140 | Career pathsSt John emphasizes that a career path investing in your company. Those dollars Burnoutis a way to stand out from a crowd of go directly toward growth and prosperity competing employers. ‘If you are just of your company because whenever you Having a fully staffed company chasing the almighty dollar, there will develop people, you get their knowledge, benefts not only the bottom line always be somebody who can pay more. perspective, commitment and support.’but also protects your employees But that doesn’t mean that people won’t from burnout. In trying times, be happy working for you. There is more Yerecic Label employees may step in to cover you can offer culturally and in terms One company that understands the value extra work left behind if a position is of opportunities.’ of a clear career path is Yerecic Label. When vacated – however, this is a band-aid, However, many companies are hiring production workers, the company not a solution. As BCC details: ‘The not making the opportunities within outlines a clear career progression which employees who rally to help colleagues their business known, or are failing to moves them up through the ranks of and under-fre managers are those appropriately plan for position vacancies. ‘I equipment with compensation increases at most likely to suffer in the longer have seen lots of companies do this poorly each stage. term.’ Overloading workers is not because they are not intentional,’ said St Asked why Yerecic Label started defning sustainable and, according to BBC, John. ‘A lot of employers will have a vacancy career paths, Elizabeth Yerecic, key account ‘while co-workers feel obligated to and then look to see who to plunk into manager the converter, says: ‘The market help one another, they’re more likely that vacancy without the idea of systemic for labor became a lot tighter over the to have more contempt for their succession planning all the way around.’ past few years and we wanted to be more organization, reach a breaking point Conversely, some companies excel attractive to applicants, particularly on our and leave.’ This then leaves more at career path planning. ‘I have seen production side. vacant positions, which overloads companies do it really well. First, they invest ‘This was also partially due to listening to more employees, and the vicious cycle in their managers so that they have solid the feedback from our current employees. continues. While it may be tempting training and know what it takes to be a Often when someone would go on to let employees strain to cover a large good manager. That’s the frst step. Then vacation, another person would be asked to workload and save money on a vacant they identify a few candidates who would fll in. There was feedback that they wanted position, this supposed money saving be good to grow in their roles and have to be compensated for that specifc work maneuver is a red herring. Companies those intentional conversations around since it was a different level of training or a will pay one way or another – either career path. different piece of equipment. We felt that in higher salary costs up front or in ‘I’ve used this word a couple times: there was value in the cross training that employee burnout and overtime. intention. Often people grow up and they had so we took that in and looked at develop a career path that is sort of accidental. Being intentional about developing your people will give you a “In a time when it is hard to fnd talent, having bigger bang for your buck, because then those folks know there is a program and a clear, intentional development plan for your a path. If they are on the wrong path, workforce is an asset”then they can fgure out what they need to do to get on the right path.’ Ultimately an investment in career paths is an investment in the company, according to St John. ‘The important thing that I want folks reading this to know is when you invest in career paths you are labelsandlabeling.com