Following “The Career Equation: What Attracts Talent Isn’t What Keeps Them,” new Right Management report shows how to close the gap
MILWAUKEE, Nov. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — With 40% of today’s skills expected to become obsolete within five years, career development is no longer optional—it’s business critical. Yet new research shows most organizations are failing to help employees navigate what comes next.
Right Management, a global leader in talent and career management solutions and part of the ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN) family of brands, today released the latest installment in its 2025 State of Careers series. The new report, “The Career Imperative: Why Employee Growth Is the Smart Bet for Business Resilience,” builds on insights from the first report, “The Career Equation: What Attracts Talent Isn’t What Keeps Them.” It offers a data-driven roadmap for organizations to reimagine career development as a strategic driver of workforce agility and long-term business success.
As AI disruption, skills-based hiring, and evolving work models transform the world of work, the research reveals a widening gap between employee ambition and organizational support—and how closing that gap can unlock engagement, retention, and resilience.
“Career support is too often treated as an event, not a journey,” said Caroline Pfeiffer Marinho, SVP and Global Business Leader for Talent Solutions Right Management. “Employees need space to test out new roles and skills to shape their own future, and organizations need aligned and engaged teams to thrive. This report shows how to build a culture where careers live and breathe as part of your business, because so does work.”
Key Findings from the Report
- Career planning is broken: A staggering 4 in 10 employees have no career plan, and only 4% have a clearly documented path.
- Managers aren’t guiding growth: One in five employees say their manager helps map a career path, and just 15% report receiving clear organizational guidance.
- Learning preferences are evolving: Employees increasingly favor mentoring, internal mobility, and sponsored external courses over static training programs.
- Awareness is low: More than one-third (35%) of employees globally are aware of the development opportunities available to them.
- AI accelerates change: Within five years, 39% of today’s skills will be outdated, making career navigation a business-critical capability.
- New models are emerging: Skill-based structures and career navigation platforms are already reshaping how leading companies develop their people.
These findings highlight the urgent need for organizations to build cultures of continuous learning and growth.
“Across Europe and the world, organizations are facing rapid transformation — from AI disruption to shifting workforce expectations,” said Barbera de Graaf, SVP for Right Management Europe. “To stay competitive, organizations must move beyond traditional career planning and embrace on-the-job learning and coaching as strategic tools. ‘The Career Imperative’ offers organizations a roadmap to build agile, resilient teams through meaningful career and skills support.”
A Call to Action for 2026 and Beyond
To help leaders act on these insights, “The Career Imperative” introduces a forward-looking framework for future-ready career development, urging organizations to:
- Replace rigid career ladders with flexible career pathways
- Make skills the backbone of internal mobility
- Treat AI as a strategic teammate, not a threat
- Empower managers to become career navigators
- Encourage career experiments to foster agility
- Embed learning in the flow of work
To explore the full report and access actionable strategies, visit: www.right.com/state-of-careers.
ABOUT MANPOWERGROUP TALENT SOLUTIONS RIGHT MANAGEMENT
Talent Solutions combines our leading global offerings—RPO, TAPFIN-MSP and Right Management—to help organizations address their complex workforce needs. Talent Solutions leverages our deep industry expertise and understanding of what talent wants to provide end-to-end, data-driven capabilities across the talent lifecycle. From talent attraction and acquisition to upskilling, development and retention, we provide seamless delivery, leveraging best-in-class technology and extensive workforce insights across multiple countries at scale. Right Management, part of the ManpowerGroup® family of companies—including Manpower and Experis—is our global talent management offering for outplacement, career management and leader development solutions.
For more information, visit right.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.
ABOUT MANPOWERGROUP
ManpowerGroup® (NYSE: MAN), the leading global workforce solutions company, helps organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing, and managing the talent that enables them to win. We develop innovative solutions for hundreds of thousands of organizations every year, providing them with skilled talent while finding meaningful, sustainable employment for millions of people across a wide range of industries and skills. Our expert family of brands – Manpower, Experis, and Talent Solutions – creates substantially more value for candidates and clients across more than 70 countries and territories and has done so for more than 75 years. We are recognized consistently as a best place to work for Women, Inclusion, Equality, and Disability, and in 2025 ManpowerGroup was named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for the 16th time; all confirming our position as the brand of choice for in-demand talent.
For more information, visit www.manpowergroup.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Bluesky.
