[Retention conversations](https://www.teampredict.ai/templates#conversations) # Career conversation template A career development conversation guide in five parts, with nine questions and a table of next steps, to fill in together, copy or print. Employee Manager Date **Looking back** Which work in the last six months gave you the most energy? Which work drained you? **Strengths** What do people come to you for? What would you like to be known for? **Direction** What kind of work do you want more of a year from now? Is there a role here, sideways or upward, that interests you? Which direction fits best right now? - Go deeper in my current role - Move toward leading people - Move sideways into a new area - Not sure yet **Gaps** What skill or experience is missing for that step? What would help you build it: a project, a course or a mentor? **Next steps** Columns: Step, Support needed, By when. 3 rows. Last updated October 14, 2026 ## A career conversation is about where the person wants to go next. A career conversation is a meeting between a manager and an employee about the employee's future: what they enjoy, what they are good at, where they want to go and what stands in the way. It is separate from a performance review, which looks back at results, and from a pay conversation. People often leave for a move they would have taken internally if someone had asked. This guide gives the conversation a shape: two questions about the recent past, two about strengths, three about direction, two about gaps, and a short list of next steps. ## Here is how to use the career conversation template in five steps. _Figure: How to use the career conversation template in 5 steps. Step 1: Give notice and the questions. Step 2: Start with energy. Step 3: Accept the answer you get. Step 4: Be honest about what exists. Step 5: Agree two or three steps._ 1. **Give notice and the questions.** Book 45 minutes a week ahead and share the questions, so the person arrives with answers and not with guesses about why you are meeting. 2. **Start with energy.** Begin with the work they enjoyed and the work that drained them. It is easier to answer than a question about a five-year plan. 3. **Accept the answer you get.** Not sure yet is a real answer, and so is wanting to stay in the same role. Do not steer people toward management. 4. **Be honest about what exists.** Say which moves are open here and which are not, and roughly when. Do not promise a role you cannot give. 5. **Agree two or three steps.** Write down small steps with dates, and come back to them in one-on-ones during the quarter. ## Here is a worked example with invented names. Take an invented company, Brambleworth Logistics. Tomas Lindqvist manages Noor Aziz, who has been a route planner for four years, and books a career conversation with her. Noor says the work that gave her the most energy was redesigning the Monday loading schedule, and the work that drained her was the daily exception reports. People come to her to make sense of messy data. She picks a sideways move into a new area, analytics, and names the gap herself: she has never built a dashboard for other people to use. _Figure: A filled-in example. Brambleworth Logistics, an invented company: one career conversation. Employee: Noor Aziz, route planner, 4 years. Manager: Tomas Lindqvist. Gave the most energy: Redesigning the Monday loading schedule. Drained her: The daily exception reports. Direction: Move sideways into a new area: analytics. Gap: Has never built a dashboard for other people to use. Next steps: Build the depot delay dashboard with the analytics team this quarter, and shadow an analyst one afternoon a week._ They agree two steps. Noor builds the depot delay dashboard with the analytics team this quarter, and she shadows an analyst one afternoon a week. They will talk again in three months. ## These mistakes spoil a career conversation. - Holding it only at review time, when pay and ratings crowd out everything else. - Assuming everyone wants to manage people. Many want to get better at the craft. - Talking about the company's needs first and the person's wishes second. - Promising a promotion or a date you do not control. - Having a good conversation and never mentioning it again. ## People ask these questions about career conversations. ### What is a career conversation? A career conversation is a planned discussion between an employee and their manager about the employee's direction: what they want to do more of, which roles interest them and what they need to learn. It looks forward, and it is separate from reviews of past performance. ### How often should managers hold career conversations? Twice a year suits most people, with shorter check-ins on the agreed steps in between. Hold one sooner after a change: a new manager, a reorganization, or the end of a large project. ### How is a career conversation different from a performance review? A performance review assesses results over a past period and often feeds into pay. A career conversation is about the person's future and has no rating attached. Mixing the two makes people guarded, so hold them at different times. ### What if there is no promotion available? Say so plainly, then look at what is available: a larger project, a sideways move, a new skill, mentoring someone, or more say over how the work is done. Growth is wider than a title. ### What if the employee wants a path the company cannot offer? Thank them for being open and be honest in return. Help with the parts you can, such as skills and exposure, and accept that they may leave one day. The person does better work while they are with you, and they may speak well of you, or come back, later. ## These glossary terms explain the ideas behind it. - [Internal mobility](https://www.teampredict.ai/glossary#internal-mobility) Internal mobility is people moving into new roles inside the company, sideways or upward, instead of leaving to get the same move elsewhere. - [Employee value proposition (EVP)](https://www.teampredict.ai/glossary#employee-value-proposition) An EVP is the whole deal an employer offers in exchange for work: pay, growth, flexibility, the work itself, the people and the mission. - [One-on-one](https://www.teampredict.ai/glossary/one-on-one) A one-on-one is a recurring private conversation between a manager and a direct report about the work, the obstacles and the person's growth. - [Employee retention](https://www.teampredict.ai/glossary/employee-retention) Employee retention is a company's ability to keep the people it wants to keep, for as long as the business needs them. - [Boomerang employee](https://www.teampredict.ai/glossary#boomerang-employee) A boomerang employee is a former employee who is rehired by the same company after working somewhere else. ## These pages on this site go deeper. - [Why good employees leave](https://www.teampredict.ai/blog/why-good-employees-leave) - [15 employee retention strategies](https://www.teampredict.ai/blog/employee-retention-strategies) - [How to build an EVP](https://www.teampredict.ai/blog/employee-value-proposition) ## These templates pair well with this one. - [Individual development plan template](https://www.teampredict.ai/templates/individual-development-plan) Strengths, direction and three development goals with actions and dates. - [Stay interview template](https://www.teampredict.ai/templates/stay-interview) Ten questions in four themes, and the actions you agree before the meeting ends. - [One-on-one meeting agenda template](https://www.teampredict.ai/templates/one-on-one-meeting-agenda) Six timed parts for a 30-minute one-on-one, with their topics first. ## Find out who is showing exit signals. Score one person against ten factors in five areas, in a few minutes, and see which signals are contributing most. [Run a flight risk assessment](https://www.teampredict.ai/tools/employee-flight-risk-assessment) Free, no signup required. About TeamPredict TeamPredict is retention early-warning software that flags resignation risk from public LinkedIn signals, so you have lead time to keep the people you want to keep. [See how TeamPredict works](https://www.teampredict.ai/retention-software) [Back to the HR templates](https://www.teampredict.ai/templates), where all 22 are listed.