The “Jungle Gym” Approach to Attracting and Retaining Talent

Record numbers of the workforce are currently considering career changes or major pivots within their career or company. In addition to compensation or remote work demands, the motivation for this may stem from a desire to attain new and meaningful paths, pursue new goals, or fulfill a sense of purpose born anew in the unrest and malaise of the pandemic years. It is also, as numerous articles and LinkedIn posts attest, a matter of burnout from hustle culture, disinterest in climbing rigid corporate ladders, or a lack of work with sufficient flexibility and creativity.

While employers must recognize the likelihood of talent departing for other paths and companies, they need not view a general desire for change as a guarantee of imminent departure. A mode of career advancement that puts adaptive and flexible approaches front-and-center may help attract and retain talent with the promise of more innovative roles and creative self-determination. As McKinsey recently suggested, organizational adaptivity can become a key trait to combat the current talent churn by forming “a cultural core that helps individuals thrive in ambiguity and uncertainty, giving them a sense of autonomy, belonging, and competence.”

While such adaptivity can be fostered in many areas of company culture, one place to encourage it is in the way employees advance in their careers. Companies that cultivate a culture of creativity and non-linear development through a “jungle gym” path of advancement may find it easier to attract and retain top talent. Such a culture may, in turn, help employees build resilient workplace identities and develop new skills or paths to innovation as they move across teams and departments.

In my work as a Project Manager at ECA Partners, I often pitch positions at a rapidly growing fortune 500 companies with the promise of a “jungle gym” style of advancement. In a “jungle gym,” employees are encouraged to take a more creative approach to their own advancement and professional growth, in turn helping to develop new pathways and practices that benefit both the employee and the firm in unforeseen ways. As one senior recruiter for the F500 company recently explained, “the most impactful roles here don’t exist yet.”

Moving through a “jungle gym” requires self-awareness and determined flexibility on the employee’s part, but also the trust that lateral moves and development in different directions, across teams, or into other departments will be regarded as a significant form of advancement and growth. Though this might diverge from a more traditional trajectory of “up-or-out,” with its meritocratic fight over a few limited places in the hierarchy, a company that welcomes the possibility of lateral moves and bespoke roles may help foster a greater connection and overarching identity while encouraging innovation and upskilling.

Contrary to the concern that such an approach might invite drifters, job hoppers, and those less interested in taking on new, more expansive challenges, my pitch at ECA has time and again piqued the interest of MBAs and enthusiastic management consultants eager to take on more ownership of projects and grow within an organization that is itself disrupting traditional ways of doing business.

These savvy candidates know there is no single way to advance through a “jungle gym.” They know that while certain pathways may prove quicker than others, speed is not the primary goal of such a structure. Instead, with a “jungle gym” mindset guiding them, employees are encouraged to advance with intention, self-awareness, and an expanding, cellular vision of the organization.