Let's be honest: career pathing in most organisations is broken.
It usually goes something like this. An employee asks their manager about career progression. The manager says something vague about "development opportunities" and promises to follow up. That follow-up never happens. Six months later, the employee is on LinkedIn, quietly exploring their options. By the time you see it in your attrition data, it's already too late.
The frustrating part? It's not that managers don't care. Most of them genuinely want to help their people grow. They just don't have the tools, the time, or — let's face it — the visibility into what internal career paths actually look like.
That's the problem Talent Navigator was built to solve.
What actually is Talent Navigator?
Talent Navigator is GoFIGR's digital career pathing tool. It lets employees explore internal career pathways, understand the skills they'd need to get there, and build a concrete plan to close the gap — all without waiting for their manager to carve out time for a career conversation that neither of them quite knows how to have.
Think of it as giving every employee their own career GPS. They can see where they are now, explore where they could go, and get turn-by-turn directions for how to get there.
For HR teams, it means supporting career development at scale without it becoming another full-time job.
How it works in practice
Employees explore career pathways on their own terms. Whether someone is happy in their current role and wants to deepen their expertise, or they're curious about a sideways move into a completely different function, Navigator lets them explore what's possible. No awkward conversations required (at least, not yet).
Skills gaps become visible — and actionable. Once an employee picks a direction, Navigator identifies the specific skills they'd need to develop. Not vague competencies. Actual, concrete skills with clear development paths.
Recommendations are personalised, not generic. This is where the AI earns its keep. Navigator uses matching algorithms and generative AI to suggest relevant learning content, stretch projects, mentoring opportunities, and even internal meetups — all tailored to that person's unique skills profile and career goals. It packages everything into a straightforward action plan.
Managers and employees get on the same page. Employees can share their career action plans with their managers, which does two things: it gives managers a starting point for career conversations (no more staring at each other across a desk wondering where to begin), and it creates shared accountability for progress.
Why HR teams should care
Career development tools are hardly new. So what makes this different?
It actually addresses the retention problem. We all know the data: lack of career progression is consistently one of the top reasons people leave. Internal mobility programmes that work — genuinely work — are one of the most effective retention levers available. Navigator makes internal mobility tangible and accessible, not just a slide in your EVP deck.
You get data you can actually use. Navigator's analytics dashboard surfaces patterns in employee career aspirations, skills gaps, and mobility trends across the organisation. That's gold dust for workforce planning, succession planning, and L&D investment decisions. Instead of guessing where to focus your development budget, you can see where the demand actually is.
It saves managers from conversations they dread. Career conversations shouldn't feel like pulling teeth, but they often do — especially when managers lack the tools to offer anything concrete. Navigator takes the burden off managers by doing the heavy lifting of matching employees to opportunities. Managers can focus on coaching and support rather than trying to be career counsellors with no training.
Cross-functional collaboration happens more naturally. When employees can see pathways that cross functional boundaries — and find projects and people outside their immediate team — silos start to break down organically. It's workforce agility through the back door.
Getting started is simpler than you'd think
One of the biggest barriers to career pathing tools is implementation complexity. Navigator is designed to sidestep that.
First, we work with you to configure roles and career pathways that reflect your actual organisational structure. We have pre-built role and skills libraries to draw from, so you're not starting from scratch.
The platform itself is designed to be self-service. Employees don't need training — the experience guides them through career exploration naturally. (If your people can use Netflix, they can use Navigator.)
And once it's live, we help you track what's working. Usage metrics, adoption patterns, and employee feedback all feed into a continuous improvement loop so the platform gets more valuable over time, not less.
The bottom line
Career development shouldn't be a box-ticking exercise that lives in a spreadsheet somewhere. It should be a living, breathing part of how your organisation operates — something employees actively engage with because it's genuinely useful to them.
Talent Navigator makes that possible. Not by adding more work to already-stretched HR teams, but by giving employees the tools to drive their own career growth — with the right support, at the right time.
If your career development programme could use a bit of a rethink, let's talk about what Navigator could look like in your organisation.
Helena Turpin spent 20 years in talent and HR innovation where she solved people-related problems using data and technology. She left corporate life to create GoFIGR where she helps mid-sized organizations to develop and retain their people by connecting employee skills and aspirations to internal opportunities like projects, mentorship and learning.
