Employee Experience

How to Solve Skills Gaps with Career Pathways That Actually Work

Why skills gaps keep HR leaders awake at night

If you lead HR or L&D in a large organisation, chances are you’re no stranger to the skills gap conversation. 

You hear it from line managers who can’t fill vacancies, from executives frustrated by stalled transformation projects, and from employees who feel stuck without development opportunities.

The reality is stark. In the UK, three in five employers report that skills shortages are holding back business growth. 

Globally, 63% of organisations say gaps in workforce capability are their biggest barrier to change. 

That translates into delayed projects, lost revenue, rising recruitment costs and, perhaps most worryingly, a disengaged workforce.

And while “skills gap” can sound like an abstract problem, the impact shows up in your day-to-day:

  • Managers constantly firefighting to cover roles.
  • Recruitment teams under pressure to find scarce talent in a competitive market.
  • HR directors struggling to deliver long-term strategy because too much time is spent plugging holes.
  • Employees frustrated because they don’t see where their career can go next.

It’s exhausting. And it’s not sustainable.

 

What do we actually mean by a “skills gap”?

Before we explore solutions, let’s define the problem. A skills gap is the difference between the skills an organisation needs to achieve its goals and the skills its workforce currently has.

There are several dimensions to this:

  • Missing skills: A new technology or process requires expertise your people simply don’t have.
  • Outdated skills: Employees are competent, but their knowledge is based on old ways of working.
  • Mismatched skills: People are highly skilled – but in areas that don’t align with future priorities.

In the UK, this issue is especially pronounced in digital and technical fields, leadership, and healthcare.

The pace of automation and AI adoption means nearly 40% of workers’ core skills will change by 2030. Without a strategy to close those gaps, organisations risk falling behind.

 

Why traditional fixes aren’t working

Many organisations try to solve the problem with familiar tactics – external hiring, one-off training sessions, or rigid career ladders.

  • Hiring your way out: Recruiting new talent is expensive and competitive. Skilled candidates are scarce, and external hires take longer to become productive.
  • Ad-hoc training: Sending employees on occasional courses may tick the box, but rarely creates lasting skill change or career momentum.
  • Linear ladders: Traditional “up-or-out” progression doesn’t reflect modern careers. Employees want flexibility, lateral moves, and growth that aligns with their interests.

These approaches may provide temporary relief, but they don’t address the root issue. 

Skills gaps continue to widen, employees remain disengaged, and HR leaders stay stuck in firefighting mode.

 

Imagine the alternative: A workforce that grows with you

Now picture a different reality, where.

  • Employees can clearly see where their career might take them inside your organisation.
  • Managers act as career coaches, guiding team members toward opportunities that align with business needs.
  • Skills are built continuously, not in one-off bursts, with learning woven into daily work.
  • Vacancies are filled faster – and more cheaply – by redeploying existing people.
  • Engagement and retention climb, because people feel invested in and excited about their future.

That’s what it looks like when career pathways are in place. 

Instead of firefighting, HR can focus on strategy. 

Instead of fearing disruption, the organisation becomes more adaptable.

 

Career pathways explained

So, what exactly are career pathways?

A career pathway is a structured but flexible framework that shows employees how they can progress in their careers, the skills they need to get there, and the learning opportunities available along the way.

Unlike the old ladder model – where each promotion was a single upward step – career pathways are more like a lattice or a map. People can move vertically, horizontally, or diagonally depending on their interests and the organisation’s needs.

Key characteristics include:

  • Transparency: Employees know what skills are valued and how to develop them.
  • Flexibility: Multiple routes exist, not just one.
  • Alignment: Pathways are designed to meet future business needs as well as individual aspirations.

And here’s the business case: companies with strong internal mobility retain employees for an average of 5.4 years, compared to just 2.9 years where mobility is weak.

How career pathways close skills gaps

Skills gaps feel overwhelming when they’re abstract: “We don’t have enough digital skills,” or “We need more leaders ready for succession.” 

Career pathways make them concrete. 

They break down the problem into visible, manageable steps that connect directly to business outcomes. 

Here’s how:

1. Mapping current and future skills

Career pathways start with a clear baseline. 

That means identifying the skills your workforce has today, the proficiency levels they’re at, and how those compare to the skills your organisation will need tomorrow.

  • This usually involves a skills audit or the use of a skills taxonomy aligned to your industry. For example, a retail business might map customer analytics, supply chain automation, and digital merchandising as future-critical skills.
  • Modern platforms use AI inference to build skill profiles automatically from employees’ CVs, learning history, or project work, which reduces admin and uncovers hidden strengths.
  • Once you see the gap – e.g. “We have 200 people with intermediate digital literacy, but only 10 with advanced data analytics” – you can design targeted interventions rather than broad, unfocused training.

Without this mapping, HR leaders often overestimate or underestimate what the organisation can already do. With it, they gain a clear dashboard of capability.

2. Targeted development that links to real opportunities

Generic training has limited impact because employees struggle to see “what’s in it for me.” Career pathways fix this by connecting learning directly to progression.

  • For each pathway, employees can see which skills unlock which roles. For example: “If you build competence in Python and data storytelling, you’re on track to move from Reporting Analyst to Data Scientist.”
  • Learning becomes personalised. Someone interested in leadership might take a pathway through mentoring and stretch projects, while another might deepen technical expertise through certifications.
  • Organisations benefit because employees are building the exact capabilities needed for future growth, rather than collecting irrelevant training hours.

When learning is tied to visible career movement, uptake and completion rates soar. 

LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report found that employees who set career goals engage with learning 4× more than those who don’t.

3. Enabling internal mobility to close urgent gaps

One of the fastest ways to close a skills gap is to redeploy talent internally. 

But many organisations don’t have transparent mechanisms for this, so employees leave when they want change. Career pathways open the doors.

  • A career marketplace or pathway map shows employees open roles or projects that fit their skillsets and aspirations.
  • HR leaders can use pathway data to identify “ready-now” talent pools. For instance, if cyber security skills are in shortage, pathways may reveal a group of IT analysts who are 80% of the way there, needing just one certification to step up.
  • This reduces reliance on external recruitment – which is expensive and slow – and ensures capability gaps are filled faster.

Data backs this up: organisations with strong internal mobility see retention improve by almost 3 years per employee compared to those without.

4. Boosting retention and engagement

Engagement is one of the most powerful but overlooked levers in solving skills gaps. 

Disengaged employees don’t learn, don’t stretch, and often leave – taking their skills with them. 

Career pathways reverse this dynamic.

By retaining the skills you already have – and keeping people excited to develop new ones – career pathways reduce the churn that makes gaps worse.

5. Building balanced skillsets for the future

Finally, pathways ensure that organisations aren’t just filling immediate technical shortages but building the balanced skills portfolio needed for long-term success.

  • Technical skills (AI, coding, data analysis) are mapped alongside soft and social skills (communication, leadership, collaboration).
  • This is crucial because many of the fastest-growing gaps are in human skills. The World Economic Forum predicts demand for analytical and creative thinking will grow by over 60% by 2030, yet fewer than 10% of today’s workforce are confident in them.
  • A well-designed pathway includes both: a Data Engineer, for example, doesn’t just progress on coding ability, but also through communication and stakeholder management training that prepares them to lead teams.

This holistic view ensures organisations don’t create “skills silos” but instead develop adaptable, rounded professionals.

Turning the vague into the actionable

Without pathways, “closing the skills gap” feels like trying to hold back the tide. With them, it becomes a structured, step-by-step process:

  • Know what you have.
  • Know what you need.
  • Show people how to get there.
  • Support them with learning.
  • Move them into the roles that matter.

It’s a transformation from vague aspiration to actionable plan – and one that pays back in retention, agility, and growth.

 

Seeing is believing: Interactive career maps

One of the most powerful ways to bring pathways to life is through interactive career maps.

These tools give employees a visual representation of possible routes through the organisation. Instead of abstract frameworks, they can see where they might go next, what skills they’ll need, and how to get there.

For HR and L&D teams, maps offer clarity and transparency. They reduce bias in promotions, highlight lateral moves, and provide data on skill development across the workforce. For employees, they spark motivation and create a sense of ownership over their future.

We’ve explored this in detail in our Interactive Career Maps article.

 

Lessons from real-world success stories
  • Microsoft needed to reskill 15,000 salespeople to sell cloud solutions. Through a cohort-based career learning journey, they cut rollout time from 4+ years to under 18 months and attributed over $1 billion in new deal revenue to the programme.
  • DHL launched an internal AI-driven Career Marketplace to match employees with opportunities. It reduced external hiring by over 10%, saving millions, and made it easier for people to move internally than to look outside.
  • Salesforce built its Future Pathways programme with nonprofit partners, creating 1,200+ careers for diverse young professionals while also filling critical roles with trained talent.

 

How to make career pathways work in your organisation

 

It’s tempting to think this requires huge investment, but success often comes from starting small and scaling.

Step 1: Audit and align
Map your existing workforce skills, then align them to future business needs.

Step 2: Design clear pathways
Keep them simple. Focus on a few job families or core roles first, with transparent criteria and multiple routes.

Step 3: Embed into learning and HR systems
Link your L&D platforms to the pathways so employees can immediately access relevant training.

Step 4: Train managers as coaches
Managers have the biggest influence on engagement. Equip them to guide careers, not hoard talent.

Step 5: Pilot, scale, iterate
Run a pilot with one division, gather feedback, refine, and then scale organisation-wide.

 

Common pitfalls to avoid:
  • Over-complicating frameworks.
  • Treating pathways as static documents.
  • Launching without leadership support.
  • Poor communication that leaves employees confused.

 

Measuring success and making it stick

The question every leader asks: How will we know this is working?

Key metrics include:

 

Most organisations see early wins – such as faster internal moves or higher learning engagement – within 6-12 months. 

Longer-term impact on retention and productivity typically shows within 2-3 years.

The secret is to keep pathways alive. Review them regularly, adapt to new skills, and maintain open communication with employees.

 

Overcoming barriers: FAQs

What if budgets are tight?
Start small. Use existing performance reviews and free/low-cost online learning to build your first pathways.

What if leaders are sceptical?
Show them the cost of doing nothing. Recruitment is more expensive than reskilling, and engagement drives profitability.

What if employees resist?
Involve them in the design. Interactive maps and transparent communication help people feel ownership.

What if technology keeps changing?
Pathways are not fixed ladders – they’re flexible maps. Build in regular review cycles to stay current.

How do we ensure equity?
Publish clear criteria, train managers to avoid bias, and use data to monitor fairness in mobility and promotions.

 

From skills gaps to skills growth

Skills gaps may be the biggest challenge HR leaders face today – but they don’t have to be a permanent reality. 

Career pathways transform the problem into an opportunity: an engaged, skilled, and adaptable workforce that grows with your business.

  • For you, that means less firefighting and more strategic impact.
  • For your employees, it means hope, clarity, and motivation. 
  • For the business, it means productivity, innovation, and future readiness.

The next step is simple: start making career growth visible. 

Book your discovery session here and we can work together to create career pathways that solve your organisation’s skills gaps.