Resource
This tool includes a template for Career Path Planning and a discussion on the importance of Career Path Planning.
Career Path Planning is an important exercise that all firms should employ to better understand and document the strengths, weaknesses, and seniority of individual staff members, as well as the depth of talent within the firm on a holistic level. This allows the firm to identify future recruiting needs as well as strengths and weaknesses within current staff.
We recommend that firm leaders undertake this exercise in advance of performance review time to generate talking points during staff reviews (see CASE Tool 2-3: Employee Evaluations). It helps the reviewer provide meaningful feedback to staff members during the review. It can also serve as a mechanism to share future growth plans with staff members to encourage their career growth and serve as a retention tool (see CASE Tool 1-4: Creating a Culture of Recruitment and Retention).
At a holistic level, this exercise can help a firm identify future retirements and understand the level of recruitment needed to backfill these positions.