways. Employees could identify areas of interest and the skills and competencies required for different career paths, view their current role, see suggested upward and lateral moves, and create a career development plan.
Employees now have one home for all their career development information and enjoy a transparent, personalized view of the development opportunities available to them. Employee experience has also improved providing the transparency and structure employees wanted. The organization now has an additional tool that helps empower its people to take ownership of their own careers.
