Career Navigation for Conservation Employees

The Coastal Conservation League, established in 1989, is dedicated to protecting South Carolina’s coastal environment for the benefit of its communities and future generations. Despite our impactful work, our industry faces a significant challenge: career stagnation among non-profit staff. A February 2024 study from the School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, revealed that career plateaus lead to employee disengagement and reduced performance (Chang et al., 2024). This issue is prevalent in non-profits, where limited opportunities for advancement often result in turnover and underutilized potential.

In South Carolina’s non-profit sector, including our organization of 40+ team members, this issue affects workers across all roles, from hourly to salaried staff. Stagnation limits skill development, reduces morale, and ultimately affects organizational impact. To address this, we’ve implemented a customizable career ladder program designed to foster skill development and growth. Each career path includes tailored timelines for advancement, resources for professional development, and access to training and certifications aligned with employees’ roles and aspirations. By empowering our staff to grow, we aim not only to improve retention but also build a more adaptive, skilled, and resilient workforce, supporting long-term economic mobility for individuals and their families. 

Our solution is a comprehensive, customizable career ladder program designed to support skill development and career advancement for all employees. Developed collaboratively by the Director of Human Resources and our leadership team, this program identifies the skills needed within our organization while empowering employees to succeed in their current roles and prepare for future opportunities. 

The program provides clear guidelines and resources for growth, including access to training, certifications, and professional development opportunities tailored to each role. Employees can explore their career aspirations in a supportive environment, gaining the skills and confidence needed to advance- whether within our organization or elsewhere.

This program is designed to be inclusive, benefiting all employees regardless of their role, education, or employment status. It ensures continuous engagement by aligning individual growth with organizational needs, creating a win-win solution for both our team and the broader workforce ecosystem.  While not reliant on advanced technology, the program uses accessible tools such as an online platform for tracking progress, resources, and personalized development plans. By fostering skill-building and adaptability, the career ladder program helps employees navigate industry changes, achieve economic mobility, and pursue personal growth.

Our career ladder program serves all 40+ employees across our organization, including those at the beginning, middle, and late stages of their careers. This includes staff at our headquarters in downtown Charleston, field offices in Conway and Beaufort, and our GrowFood Carolina warehouse—the state’s first local food hub supporting rural farmers. These employees often face limited opportunities for career advancement, particularly in non-profit and rural settings where resources for professional development are scarce. 

The program provides a clear pathway for growth, by offering training, certifications, and tailored career plans. Employees gain the tools to advance within our organization or transition to other opportunities, addressing career stagnation while enhancing their productivity and job satisfaction. Ultimately, this program empowers employees to achieve economic mobility and personal growth, benefiting not just the individuals but also the communities we serve. 

Our solution is deeply informed by the needs and ideas of the communities we serve, both within our organization and beyond. Guided by feedback from former and current employees, our Director of Human Resources, Elizabeth Gibson, spearheaded the initiative with a strong commitment to understanding the challenges faced by our workforce. Through a comprehensive workforce analysis, Elizabeth identified gaps in career development and opportunities for growth. 

To strengthen her ability to address these challenges, Elizabeth became a Leadership Development Certified Professional (LDCP), gaining expertise in marketplace trends and effective career development strategies. This certification, combined with direct input from our staff, allowed her to design a program tailored to their unique needs. 

In collaboration with senior leadership, Elizabeth identified the critical skills and competencies required to support our mission and align with employees’ aspirations. The program was developed to assess vertical and horizontal development needs across all career stages and employment tenures, ensuring it meets the diverse needs of our team. 

By incorporating staff input and focusing on practical, actionable solutions, we have created a career ladder program that not only fosters individual growth but also strengthens our organization’s impact. Our team’s proximity to and understanding of our workforce ensures the program is both relevant and effective. 

Our solution is in the "scale" phase because we offer our career ladder program to employees spanning multiple communities, including those who live and work in downtown Charleston, Conway, and Beaufort, South Carolina. The next phase of development is to increase program efficiency and participation across our entire organization.

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Our solution is innovative because it introduces a fully customized career ladder—a tool rarely found in small nonprofit organizations—that applies to every position within the organization. This career ladder is uniquely tailored to meet the needs of employees at all stages of their careers, from early career professionals to those in late-stage roles. Many of our mid-to-late-stage employees are front line workers, such as delivery truck drivers or warehouse associates for GrowFood Carolina, who have historically lacked career growth support. This program has been developed with the intention that every level, from Delivery Drivers to the Executive Director, can participate.  

By integrating existing resources, such as our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), the career ladder provides a holistic approach to employee development and engagement. We are the only environmental conservation organization in the state of South Carolina with this multi-faceted solution. This program goes beyond addressing individual career growth by fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration. It ensures employees are not just prepared for their next career step but are actively contributing to meaningful improvements in their workplace and the communities they serve.

Our career ladder is distinct from similar tools as it emphasizes cross-training opportunities, enabling employees to broaden their skills and gain experience in multiple areas of the organization. Employees are also empowered to lead process improvement projects, which not only enhance organizational operations but also create ripple effects of positive change within the environmental conservation community. 

By demonstrating the success of this model, our approach has the potential to inspire other small nonprofits to adopt similar programs, catalyzing broader positive impacts and raising the standard for workforce development in the sector. 

Progress is monitored at each employees’ annual review with their supervisor. Within the next year, the Coastal Conservation League aims to have at least 25% of our employees begin their career ladder progressions. We will have 2-3 successful completions of the program in the next 1-2 years. Our long-term goal is to achieve 50% career ladder participation over the next 3-5 years.  

According to a July 2024 eLearningMinds article, “employees feel more engaged when their achievements are recognized... engaged employees are not just happier—they are 21% more productive” (Maisarah, 2024). By addressing the needs of an often-underserved workforce, our program fosters skill development, promotes upward mobility, and enhances employee well-being.  

We know our solution is effective because our employees have a 31% utilization rate for EAPs and career growth services, while the average usage for similar tools across the country was only 5.5% in 2018 (Agovino, 2019). This connection between the two benefits is to support the goal of increased engagement and loyalty for our organization and our community. 

Works Cited  

Agovino, T. (2023b, December 21). Companies seek to boost low usage of employee assistance programs. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/topics-to...

Chang, P., Geng, X., & Cai, Q. (2024). The impact of career plateaus on job performance: the roles of organizational justice and positive psychological capital. Behavioral Sciences, 14(2), 144. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs1402... 

eLearningMinds, & Maisarah, H. (2024, July 24). Engaged Employees are 21% More Productive: Here’s How to Boost Engagement in Your Workplace. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/engaged-employees-21-more-productive-heres-how-boost-engagement-oznxc 

Seven full-time staff members serve on the solution team. 

Our team has been working on our solution for over one year.

Our organization prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion in our workplace by advertising open positions in expanded mechanisms and locations. We advertise open positions on 30 different platforms to reach the largest, most diverse pool of applicants. For example, we place hiring signs for delivery drivers on the side of the road, so that individuals who might not have access to internet can see the position while on the road. In addition to career planning for late-stage employees, we also offer comprehensive retirement education to our employees and an EAP that provides financial management and life management.

The Coastal Conservation League advocates to protect the natural environment of South Carolina’s coast for the benefit of all. We envision a South Carolina coast where wildlife thrives, air and water are clean, and natural landscapes are protected for generations to come. GrowFood Carolina, founded in 2011, has been central to the Coastal Conservation League’s purpose to conserve the coastal plain’s rural landscape, preserve agricultural heritage, and build local sustainability. We enable farming to remain economically viable so that farmers can resist pressures to sell their productive agricultural land to developers—thus supporting rural conservation and the livelihood of rural economies. Our organization relies heavily on employees to support the important work we do. Investing in our employees is critical to the success of our mission. 

The Coastal Conservation League depends on philanthropic support to achieve our mission. Through our 35 years in operation, we have developed a strong network of sustained supporters, donors, employees, and volunteers who are critical to the work we do. Our Advancement team has recently grown by 100%, and our team of seasoned fundraising professionals are dedicated to expanding the donor pipeline so that we can continue addressing new and ongoing threats to the South Carolina coast.

A Truist Foundation Inspire Award would be especially meaningful to our organization, as it would shine a spotlight on our career development program, helping us to attract top talent, as well as demonstrate our investment and focus on our team. We hope inspire similar non-profit organizations to adopt practices that invest in their employees’ futures and support a more productive and engaged workforce. With help from the new market tax credit from Truist NMTC, we are able to fund two new positions, one of which is in the late-stage of his career. We are grateful for the opportunities Truist has provided us thus far, and we hope to strengthen our relationship through a Truist Inspire Award.