Why you should encourage career growth that doesn’t involve management

Career progression is a vital part of life and it shouldn’t follow a strict pathway forward. So are you doing enough to promote career growth without bottlenecking employees into managerial positions?

There’s a growing trend of companies providing dual career paths for their employees to promote role diversity, career advancement and workforce retention. It’s particularly beneficial for employees who can handle responsibilities without wanting to be involved in managing others. 

The impact of bad managers

Promoting employees into management positions when they don’t want the role doesn’t mean you will end up with a bad manager, however, it can often result in poor people management. This typically results in decreased productivity and workforce turnover.

• You might find your top employee in a specific team or department is also not destined to be a manager, even though they are a great leader or role specialist. 
• They may not be a highly effective communicator or interested in emotionally supporting team members because of their own personal experiences. 
• Aspirations for increased pay may force them into accepting a management role they don’t want, and their own disinterest or lack of motivation is likely to impact their team.

You’ll also find there are better outcomes and uses for your best employees outside of managerial positions, while you should avoid losing them to competitors who offer the same role with more incentives. But to keep them, you may need to create a role or explore new possibilities to best use their skills. 

“More organisations are putting alternate career paths in place, and it actually makes a lot of sense. [It] allows you to keep expertise in the organisation and get even more value from your investment in those people,” Sarah McCann-Bartlett, Australian HR Institute Chief Executive, told AFR.

How can you promote dual career paths?

If you’re providing new trajectories for staff development outside of managerial roles you should be filling important gaps within the organisation. That in itself may very well depend on the person’s skill set and your future plans. Let’s consider two scenarios.

You have an experienced Registered Nurse who’s interested in reducing the amount of time they work on the floor, but they don’t want to become a manager. And so, their skills and experience could be perfectly utilised for the training and development of other nurses. They could even take on a senior role that includes assessing workforce skill gaps, identifying new technologies and resources to invest in, and developing strategies for implementing improvements. 

Alternatively, consider a member of your administration team who’s looking for a new opportunity and increased wages. Their expertise and ability to learn new skills is a valuable resource and you don’t want to lose them. You could start with a secondment to see how they could thrive in another department, including finance or marketing. Or you could invest in additional education to strengthen specialist skills.

“Where a particular specialist skill has been identified, [they need to] work with those employees to develop very tailored learning opportunities [that] could enable them to become much deeper specialists,” McCann-Bartlett added.

Why you need a long-term focus

When investing in career progression that excludes moving staff into managerial roles you will have to have a long-term focus. An easy way to achieve this is by providing ongoing career coaching, education and advice. 

• Managers should Keep in touch with staff during annual reviews and one-on-one check-ins to understand what tasks and roles they enjoy the most.
• You want to have open conversations regarding career development and their position within your organisation.
• Where you do see room for a specialist role, additional education is likely to be required, and this will require long-term financial investment and planning.

Existing managers are also in the best position to analyse and identify career growth opportunities over the long run. Whether you are a manager yourself or an executive, it’s essential to give managers the freedom to assign specialist/leadership roles where they see fit.

This is a perfect way to hone in on a staff member’s best skills while allowing them to take more responsibility without having to worry about directly managing others on a daily basis.