As the workplace and workforce continue to change, it has become increasingly important to understand what people are looking for in and from their work. By understanding interests and motivations, we can deliver an employee experience that generates engagement, drives discretionary effort, drives productivity and ensures the retention of top talent.
Our third annual report, Career development today: what people really wantsheds much-needed light on what employees prioritized last year and provides organizations and leaders with key insights to drive talent-focused strategies and actions this year and beyond.
Data collected in 2023 from more than 3,600 respondents worldwide provides a snapshot of the level of interest employees have in the eight dimensions that make up the Multidimensional Career Framework: Contribution, Competence, Connection, Confidence, Challenge, Satisfaction, Choice and Climbing.
What employees are looking for
Since our original pandemic-era research in support of my most recent book Promotions are SO yesterdayOne thing remains clear: when it comes to growth and development, people are looking for significantly more than a new role, title or promotion. From the start, Climb (short for Climbing the Corporate Ladder) ranked eighth out of eight in terms of interest from survey respondents. Last year, however, Climb actually came last in all the demographics we evaluated – across ages, genders, levels and industries. This remains useful and hopeful news for organizations and leaders looking to deploy more intrinsically motivating resources, as they have fewer and fewer extrinsically motivating options such as promotions to pass on.
Another consistent finding is that interest in Contribution remains at the top of the chart overall. We have a deep human need to add value, make a difference, serve and live with purpose – something that can be harnessed for powerful individual and organizational results.
Competence occupies second place in the rankings. People understand that the pace of change is only increasing. They believe that the half-life of skills decreases. And a commitment to continuous, continuous learning – whether upskilling, reskilling or pre-skilling – is the only way to future-proof a career.
Given current levels of stress and burnout and the mental health crisis in the workplace, it is not surprising that contentment (a desire for greater meaning, satisfaction, ease and balance) is becoming increasingly important to employees. While Satisfaction started to rival the second most interesting dimension (Competence) last year, it actually overtook it for two demographic segments: both women and managers at management level and higher in the organization. (Supervisors and individual contributors continue to prioritize competence over satisfaction.)
And perhaps due to the changing dynamics of the labor market or the uncertain but clearly growing role of AI, interest in Confidence (that feeling of confidence and certainty in our ability to perform predictably and easily) is also increasing. ready to catch up with Competence in the future (as it did last year for those over 60).
Interest in Challenge has fallen significantly since the start of our research, last year to almost the same lower level as Connection and Choice. The continued pressure to do more with less can lead employees to pursue other goals and opportunities for development than just raising the bar.
For younger workers (ages 20-29), Connection rose slightly in the rankings above Choice, while for men, Choice outperformed Connection in 2023. Industry analyzes showed only minor variations, with one exception: the public sector. Although these respondents still rank Climb last, their top three of Satisfaction, Confidence and Competence paint a very different picture of interests when it comes to their work and development.
What does this mean
This research offers an eye-opening picture of the different ways in which people want to engage with and develop within their work. It challenges the default assumption of many leaders that everyone wants a promotion and opens the door to a new, deeper, and more promising conversation with employees – conversations that can contribute to the experience of fulfillment and growth that people desire – and the needs of the organization to sustainable success.
Would you like to help your employees better understand their interests? Do you want to understand your own? This free self-assessment provides personalized feedback, insights and possible development actions.
