What Is Career Growth and How Does It Benefit Your Organization?

Key takeaways

Career growth can help employees pursue meaningful goals while strengthening employers' retention, engagement, and performance.

• LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report indicates that 88 percent of organizations are concerned about keeping pace with employees’ career growth expectations [1].

• Retaining employees is key for employers, as it reduces the time and money spent recruiting and hiring new talent

• You can create structured growth pathways by offering training, mentorship, and internal mobility options that help employees build skills and feel engaged.

Learn more about career growth, including how it can benefit your company and what you can do to encourage it among your staff. If you’re ready to start providing employees with learning opportunities to help them gain in-demand skills for success and empower their development, Coursera for Business provides valuable training materials in a wide range of areas, including Guided Projects and Professional Certificates.

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What is career growth?

Career growth is an employee's long-term vision for their career and the steps they take to achieve it. For example, someone may start as a cashier or salesperson in a department store but aspire to eventually manage the store or take a corporate position. They demonstrate their confidence and earn a promotion to a supervisory role after a year in sales. This helps them gain experience managing people and eventually become the store manager.

However, career growth can mean more than promotion to a managerial position. For example, an employee can create a strategy to earn a bigger salary. It could mean starting and carrying out a particular project that one is passionate about. Or, after gaining more responsibility in their current role, making a lateral move to a different department or starting their own business can be a form of career growth.

Career growth vs. career development

While "career growth" and "career development" are related, they are different parts of an employee's career trajectory. The growth part focuses on a person's big-picture goals, and the development part has more to do with what it takes to get there. For example, if an employee works as a receptionist but wants to move into marketing for personal career growth, they may need to earn a degree in marketing as part of their career development. If a person works as an IT support technician but wants to become a network engineer, they may need to earn certification and gain experience. 

Career growth is a plan with a strategy for moving from one point to the next. Career development encompasses the tasks that help a person get from one point to the next. Both career growth and career development benefit employees and their employers in many ways.

Benefits of career growth for employees

It's easy to see how career growth benefits your employees. Each individual's growth directly correlates with their personal goals. That means focusing on growth can help employees explore their passions, earn more money, get a promotion, or gain more responsibility.

Ultimately, it may improve their general happiness and well-being and give them a sense of purpose. According to Indeed’s 2025 Work Wellbeing Score, 81 percent of employees who report a sense of satisfaction, purpose, and well-being at work intend to stay in their role for another 12 months, compared with 50 percent of those with lower well-being [2]. Moreover, 97 percent of candidates make a point of seeking well-being data when looking for a new role  [2]. Employees who focus on career growth may experience less stress and anxiety. As such, you may find that your team is typically more confident and satisfied with their jobs when given career growth opportunities.

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Benefits of career growth for employers

Encouraging career growth among your employees can benefit your organization as well. LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report indicates that lack of career development is the number one reason employees leave their jobs, underscoring how critical growth opportunities are for retaining talent [1]. 

According to the report, 88 percent of organizations are concerned about keeping pace with talent expectations and are offering clear growth pathways and learning opportunities to not only attract but also retain their workforce [1]. Retaining employees is key for employers, as it reduces the time and money spent recruiting and hiring new talent.

Gallup estimates that turnover costs for replacing a manager or leader are about 200 percent of their salary, about 80 percent for technical roles, and roughly 40 percent for frontline positions [3]. This does not include the harder‑to‑quantify losses in morale, momentum, and institutional knowledge. When a top performer leaves, it can trigger a ripple effect, prompting colleagues to question their own future, worry about stability, or reconsider their commitment to the company.

As such, providing career development plays a major role in retention and overall career success.  When you provide growth opportunities, you show your employees you care about their well-being and happiness. As a result, employees are usually more engaged and committed, which can lead to increased productivity and innovation, and less absenteeism. Other benefits for employers typically include:

• Standing out against your competition and attracting high-quality workers

• Creating strong leaders within your organization

• Cultivating higher job satisfaction and a more positive company culture

• Instilling a sense of pride in your employees which can help build your company's reputation

• Impressing clients with your employees' credentials

• Improving your overall business performance and bottom line

How employers can provide career growth opportunities

You can provide career growth opportunities for your staff in many ways. Consider setting up training programs. This could include opportunities such as leadership development or regular training in areas that benefit your staff and your company. Consider setting up a mentorship program, allowing your employees to ask for advice and gain information from someone in a position they may aspire to.

Making internal mobility a priority is another way to provide career growth opportunities. Again, this can help with employee retention. However, it can also help employees explore new career paths through lateral moves or work their way up to more advanced positions within your organization if that is their goal.

You can also provide access to external career growth opportunities. For example, consider tuition reimbursement for employees who want to take courses or earn a degree. You can also help them find other opportunities, like workshops, professional coaches, or industry events. Take it a step further and attend these events with your employees to show your support. You may also give an employee a specific assignment to help them build their skills and knowledge.

Read more: What Is Competency-Based Training?

Encouraging employees to take initiative

In addition to providing career growth opportunities, consider encouraging your employees to take the initiative to find opportunities on their own. Talk to them about their goals and encourage them to do what it takes to achieve them. Ask them what they want, what skills they want to improve, or where they would like to be in five or 10 years. Ask how you can help or if the company can do something to make it easier for them to meet their goals. Make suggestions when the opportunity arises. Consider hiring speakers or hosting company events to encourage and motivate employees to take control of their career trajectories and work hard toward the next step in their plans.

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• Training a smaller team? Explore Coursera for Teams, designed to meet the needs of teams with five to 125 employees.

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