Introduction

We already discussed the Engagement “I” Path and its steps. Based on our research and our work, we have concluded that employees go through different steps in engagement in a company as they move through stages of their careers. In part III, chapters 7 and 8, we discuss employee engagement through an employee’s career. We also show how we see the process of employee engagement and its steps as related to the stages of engagement through an employee’s career. As you read these chapters, we encourage you to keep in mind that today’s workforce is composed of many individuals who have had or will have multiple jobs and experiences.

In part III, we delve into what happens at each stage of the employee’s career and return to the drivers of engagement to emphasize which ones are more important at each stage. We also indicate some of the behaviors that employees tend to display in each one of those stages. At the end of our discussion of each stage, we suggest what you, as a manager, should and should not do to promote employee engagement at each one.

We will guide you again to think about the information that we have shared with you through questions at the end of each section. We hope that by answering these questions, you will be able to apply what you have learned to your particular circumstances.

We will now introduce our view of the stages of engagement in an employee’s career and then discuss each one of those stages in further detail.

Stages of Engagement in an Employee’s Career: Career “I” Path

When an employee begins her career, either because it is her first job or because she has recently changed careers, she is at the Just Beginning stage. Afterward, she moves to the Getting Settled stage, where she masters the requirements of the position and feels comfortable with what she is doing, perhaps consequently moving into what is commonly known as a comfort zone. When an employee reaches a point where she believes that she has mastered the responsibilities of the position and needs to do something else to continue growing, she begins the Looking for More stage. Once she obtains a new role or position and begins to meet those needs with a sustainable level of mastery, she decides to focus on maintaining such level of performance in the Riding the Tide stage. Afterward, she develops a sense of having completed everything that she thought was possible in the career and reaches the Mission Accomplished stage. During this stage, she begins to ponder about what to do next either in this particular career or as a professional; some employees stay in the Mission Accomplished stage during an extended period of time while others go quickly to the Moving On stage. When it is time to start another career, the employee enters the Moving On stage and returns to Just Beginning. In contrast, the career of an employee who chooses to leave the workforce altogether after the Moving On stage will end. Figure 2 presents a graphic representation of how we view these stages of the Career “I” Path.

We will now discuss each one of these stages. Chapter 7 covers Just Beginning, Getting Settled, and Looking for More. In chapter 8 we’ll wrap up the path with Riding the Tide, Mission Accomplished, and Moving On.

Figure 2 Career "I" Path