What can a career path look like when there aren't many levels to move up?
When there aren't many levels to move up, a career path can be built from growth in scope, skill, and responsibility rather than from job titles alone. An employee might take on more complex work, become the person who trains new hires, learn a second role so they can cover it, lead an improvement project, or take on part of a supervisor's responsibilities as preparation for leading others.
Ways to grow without a new level (examples)
- Broader scope. More complex assignments, larger accounts, or responsibility for a process from start to finish.
- New skills. Training or cross-training that makes the employee more capable and more valuable to the organization.
- Lateral moves. A move into a different team or role that builds experience the person wants.
- Teaching others. Onboarding, training, or mentoring newer employees.
- Leading work. Running a project, a pilot, or a committee before managing people.
Each of these means more when it's recognized, whether through a new title, a pay increase, a formal designation, or a clear record of what the person has taken on. If growth only ever means more work with nothing to show for it, employees may reasonably stop seeing it as growth.
How do we find out what kind of growth our employees want?
You find out what kind of growth your employees want by asking them, individually and in a setting where they can answer honestly. Supervisors can ask what employees would like to be doing in a year or two, what skills they want to build, and what has made them think about leaving, if anything has. Some employees will want to advance, others will want to get better at the job they have, and some will want predictability more than change.
Look at the patterns too. If the people who leave tend to go after a certain number of years, or from certain roles, that can show you where the lack of a path is felt most, and long-tenured employees can tell you what has kept them.
What you hear should shape what you build. A path designed without asking may offer growth nobody wanted, and it can leave out the kind people were hoping for. How do I find out what my employees actually need? covers how to ask so that people answer candidly.
Why does it matter whether the career path is written down?
Writing a career path down matters because employees can't plan toward something they can't see. A path that lives only in a manager's head may be offered to some people and not others. When the steps, the expectations for each one, and the way decisions are made are described clearly, employees can see what is possible and what it takes, and the path doesn't depend on which supervisor someone happens to have.
For many workers, the lack of a visible future is a real concern. In a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of workers who had left a job by choice in 2021, 63 percent said no opportunities for advancement was a reason, the same share that cited low pay. That doesn't tell you why your own employees leave, but it's a reason to find out whether a lack of growth is part of it.
A written path doesn't have to be elaborate. For each role, describe what someone could grow into, what skills or experience that requires, how they could get that experience here, and who they should talk to about it.
What if we genuinely can't offer much advancement?
If you genuinely can't offer much advancement, say so honestly, and focus on the growth you can offer. Employees are generally better served by knowing what is and isn't possible than by waiting for a promotion that won't come. You may still be able to offer new skills, more interesting work, more say in how the work is done, or experience that will help them later in their careers.
Sometimes the honest answer is that an employee's next step is somewhere else. Supporting that person while they're with you, and helping them build the skills they need, is part of being a good place to work. The people who stay may notice it. The goal isn't to keep people in jobs that don't work for them. If you're weighing whether to develop your own people for harder-to-fill roles, Should we upskill the people we have instead of hiring? covers that decision.
The Grantibly perspective
Angelika's perspective
Workforce development doesn't end when someone gets hired. Organizations invest a lot of time and money recruiting and training people. Then they need to understand what happens after employees arrive, including whether they see opportunities to grow and what makes good employees want to stay.
We are particularly interested in the relationships between employees and their supervisors and leaders, and in how those relationships influence people's sense of belonging, motivation, agency, wellbeing, and willingness to stay.
We also want organizations to be realistic. The goal isn't to convince unhappy employees to remain in jobs that don't work for them. It's to understand where the organization's systems and practices may be creating preventable problems, such as limited advancement pathways, and to determine what the organization can realistically improve.
