Auckland, NZ/New York, NY (October 14, 2014) – Career development has a concrete impact on overall business performance and is a powerful driver of revenue, found a new benchmarking survey of over 100 global organizations conducted by Fuel50/Career Engagement Group (CEG). The survey found that organizations with the ability to attract key performers and develop an internal talent pool through career development reported greater overall revenue growth during the last financial year. Organizations with improved HR processes increased revenue growth by up to 2.5 percent.
In addition, 31 percent of survey respondents said career engagement was a predictor of revenue growth, as compared to 7 percent using traditional engagement methods. And 75 percent said career development is a key driver of engagement in the organization.
“Effective career engagement practices lead to business return by building internal talent bench strength,” says Anne Fulton, CEO, Career Engagement Group. “Top-performing organizations are developing a broad and diversified internal talent pool, which provides them with sufficient internal talent to meet strategic challenges.”
In fact, the survey found that there was a whopping 66 percent correlation between having enough talent to meet strategic needs and overall HR performance. Sufficient internal talent allowed best practice organizations to fill key leadership roles internally, increase internal recruitment and reduce overall recruitment costs. This improvement in the HR function improved bottom-line financial outcomes, including overall HR performance, revenue growth per employee, and overall business revenue growth.
Although 87 percent of organizations preferred to recruit internally where possible, it appeared many were struggling to translate this objective into practice. Internal recruitment was vastly lower than external recruitment in the majority of organizations, and was lower than 25 percent for the largest portion of respondents. Despite such low internal recruitment, 50 percent of all senior leadership roles were filled internally.
The survey also found that about half (49 percent) of respondents offer coaching for all employees and more than half (58 percent) hold career conversations with all team members. However, only half (50 percent) have the necessary time to support the career growth of their reports.
“The principal barrier to career engagement is poor communication between senior management and leaders, as well as between leaders and their teams,” says Fulton. “Managers need to draw internal opportunities to the attention of their reports, and make team members aware of potential career paths within their organizations.”
Survey respondents felt that growing your people is the best way to grow your business. Career engagement results in decreased absenteeism, reduced attrition and hiring costs, increased productivity, and an increased ability to fill key roles internally. However, the survey found that respondents do not have sufficient time to provide career development support to their employees. This is an unfortunate disconnect because having sufficient opportunity to express career preferences to their manager was the third most critical practice for determining employees’ overall career engagement success.
About Career Engagement Group
The Career Engagement Group are providers of the Fuel50 Career Centre – a Software as a Service solution that is a global leader in the corporate career management space. Career Engagement Group delivers organizational transformation strategic consulting to create career agile organizations and career engaged employees.
About Fuel50
Fuel50 is cloud-based career pathing software developed by co-founders of the Career Engagement Group, Anne Fulton and Jo Mills. Dual headquartered in New York, USA, and Auckland, New Zealand, its New Zealand-based software and marketing team support global operations. Fuel50 directly impacts the career development driver, touching HR, management and individual employees across the business.
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For further information, please contact:
Anne Fulton, CEO, Career Engagement Group
P: +1 212 235 1470
E: anne@fuel50.com
Media Contact:
Beth Brody, fisher VISTA (For Career Engagement Group/Fuel50)
bbrody@fishervista.com
609-397-3737