One thing is obvious; employees aspire to progress in their careers. However, identifying the next opportunity for success and growth in a company frequently becomes challenging for employees, especially in today’s world of work, which is a combination of in-person, hybrid, and remote. A key strategy to overcome this common problem is to clarify the pathway to success by showing where the organization is focused, the critical skills needed to get there, and the next opportunity or role.
A well-defined promotion pathway can have numerous benefits for both employees and the company. Here are a few of the most important benefits:
- Career Development: When employees have a clear understanding of what they need to do to advance in their careers, they are more likely to take an active role in their own development. They can focus on acquiring the skills and experience necessary to meet the criteria for promotion.
- Increased Motivation: Employees who understand the path to promotion are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in their work. They feel like their contributions are valued and that there is a future for them within the company.
- Improved Retention: A clear promotion pathway can help reduce turnover as employees are more likely to stay with the company if they see a path for advancement. When employees feel like their career prospects are limited, they may be more likely to leave for other opportunities.
- Increased Fairness and Equity: A well-defined promotion pathway helps ensure that all employees have a clear understanding of what is required for advancement. This helps create a level playing field, reducing perceptions of favoritism or discrimination.
- Better Talent Management: A clear promotion pathway allows the company to effectively manage its talent by ensuring that employees are developing the necessary skills and experience to fill key roles in the future. This helps the company build a strong talent pipeline and prepare for the future.
How to Clarify the Promotion Pathway in Your Company
Different organizations may come up with different solutions to clarify the promotion pathway in their company depending on their culture. Here are some steps that are usually needed for this purpose.
Create Career Ladders
Develop a clear, step-by-step progression for employees to advance within the company. This involves establishing a step-by-step roadmap for career growth, which should define the different levels of the organization and outline the specific requirements and qualifications that must be met in order for employees to move from one level to the next.
Communicate the Promotion Pathway
After developing a promotion pathway, a company needs to clearly communicate the pathway to employees. This can often become tricky for the people managers who overlook providing appropriate means for clear communication, such as employee handbooks, onboarding materials, regular performance reviews. Make sure that employees have access to this information and understand what is expected of them.
Provide Opportunities for Skill Development
To better encourage the employees to follow the company’s pathway, you need to provide them with the opportunities to develop the skills and experience necessary for promotion. This can include on-the-job training, mentorship programs, or professional development opportunities.
Evaluate and adjust the pathway regularly
It is no secret that we are living in an ever-changing world of work. So companies need to regularly review and evaluate the promotion pathway to ensure that it is aligned with the changing needs of the organization. This can include updating career ladders, or modifying the training and development programs offered to employees.
Encourage Open Communication
Finally, foster an open and transparent culture in your company where employees can discuss their career aspirations and receive regular feedback on their performance. This helps employees understand how they can advance in their careers and ensures that they have the support they need to reach their goals.
Indicators for Promotion Pathway
Watch for the signs that tell you it is a time to clarify the promotion pathway for the employees. Some of these indicators include:
- Organization has a need for a variety of specific and dynamic skills.
- People Leaders need to focus on clear linking of planning efforts and performance.
- Employee’ commitment to living the values and creating the desired culture must increase.
Use Pandos to Clearly Communicate your Company’s Promotion Pathway
Our Promotion Pathway on the Pandos Platform creates that line of sight, keeping employees engaged and committed. Designed around your company’s core values and competencies, a Promotion Pathway meets a need all employees have – the desire to improve and advance at work. The pathway provides clear direction for advancement and promotes employee growth. Businesses’ success rests on understanding staff’s views on advancement and consistently raising employees’ level of responsibility to help them improve and advance.
The Promotion Pathway provides direction and also works with the Reward and Recognition Dashboard so when an employee is recognized for team and business impact, in the back end the dashboard will show the employee how they progress to the next organizational opportunity.
