Embracing the Career Lattice to Empower Your Employees

In the not-too-distant past, career mobility was all about moving upward and advancing your career vertically. These days, the movement is a bit more fluid. People no longer stay with the same companies for the entire duration of their careers, and they may not even work in the same field or industry.  Following a career lattice model for growth means moving vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and even backward when needed. It allows employees more control and flexibility over their professional lives and helps give balance to their personal lives. 

According to Zippia, the average person will have 12 jobs in their lifetime and spend 4.3 years with an employer [1]. Promoting a career lattice rather than a career ladder may encourage your employees to stay and grow with your organization. 

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What is a career lattice?  

A career lattice is a model of career progression that allows employees to move vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and backward, depending on how they want their careers to grow. Rather than work towards a promotion, it encourages your staff to learn new skills, move laterally across multiple departments, and explore their unique interests.

You can implement a career lattice model in almost any industry. For example, it's quite common in the education field. A college student may graduate with a bachelor's degree in early childhood education and get a job teaching kindergarten at a local elementary school. After a year or two, they might decide they enjoy teaching but want to work with older students, so they move laterally to teach in a fifth-grade classroom. Later, that teacher may decide to step back from teaching full-time to work on their master's degree and spend more time with their family, but they work as a part-time substitute teacher during that time. Once that person earns their master's degree, they may return to full-time, making a vertical move and working as the school's counselor or assistant principal. 

Read more: What Is Career Development? And Why It Matters for Your Business

Career lattice vs. career ladder  

While a career lattice allows employees to move in almost any direction, a career ladder encourages them to move vertically via promotions. These movements may require more experience, training, and education to achieve, and they typically come with increased responsibility, more seniority, and greater financial rewards.

For example, a person might get a job as a sales associate in the shoe section of a department store. After six months, the supervisor of the shoe section leaves, and that employee seeks a promotion to that position. After working as the supervisor of the shoe department for a year, they take advantage of the training offered by the company and eventually seek a position as a manager of the entire store. Once they have a couple of years of management experience and earn their bachelor's degree, they take a job as a regional manager and go from running one store to seven stores in their designated geographic location. 

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Pros and cons of the career lattice 

As with any business practice, the career lattice has pros and cons. Many organizations adopt it because they like the flexibility a career lattice offers employees. Some other advantages include:  

• Employees in larger organizations have opportunities to engage with new people and build stronger relationships.

• Your employees get a broader idea of your organization’s objectives and vision. 

• Lateral moves may help employees find more suitable roles and foster collaboration. 

• You create a more adaptable workforce and encourage diverse skill sets. 

• Your employees may find more time to prioritize work-life balance, which can significantly impact overall morale. 

• You might experience increased productivity, reduced turnover, and higher employee engagement. 

• You might attract certain employees who want to gain new skills and experience different functions. 

• By offering employees the chance to move between departments, you create potentially well-rounded leaders for the future. 

• You develop a robust learning-focused organizational culture. 

While many organizations have discovered its advantages in recent years, it's definitely only suitable for some. Some of the disadvantages might include:  

• Some employees may prefer new roles with better wages and benefits and avoid lateral moves that don't offer those things.  

• Employees with goals of climbing the ladder may find the system confusing or frustrating. 

How to encourage the career lattice method in your organization 

If you decide to introduce a career lattice model of career progression to your employees, consider your organization's unique needs first. However, you can follow and incorporate some of these universal tips. 

• Be sure to provide plenty of feedback and offer performance reviews to help your employees identify their strengths and correct their weaknesses. 

• Take advantage of tools like job rotation, mentors, coaching, training programs, and leadership development. 

• Advertise all job openings internally, and avoid using intimidating jargon that might prevent an employee from showing interest in the job. 

• Ask your employees about their visions and goals and how you can support them in reaching them. Consider their answers when creating a plan. 

Develop your workforce with Coursera

The world has undergone significant changes over the last few years, which has had a massive impact on how people work. Implementing a career lattice is a great way to keep up with these changes by creating a dynamic, adaptable workforce that is also content with your organization. 

Another way to boost employee morale that benefits your organization is to encourage the development of strong leaders and managers. In the Leadership Academy from Coursera, employees can learn the skills needed to lead your business into the future. With Coursera for Business, you’ll build effective managers at every level with beginner and advanced-level leadership content, including 40+ SkillSets to drive soft skill proficiency across the entire organization.