The Development Disconnect: Matching Ambitions with Opportunity

While full-time workers in the United States generally have their sights on career development, many believe their current jobs don’t match their aspirations. Nearly half (43%) of respondents to a recent poll by data-enablement platform SurveyMonkey believe opportunities for growth at their current jobs are limited or nonexistent. This is especially so for Baby Boomers (48%) and members of Generation X (49%). However, the phenomenon isn’t limited to experienced workers. Only 38% of millennials and 28% of Gen Z workers felt “satisfied and content” with their current career path, with nearly 1 in 5 within each of those demographic groups agreeing they are “stuck or unsure of what’s next.”

This general disconnect (and disengagement) around career development is part of a larger tension between employees’ expectations of workplace predictability and organizations’ desire for nimbleness — a phenomenon that consulting firm Deloitte has dubbed “stagility” (a blend of “stagnant” and “stability”). “Among the traditional anchors of work and the worker that require a shift is linear career growth,” said Matthew Stevens, a managing director of human performance and learning at Deloitte.

Organizations that ignore employee expectations around career progression do so at their own peril, warned Wendy Smith, a senior manager of research science at SurveyMonkey. “That disconnect between ambition, expectations and perceived opportunity highlights a critical challenge for organizations,” she said. “If career paths feel blocked, younger workers in particular won’t hesitate to look elsewhere for growth.”

Tapping into Ambition

Despite the divide revealed by the survey, Smith said organizations can draw on one clear positive: their employees’ drive.

“One of the biggest surprises in the data was the extent to which workers remain ambitious despite feeling limited in their career growth,” she said, noting that 2 in 3 overall workers (64%) aspire to top leadership positions. For Gen Z workers and millennials, that number rose to 80% and 70%, respectively, though Smith cautioned they are more likely than their older counterparts to believe that “strong performance in assigned responsibilities should be enough to earn a promotion.” When such advancement is not forthcoming, they also are more willing to leave their current organization to find growth elsewhere (33% for Gen Z, 24% for millennials).

To address these perceptions, Smith said organizations should “bridge expectations with transparency,” noting that, “Meeting Gen Z where they are doesn’t mean lowering the bar for promotions. Instead, it means offering clarity, coaching and visible pathways so ambition translates into long-term loyalty.”

Strategies for Growth

According to the experts interviewed for this article, organizations should consider ways to make growth visible and accessible. Possible strategies include:

• Providing clarity on what’s needed to advance. Clear pathways, criteria and performance goals that define what advancement requires “can go a long way in helping employees see a future with their current employer rather than seeking it elsewhere,” Smith said.
• Enlisting managers as guides — and teachers. Managers play a key role in “acting as a bridge,” Smith said, by setting expectations and highlighting what the organization and its leadership values. They also can provide coaching that helps employees “understand how to meet both immediate and long-term objectives, turning perceived gaps into tangible opportunities for growth,” she added. Deloitte’s Stevens said leaders also play key roles in employee development. When managers act as “learning copilots,” he said, “they help build a system that shows and values workers’ hidden skills … and empowers workers to take on more meaningful and valuable roles.”
• Promoting skills-focused development. Skill-building programs, rotational projects or “stretch assignments” all support growth by providing employees “clarity about the priority skills they should focus on developing,” Stevens said. He added that Deloitte research found more than 90% of high-performing organizations provide opportunities for employees to build skills in new areas, including allowing them to opt into special projects or dedicate time to a “passion area.” Leading organizations also give their employees information and choice in learning opportunities. “Ambitious workers will thrive and have opportunity to develop at their own pace in strong learning cultures,” Stevens said.
• Recognizing contributions and development. Along with highlighting performance in existing roles, organizations also should “recognize and reward learning in visible ways,” Stevens said. That can be through gamification techniques such as leaderboards for learning activities or by incorporating learning into performance goals or facilitating peer learning and mentoring opportunities.
• Avoiding assumptions about what employees want. Despite differences in how Gen Z perceives career opportunities, Deloitte researchers didn’t fundamentally see a difference in how different generations approach development. In fact, Stevens noted that workers of all ages have embraced brief “WorkTok” videos and other technology-enabled learning. More importantly, organizations should “ask for and use information … about learning preferences and interests, because every organization is different,” he said.
• Encouraging employees to be proactive. Allow ambitious employees to pursue skill-building opportunities that lead to career growth and advancement, Smith said. At the same time, if they find these options aren’t available, “employees have more options than ever [e.g., side hustles, passion projects] to create their own paths forward,” she said. According to Stevens, organizations that focus on skills-based development embedded in the work employees do create a “mutually beneficial” environment. “The organization can gain better access to needed talent without always having to look outside its walls, and workers are provided with clear opportunities for growth and mobility that may have been previously hidden from them,” he said.

Editor’s Note: Additional Content

For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:

• Employee Benefits
• Employee Experience
• Employee Recognition
• Workforce Engagement