Create a career path

👥 Only account administrators can see, upload, and manage career paths.

Customers can leverage career paths to define their role-based competencies in 15five.

In this article, you will learn...

• How to access career paths in 15Five
• How to prepare and upload career paths via CSV
• How to add or edit career paths one-off

Access career paths

1. Click on the Settings gear in the top, right-hand corner of 15Five.
   
2. Select 'Features' from the dropdown menu.
   
3. Click into the 'Competencies and Paths' section.
   
4. You're now on the settings page for Competencies and Paths. From here, click into the 'Career paths & roles' tab in the top navigation bar.
   
5. You're now on the "Career paths and roles" page. Here, you will define career paths and which Roles are included in each career path.
   

Prepare and upload career paths via CSV

What's included in the CSV file

A career paths CSV file contains five columns: Path, Job title, Competency, Skill, and Key behavior.

• Career Paths are the titles or overall ladders/paths for a collection of jobs. For example— the "Sales" career path would include all job titles contained within the Sales department.
• Job titles are the titles of roles within your organization. For example, "Sales Development Representative."
• Competencies are demonstrable and measurable clusters of knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes that an employee needs to perform their work functions successfully. For example, "Developing Business Acumen," "Setting Goals," or "Giving and Receiving Feedback." For inspiration, check out our competency library in pages 9-11 of 15Five's Competency Creation Playbook.
• Skills are proficiencies, facilities, or dexterities that are acquired or developed through training or experience. For example, skills for a competency titled "Problem solving and creative thinking" may include "Problem definition and issue identification," "Structuring hypotheses; analytical skills & approach," and "Developing recommendations."
  
  💡

  Tip

  We get asked pretty often to explain the difference between competencies and skills. Think of it this way: A set of competencies is ultimately the umbrella over all the skills (and characteristics and knowledge) a person needs to do their job well. One competency could be made up of a number of different skills. In short, a skill is typically applied to a specific task or activity, while a competency is a combination of knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors that are required to perform a participant job or task effectively and are developed over time. Skills can also be measured more easily and objectively than competencies, which are more subjective and require a more holistic approach to evaluate.

• Key behaviors are expectations at the role level. For example: “You are learning how to research, identify market trends, and analyze data and information so that they all can play roles in your development of a product strategy.”

How to structure career paths for your organization

One competency can group multiple skills and key behaviors. Additionally, Career Paths can have different structures based on your organization’s unique needs. For example:

• job title > competency > skill > key behaviors
• job title > competency > key behaviors
• job title > skill > key behaviors
• job title > key behaviors

Some tips to keep in mind as you create your CSV file

• For best results, we recommend limiting one path/department per CSV import.
• We recommend adding roles in the order you want them to appear in your path.
• Limit one Key behavior per skill. If one skill is duplicated with different key behaviors for one ladder, the upload will take the first key behavior.
• If you've previously added competencies, items listed here will be connected to those previously added.
• If you haven't previously added competencies and want to use them in Career Paths, you need to add them using Competencies CSV upload or add manually before uploading Career Paths file.

Upload career paths via CSV

1. From the "Career paths and roles" page, click the download arrow on the Add a career path button in the top, right-hand corner of the page and select 'Import from CSV' from the dropdown menu.
   
2. You'll be taken to the 'Import' tab. From here, click Download template to download a CSV template for career paths.
   
3. Your CSV contains five columns: Path, Job title, Competency, Skill, and Key behavior. Fill out the CSV, then save it as a UTF-8 file. When you're ready to upload your file, click Continue to upload.
   
4. You're now on the import screen. From here, click Create new import and select your CSV file.
   
5. You'll be taken to a screen that lists what new competencies will be created as a result of your import, along with other helpful information. Read through this page, then click Publish.
   
6. Congratulations! Your file is now published, and you can see new and/or edited career paths on the "Career paths and roles" page.

Add or edit a new career path one-off

1. From the "Career paths and roles" page, click the Add a career path button in the top, right-hand corner of the page.
   
2. A form will appear on the right-hand side of your screen. Here, provide a name for your career path (e.g. Sales) and provide the names of the roles that should be included in the career path (e.g. SDR, Account Executive, Senior Account Executive).
   
3. When you're done, click Save.
   
4. The career path you created will now appear on the "Career paths and roles" page, along with any other career paths admins within your organization have created.
5. To edit a career path, click the ... to its right and select 'Edit' from the dropdown menu.
6. To delete a career path, click the ... to its right and select 'Delete' from the dropdown menu.