Infographic
HR.com’s future of career development and mobility 2025-26 infographic
Discover why 96% of firms fail at career maturity and how leaders are 7X more likely to close skills gaps and 4X more likely to have formal internal mobility.
HR.com’s future of career development and mobility 2025-26 infographic
Overview
Summary
The state of career development is stagnant, posing a major risk to talent retention and workforce agility.
According to HR.com’s Future of Career Development and Mobility 2025–26 research, 96% of organizations are failing to reach the “Innovative” stage of maturity. This infographic uncovers the critical gaps in current systems and highlights the strategic shifts necessary to unlock workforce potential.
Download the infographic to learn:
- Why only 39% of HR professionals rate their current career development processes as effective.
- How career development leaders are 7X more likely than laggards to successfully identify and address employee skills gaps.
- Why 40% of organizations still limit development programs, often excluding frontline workers and underrepresented groups.
- How leading organizations are 4X more likely to have formal internal mobility processes to overcome hiring freezes and a lack of non-managerial career paths.
- Why increasing manager accountability is critical, as only 16% of organizations currently require managers to actively support employee growth.
Career development maturity remains low.
96% of organizations fail to reach the “Innovative” stage of career development program maturity.
- 4% Innovative: Integrated, reinforced, forward-looking, agile, linked with workforce planning, and constantly trying to improve
- 13% Strategic: A formal approach is culturally reinforced, linked to specific goals, and integrated with succession and talent management
- 20% Defined: There’s a defined and standardized approach linked to performance reviews but it’s not prioritized
- 34% Advancing: Managers provide some support but lack structure
- 30% Beginning: Programs are either ad-hoc or nonexistent
How to evolve from stagnant to strategic
- First, strengthen foundational processes.
- Second, remove barriers to internal mobility.
- Third, invest in development- driven initiatives.
- Fourth, ensure equitable access to development opportunities.
- Fifth, increase manager accountability.
- Finally, incorporate AI and technology to scale development.
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