The question of who owns an employee’s career sounds simple. In practice, it has fractured countless workplace relationships, stalled promising careers and quietly cost organizations some of their best people. As labor markets shift and employee expectations evolve, the stakes of getting it wrong have never been higher. Research from Gallup’s 2025 American Job Quality Study, which surveyed more than 18,000 U.S. workers, found that one in four American employees report lacking opportunities for career advancement at work—a gap that drives disengagement, job searching and turnover.
Members of the Senior Executive HR Think Tank, a curated group of human resources leaders, recruiters, strategists and organizational consultants, have spent years working at the intersection of this tension. Their consensus: Career ownership is not a binary choice between employee and employer. It is a shared responsibility—but one in which each party plays a distinct, non-negotiable role. When either side fails to show up, the whole system breaks down.
The following insights explore where those lines should fall, what happens when they blur and what leaders can do to build a workplace culture where careers, and the people in them, actually thrive.
“Issues arise when there is a lack of clarity from the company and/or employees pursuing individual goals ahead of corporate goals. ”
The Win-Win That Starts With Transparency
Lauren Francis, Founder and CEO at Mulberry Talent Partners, brings more than 25 years of recruiting and talent acquisition experience to the career ownership question—and more than 10,000 placements across human resources, operations, finance and professional office roles in the greater Portland area. Her framework is built on one core idea: Shared responsibility only works when both sides communicate openly.
“While employees need to own their own career, the most effective organizations approach careers through the lens of shared responsibility,” Francis says. She is direct about what employers owe in that equation. “It is the employer’s responsibility to provide clarity on goals, priorities and career pathways. Doing so enables employees to align and execute with confidence that performance will result in opportunities for career advancement—leading to high-performing teams.”
But the responsibility is genuinely two-directional. “It is the employee’s responsibility to be transparent on career goals and expectations,” she adds. “One cannot assume that managers will intuitively understand what someone desires.” Too often, Francis says, problems surface not from bad intentions on either side, but from a failure to say the quiet part out loud. “Issues arise when there is a lack of clarity from the company and/or employees pursuing individual goals ahead of corporate goals. Transparent and proactive communications from all parties can be quite effective in forming a strong win-win partnership between employee and employer.”
“Design the career you aspire to and only work for people that will make you better.”
Design the Career You Want—and Declare It Out Loud
Not every expert sees career ownership as divided labor. Jason Elkin, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of EQUALS TRUE—a company that delivers bespoke remote teams inclusively for businesses—takes a more unequivocal position: this is on you, full stop.
“Every person needs to own their own career arc. No exceptions,” Elkin says. “Even if you work for a business your family owns, this is still your responsibility.” That directness is deliberate. For Elkin, vagueness about ownership is itself a career risk—one employees take when they wait for someone else to chart the course.
His prescription is both ambitious and specific. “Design the career you aspire to and only work for people that will make you better,” he says. “Declare your ambitions to your managers and become obsessed with becoming the best at what you do. Prepare yourself for the next job or level before you arrive and look for any opportunity to step up.” The result, Elkin says, is almost self-fulfilling: “The rest will take care of itself.”
His point of view stands as a useful corrective to the idea that organizational structures are supposed to do the motivating. They can support—but they cannot substitute for personal initiative.
Employers Own the Environment; Employees Own the Journey
Elkin’s individual-accountability stance finds a natural complement in the thinking of Britton Bloch, VP, Global Talent Acquisition Strategy and Head of Recruiting at Navy Federal Credit Union, the world’s largest credit union. Bloch draws a clear and memorable line between what each party owns—and holds both accountable.
“Career ownership is a shared responsibility, but not an equal one,” she says. On the employer side, the work is structural. “Organizations are responsible for creating the conditions for growth: transparent career pathways, development opportunities, mentorship, stretch assignments and leaders who provide real-time, forward-looking feedback. Development should not be confined to annual reviews; it should be an ongoing leadership practice.”
Employees, however, hold something different. “They must seek stretch opportunities, build networks, cultivate mentors and sponsors, continuously develop new capabilities and actively pursue growth,” Bloch says. She frames the relationship as a true partnership—one that requires active contributions from both sides. “Leaders provide clarity, coaching, opportunities and feedback. Employees bring initiative, curiosity and accountability.”
Her conclusion is precise: “Ultimately, employers own the environment, but employees own the journey.”
Visibility Is the Missing Variable
The shared-responsibility framework only works, according to Volen Vulkov, when employees can actually see the path ahead. Vulkov is Co-Founder of Enhancv, a platform that helps professionals tell their career story with clarity and confidence through resumes built for humans, not just keyword algorithms. His work has been featured in Forbes, HubSpot and Business Insider and cited by institutions including the Thunderbird School of Management and the University of Miami.
“The employee owns the career, but it is up to the company as the employer to make it visible,” Vulkov says. He argues that most organizational growth rhetoric stops well short of practical utility. “Too many organizations talk about growth but do not help employees know what success means. While you are the one that is most invested in your career, organizations must clearly define the path to success.”
The consequences of failing to do so cut in two directions, and Vulkov is precise about both. “An employee who owns their career but cannot see how to succeed will be frustrated; an employee who can see the path to success but does not own it will feel entitled.” Neither outcome serves the organization—or the individual. Visibility, in Vulkov’s framing, is not a perk. It is the infrastructure that makes ownership meaningful in the first place.
Ownership Requires Honest Feedback From Both Sides
Steve Degnan brings a different kind of authority to this conversation. An advisor, board member and former CHRO with 20 years of experience leading human resources at one of the world’s largest food and pet food companies, Degnan has observed career ownership—and career mismanagement—at the highest organizational levels. He is currently writing a book to help professionals navigate the complexities of organizational life, and he speaks with the candor of someone who has seen both sides of the equation fail.
“I’d break it down this way,” Degnan says. “The employee owns discernment—Am I in the right job and organization that fits my skills and temperament? Reasonable expectations—Do my contributions and accomplishments justify my expectations for advancement? And boundaries—What am I willing to do and where am I willing to go?”
For employers, Degnan maps out equivalent obligations. “The employer has the flip sides of those, which include giving honest feedback on performance, explaining what is possible and acceptable in terms of advancement in their culture—how far and fast one can go—and providing development opportunities to help them.” His framework is refreshingly unsentimental. “Not complicated, but we know that both individuals and their managers find ways to make it messy,” he says. The messiness, in Degnan’s experience, rarely comes from malice. It comes from avoidance—from conversations that never happen and feedback that never lands.
Individual Drive, Employer Investment—Both Are Non-Negotiable
Few voices bring the scope and rigor of Dr. Jonathan H. Westover to this question. An award-winning author and podcaster, Associate Dean and Director of HR programs at Western Governors University, and Founder and CEO of Human Capital Innovations—a consulting and coaching firm dedicated to maximizing personal and organizational potential—Westover is also ranked among the top scholars globally for job satisfaction research. He has worked with organizations across six continents and has been quoted as a management expert in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist and Harvard Business Review, among others.
Westover sees the current moment as one in which the balance of responsibility has measurably shifted, and he warns against reading that shift as a license for employers to step back. “Career ownership is fundamentally a shared responsibility, though the balance has shifted toward employees in recent years,” he says. “Individuals must drive their own development—identifying skills gaps, seeking growth opportunities and adapting to market changes. No one else will prioritize your career trajectory as you will.”
At the same time, he is unequivocal about what organizations cannot afford to abandon. “Employers can’t abdicate their role entirely,” Westover says. “They should provide clear pathways for advancement, invest in training, offer mentorship and create environments where growth is possible. When companies treat employees as disposable, they shouldn’t be surprised by high turnover.” His case for mutual investment is not merely ethical—it is strategic.
“Employee-driven ownership protects you from organizational changes, layoffs or stagnant roles. But the best outcomes happen when employers actively support that ownership through resources, feedback and genuine investment in their people’s futures. Neither party thrives when one side completely abandons responsibility.”
“The employee owns the direction. What do I want, what am I building toward, what skill do I refuse to leave this season without? No employer can answer that for you.”
Develop People for Their Future, Not Your Retention Numbers
Christopher Bylone, Principal Strategist and Founder of Innovation Unbiased—a strategic consultancy that transforms workplace culture through data-driven, people-centered strategies—rounds out the Think Tank’s perspective by posing a challenge directed at leaders who confuse career management with retention management. A cancer survivor, global belonging strategist and host of the podcast “I Know I Belong When…,” Bylone has led belonging initiatives at Krispy Kreme and IFF and built multimillion-dollar DEI programs grounded in what he calls the Sage-Rebel archetype: wisdom combined with disruption.
“Career ownership is a partnership. Two parties, two jobs,” Bylone says. He draws the lines cleanly. “The employee owns the direction. What do I want, what am I building toward, what skill do I refuse to leave this season without? No employer can answer that for you, and the ones who pretend to are managing your compliance, not your growth.”
Employers, in turn, hold a different but equally essential obligation. “The employer owns the conditions. Real feedback. Access to stretch work. Honest conversations about where the ceiling actually is,” he says. “You cannot ask for loyalty while hoarding opportunity.”
Then Bylone goes further—sharing a story that reframes the entire conversation. “I once had a team member ready for a promotion I did not have to give. I could have held them in place to protect my headcount. Instead, I helped them land a higher-level role elsewhere. I let them fly.” The lesson is lasting. “That is ownership in practice. You develop people for their future, not your retention numbers. The ones who leave well become the ones who refer you, return to you and vouch for you for years.”
WHAT FORWARD-THINKING LEADERS DO DIFFERENTLY
The insights shared by these HR leaders converge on a set of principles that are both actionable and urgent. Here is what each perspective offers organizations ready to build a healthier career ownership model.
- Make communication the foundation of the partnership. Most career breakdowns stem not from bad intentions, but from assumptions left unchallenged. Employees must voice their ambitions; employers must articulate what advancement actually looks like in their organization.
- Encourage employees to declare their ambitions—and reward the ones who do. The employee who designs their own career path and speaks it out loud is the employee most likely to grow. Organizations that create psychological safety around ambition attract and keep the most driven people.
- Build development into the rhythm of leadership, not just annual reviews. Real-time, forward-looking feedback is an employer obligation—not an HR initiative. Leaders who coach continuously create the conditions for employees to exercise genuine ownership.
- Make the path to success visible before employees have to ask. Career visibility is the infrastructure that makes ownership work. When employees cannot see what success means inside the organization, even the most motivated among them will disengage—or start looking elsewhere.
- Create a feedback culture where honest conversations can happen at every level. Discernment, reasonable expectations and boundaries are the employee’s domain—and honest feedback, transparent advancement criteria and development support are the employer’s. When either side avoids the conversation, the whole framework collapses.
- Protect your people’s futures, even when it costs you something. Mutual investment is the fulcrum of career ownership. Organizations that invest genuinely in their people’s growth—even when that growth leads beyond the current role—build the reputational capital that attracts future talent.
- Develop people for their futures, not your headcount. The goal is not to keep people in place but to develop them so well that they carry your organization’s reputation with them wherever they go. Leaders who let talent fly create ecosystems of loyalty that outlast any org chart.
OWNERSHIP WORKS BEST AS A CONTRACT, NOT A CATCHPHRASE
Career ownership has become a phrase that organizations deploy without always honoring its implications. When it is treated as a way to shift responsibility entirely onto employees, it leads to disengagement, frustration and attrition. When it is understood as a genuine contract—one in which employees bring initiative, self-awareness and declared ambition, and employers bring clarity, honest feedback and real opportunities for growth—it produces some of the most durable and productive workplace relationships imaginable.
The members of the Senior Executive HR Think Tank agree that the balance of responsibility is not perfectly equal, but it is always mutual. The employers who understand this are building environments where people choose to stay and grow. The employees who understand this are building careers that transcend any single organization. In either case, the work begins with a conversation—and a willingness to have it honestly.
