With the healthcare industry continuing to face significant talent challenges and shortages, upskilling and reskilling employees is a key strategy for solving the most urgent labor needs.

Designing career pathways to support existing team members through continued education can retain enthusiastic employees who want more career advancement opportunities while addressing significant skill gaps impacting your organization.

In this post, we’ll discuss why developing career pathways is essential for healthcare organizations and how to create pathways that benefit both your organization and employees.

What are career pathways?

Career pathways can be broadly defined as carefully mapped series that detail which education and training steps employees should follow to successfully upskill and achieve specific professional goals. They typically account for current market and employment conditions, including skills that are currently or projected to be in-demand.

With EdAssist, our Career Pathways solution is an experience designed to provide employees a way to explore job opportunities through career discovery. Curated by industry experts and backed by research, interconnected pathway points create visual career journeys that map to critical organizational roles. Each role details the education and skills necessary to advance in that career and potential salary. 

A healthcare facility, for example, may have dedicated career pathways for allied health professionals such as medical assistants (MAs) who want to become physician assistants (PAs). This pathway may recommend accelerated bridge programs, highlight financial resources, detail required licensure, and recommend certifications in specialized areas like emergency medicine or surgery.

Healthcare organizations often have distinct pathways for different careers, providing clear direction for staff to more effectively reach their career advancement goals.

The importance of career pathways in healthcare

Career pathways provide essential guidance for employees who want to advance in their careers but may not be sure where to start. According to an abundance of research, that makes up a significant portion of the workforce.

EdAssist’s 2024 Education Index found that 74% of workers and up to 99% of Gen Z employees are interested in developing new skills or continuing their education. Workers specifically want to learn new skills relevant to their career but actively struggle knowing where to start, and the majority wishes their employer provided more guidance on achieving career goals.

Who’s responsible for illuminating the path to career development? More than half of workers believe that it falls on their employer to provide guidance on upskilling. Despite 75% of managers wanting direct reports to learn new skills through continued education and training—, almost half of leaders say they don’t have the resources to properly support these efforts.

In many cases, managers may not have the time, knowledge, or resources to guide their direct reports in their professional development goals. A recent survey found that 46% of respondents said their manager didn’t know how to help them with career development, and 59% said that their company rarely or never helped them explore growth opportunities outside of their department.

Careers in healthcare can feel particularly intimidating, often requiring specialized degrees, training, certifications, and licensure. It can feel overwhelming for employees who want to advance beyond their current position but feel uncertain with where to start.

Career pathways can make these processes seem more accessible. As a result, they can directly increase the number of employees who pursue continued education, especially when combined with other education assistance programs, such as career coaching, to help employees map out their next steps to achieving their professional goals.

Finally, it’s important to note that organizations can develop career pathways that are designed to increase the number of essential trained workers, which can reduce potential skill gaps. With current labor shortages already straining the healthcare industry— and are projected to grow in coming years— the ability to funnel motivated workers into higher-paying and higher-skilled jobs can be a significant asset to your organization.

4 tips for designing career pathways for your organization

To support your employees in charting and reaching their professional goals, here are four tips that will help you create career pathways that benefit your team members and your organization.

1. Consider current and future in-demand skills

As the medical industry is facing talent shortages throughout multiple specialties, you can consider career pathways that will address current and projected skill gaps.

A popular option is offering a medical assistant (MA) to respiratory therapist (RT) career pathway. Some workers may start as MAs to quickly enter the medical profession but may be interested in progressing to respiratory therapy positions for increased pay and additional responsibilities. This can help address the respiratory therapist shortage within an organization.

It’s also important to consider future in-demand skills that may evolve due to changing workplace conditions.

Designing your career pathways around in-demand skills can help funnel interested employees through the necessary training and education programs, addressing skill gaps internally.

2. Assess your current workforce

Consider your current organization and evaluate which types of employees might be most interested in upskilling. RNs, for example, may be particularly interested in upskilling to become nurse managers, nurse educators, or advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs).

It’s also important to consider the different challenges employee segments or departments may face when it comes to upskilling and career advancement. RNs who want to become APRNs with a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), for example, may require more training than those who want to become nurse managers.

It’s essential to create customized pathways that will immediately and directly provide clear steps for employees who want to participate in upskilling. Creating pathways for the largest and most interested segments to address common career goals is a good place to start.

3. Identify desired career advancement opportunities

After determining which employees are most likely to want to advance in their careers, consider what positions they’d be most interested in filling— and keep in mind that it may not always be direct upwards mobility.

People may be motivated by a number of different factors. Millennial and Gen Z workers, for example, are particularly motivated to upskill by career opportunities that allow for increased pay.

Other workers— especially those facing high levels of burnout— may be tempted by stable working hours, perceived stress reduction, or a better work/life balance. One study found that 27% of workers in 2023 left their jobs due to poor work/life balance, which is particularly worth noting given the burnout that’s impacting healthcare professionals.

Determine which positions your team members may be most motivated to upskill for, and then check that list against positions you most need to fill. Doing this can help you to create career pathways that will motivate employees and address skill gaps and labor shortages simultaneously.

4. Partner with an employee education assistance provider

While businesses can create career pathways on their own, many don’t have the time, experience, or general resources to do so. For this reason, many turn to employee education assistance providers that already have extensive learning and employee development experience.

Employee education assistance providers, like EdAssist, offer guidance, helping to create data-backed career pathways based on research and your specific workforce’s needs. It’s also critical to measure and monitor key metrics of program success – such as filling in-demand roles, program completions, and employee retention – to ensure a return on your organization’s investment in these programs.

These providers can also help increase employee participation with program promotion and coaching assistance. In addition to career pathways, EdAssist includes 1:1 career coaching to help employees address specific questions or identify career advancement paths that may be best suited for them, even if their journey falls outside the standard paths. If a laboratory specialist wants to become a hospital administrator, expert career coaches can help them map out the steps to do so.

Final thoughts

With many employees wanting to upskill but not knowing where or how to get started, detailed career pathways can be an ideal solution for your healthcare organization. Partnering with an experienced employee assistance provider can accelerate your results with additional benefits like tuition assistance, student loan repayment, or personalized career coaching.

In addition to customized career pathway development, EdAssist also offers additional solutions to facilitate employee upskilling and education, including the development, implementation, and internal promotion of customized programs.

Discover how EdAssist’s Career Pathways can help your employees unlock their full potential and meet your organization’s workforce needs. Schedule a call with us to explore how.