By Rachel Emma Silverman 

For years, companies have left employees to figure out their careers on their own. Now, a handful of firms are helping workers map out their next steps.

Big companies like Aflac Inc., Genentech Inc. and American Express Co. are hiring career counselors, training some managers to give job advice and launching in-house career centers similar to those found on college campuses. Other companies, such as Accenture PLC, are taking steps to better market internal job opportunities and make clear what it takes to land a new position.

As the hiring market heats up, the idea is to help workers plot their next few jobs and learn how to ascend the corporate ladder--preferably without having to leave the company.

Company career centers are open to everyone, but human-resources executives say that some efforts are designed to appeal to younger workers who are demanding more clarity about their prospects, and in some cases, want to feel they are being groomed for bigger and better things.

"There [are] a lot of questions and uncertainty about what's next for us. When do you talk to your managers about your next move? When do you start looking for your next job?" says Julianne Strom, a 26-year-old marketing manager at HR technology company Workday Inc. "We are all unsure about that."

Workday started a new program late last year to promote job postings internally and to train managers to tackle young workers' career questions. As the nine-year-old company has grown to more than 3,500 workers, top leaders wanted a formalized approach to developing people's careers, rather than just "letting it happen," says Ashley Goldsmith, the Pleasanton, Calif., company's chief human resources officer.

Less than half of the respondents to a recent Towers Watson survey of 32,000 workers and 1,600 employers said they felt their companies provided useful career-planning tools or meaningful chances to get ahead. Lack of career opportunities ranks after pay as a major reason why workers leave firms, consulting firm Towers Watson says.

Employee retention is becoming a bigger worry for employers as the economy improves. More than a third of companies report rising turnover, according to Towers Watson, with more than half indicating they are having trouble keeping top performers.

Veronica Covington logs a few hours a week at the career center at Aflac's headquarters, where she practices mock interviews with a counselor and researches job opportunities.

Ms. Covington, 29, says meetings with a career counselor helped her advance three levels, from a research specialist to her current job as an account relations specialist for the Columbus, Ga., insurer. At first, she said she wasn't sure she was qualified for some higher-ranking positions until the career adviser encouraged her.

Aflac started the career center after employee surveys showed staff was unsure about their next step at the insurer, with many indicating they felt unprepared to win promotions, says Teresa White, president of Aflac U.S. Ms. White says the career tuneups have helped Aflac hang on to talented workers, but they have resulted in departures too."All this career counseling and career planning sometimes leads to a career that Aflac does not have," Ms. White says.

Last year, about 20% of Genentech's employees used its South San Francisco, Calif., career center, which offers workers five 45-minute career counseling sessions a year, along with skills assessments and other services.

American Express recently opened a second career counseling center, primarily used by its call-center workers. The new center in Phoenix provides classes on topics such as crafting a résumé and building a "personal brand," the company says.

To be sure, not all career moves are mapped out years in advance, especially in fast-changing industries such as technology. Some firms have begun highlighting unconventional career switches or lateral or cross-functional career moves.

Several years ago, exit interviews at Coca-Cola Amatil (NZ) Ltd., the Coca-Cola bottler in New Zealand, showed that most employees left because they thought they didn't have substantial career opportunities within the company.

As a result, the company launched a series of initiatives to help boost internal career options, says Martin King, general manager of human resources. The company uses a software tool made by Fuel50 that allows workers to rank what they value in a job, such as money, flexibility or travel, and then matches them with positions that meet their criteria. In a program launched this past fall, workers can also sign up for coffee meetings with senior managers to talk about career concerns.

Two years in, the efforts have resulted in 50% reduction in turnover; for those who do leave, fewer blame the lack of career opportunities, says Mr. King.

As online coupon company RetailMeNot Inc. grew rapidly from a tiny Austin, Texas, startup to a publicly traded company with more than 500 employees, company surveys showed that its young workforce was "looking for better defined career paths and timelines," says spokesman Brian Hoyt. "Workers were saying that 'It isn't enough for me to work at a fun Internet company,'...they wanted to know where their career was going," he says.

Last year, managers at the company overhauled internal job postings, moving from simple job descriptions to a more detailed list of responsibilities and competencies, along with a rundown of the skills necessary to get the job, says Annette Alexander, RetailMeNot's vice president of human resources. The company is also training managers to provide career advice to their young reports.

Garrett Bircher, 26, an associate product manager, says when he started at RetailMeNot in 2011 "It was super startup-y," with no coherent approach to employees' careers. "Now I feel more secure. I know four jobs ahead of me now where I want to go and what it takes to get there."

Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at rachel.silverman@wsj.com

Access Investor Kit for Roche Holding AG

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=CH0012032048

Access Investor Kit for Roche Holding AG

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=CH0012032113

Access Investor Kit for Accenture Plc

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=IE00B4BNMY34

Access Investor Kit for AFLAC, Inc.

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US0010551028

Access Investor Kit for American Express Co.

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US0258161092

Access Investor Kit for Roche Holding AG

Visit http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US7711951043

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more Accenture Charts.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024 Click Here for more Accenture Charts.