How to Create a Career Path for Employees: The Complete Guide

“Helping employees develop their careers” is a learning and development priority, according to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning report. This strategic imperative has climbed five places from number nine to number four this year, highlighting the importance of supporting individual team members to fuel overall business success.

One way to help employees grow professionally is to provide advancement opportunities within your organization. This guide will show you how to create a career path for your employees in ten easy steps.

1. Identify organizational needs and goals

The first step is to decide why you want to commit to career pathing and how it relates to the company’s strategic objectives. Some example goals could be:

• Improving your performance reviews, making them more streamlined and equitable
• Guiding your development plans and promoting internal mobility
• Creating more consistent recruitment practices

To define your company’s unique goals, consider your future workforce requirements, such as if you’re expanding into new markets.

2. Evaluate existing job roles and organizational hierarchies

Unless you’re a startup business, take stock of all your existing departments, teams, roles, and job levels to give you granular insights into your current setup.

Create an inventory by:

• Consulting your organizational chart and job descriptions
• Identifying key roles within each department and their primary functions
• Observing your organization’s workflows, including how departments collaborate and rely on each other

Conduct a job role analysis

Beyond examining each role’s title and primary function, pinpoint the specific responsibilities and skills required for each job position. This step is essential for aligning roles with day-to-day tasks and expectations.

Incumbent employees and their managers are the best people to gather input about their respective roles. They’ll explain:

• Who is in charge of what
• How each role ties into the organization’s overall success
• Where skills gaps lie

3. Define the structure of career paths in your organization

Based on the size and complexity of your organization, decide whether to map out separate employee career paths for each job profile or if you prefer to design a general framework for your entire team. Some options include:

Singular career ladders

Traditional vertical progression within a specific role or function is often a good fit for small departments with limited roles. James Simers, Organizational Development Manager at RKL LLP, explains:

Example: A software developer may start as a junior developer, then move to a new role as a developer, followed by a lead developer. They may become the Director of Software Development at the end of this career path.

Dual career ladders

Dual career ladders offer separate paths for individual contributors and leadership roles. They are helpful for specialists or technical employees who want to advance in their fields and gain expertise without shifting to managerial positions.

Example: A research scientist specializing in molecular biology may advance into sub-disciplines like genomics or proteomics without ever managing a team or running a department. They grow in expertise and innovation instead of leadership and administration.

Career lattices

A lateral or horizontal career path allows employees to move to other adjacent roles or departments without receiving a promotion.

Example: A marketing coordinator may decide to shift to a role in product management. Since the positions are equal within the organization, they aren’t climbing up the organizational hierarchy. Instead, they’re moving sideways to explore a different domain.

Robert Kaskel, Chief People Officer at Checkr, stresses the need to communicate the opportunities presented by a career lattice model:

Before you begin creating a roadmap of career paths, decide whether to use a single, unified career path that shows every employee how they can progress throughout the company or have individual specialized career paths more relevant to specific roles.

Here are some factors to consider when choosing:

Unified career paths allow for:

• Greater cross-functional movement and development opportunities—the same ladder would allow Talent Acquisition, HRBP, Payroll, and L&D to progress
• Simplified management and communication—explaining employees’ opportunities is easier with a single-path model
• Broader skill and competency development enables employees to access diverse roles and opportunities across the organization

Individual career paths allow for:

• Detailed, relevant progression paths for individual functions
• Clear paths for each specific role, with no ambiguity about career growth opportunities
• Multiple functional career paths per department—for example, marketing departments may have separate ladders for content marketing and social media marketing

4. Create the career ladders

Use the below steps to build your career ladders according to your organization’s unique makeup.

Doing this manually will be resource-intensive, but tools like Deel Engage’s AI assistant can quickly generate a first draft for you to fine-tune.

Define career path levels

Construct the different levels of your ladder by:

• Establishing entry-level, mid-level, and senior positions with distinct responsibilities and expectations
• Specifying levels, such as Junior, Mid, Senior, or Lead within the ladder

Example of a generic company-wide career path

Video communication company Whereby provides an example of its broad career mapping framework, ranging from entry-level to C-suite positions:

Example of a function-specific career path

This example details the various career path levels within a People department:

Develop clear criteria for individual contributor vs. leadership ladders

As with the above examples, you need to define every level of your career paths so employees understand the expectations of their role and how it differs from the levels above and below.

Consider the following points as you design your individual contributor and leadership career ladders:

• Technical skills vs. leadership skills: Individual contributor ladders focus on deepening specialisms, while leadership ladders focus on developing management and strategic skills
• Project or task experience vs. managerial experience: Individual contributors can advance based on project accomplishments and technical contributions, while leaders progress based on their team management experience and achieving business objectives.
• Performance metrics: Employers evaluate individual contributors based on their performance metrics, while they measure leaders based on their team’s performance, employee engagement scores, and achievement of business objectives

Set clear progression criteria

Highlight the specific skills, experience, and achievements required for progression to show how an employee can progress from one ladder rung to the next.

Example: A sales manager should know what skills, qualifications, experience, and goals they must achieve before advancing to a sales director role.

To set your progression criteria:

• Ensure it’s specific, measurable, and aligned with organizational goals
• Incorporate both technical skills and soft skills
• Develop a rubric for each level that outlines the skills and experience required
• Consider including guidelines for how long an employee should stay at each level before being evaluated for promotion

Example progression criteria

To provide a comprehensive and clear path for employee advancement, consider the following progression criteria:

Setting performance metrics and evaluation methods

Eliminate bias from future promotion or career advancement decisions by establishing clear, consistent metrics and evaluation methods. A fair process might consider the following data:

• Key performance indicators that align with the specific role and organizational goals. For instance, sales teams may have quantifiable metrics related to sales targets, client acquisition, and employee retention rates.
• 360-degree feedback, including insights from peers, managers, direct reports, and self-evaluations, provides a well-rounded view of an employee’s performance, strengths, and areas for improvement.
• Regular performance reviews, such as those held quarterly, bi-annually, or annually, evaluate progress against established KPIs. These sessions allow for ongoing dialog between employees and managers regarding performance, goals, and development plans.
• Objective criteria for soft skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and leadership capabilities. You might include specific examples and behaviors that signify proficiency in these areas.
• Employee development plans that outline employees’ career goals, required skills, and development activities. Regularly review and update these to track progress and adjust objectives as necessary.

5. Link levels to compensation and benefits

Career pathing goes hand in hand with your total compensation package. As employees progress through your company, they want and expect improvements to their salary and benefits packages. Use your career pathways to outline:

• How much individuals can expect to earn in each role level
• Competencies for each level, ensuring that salary bands align with each level’s responsibilities and competencies.
• What each level means for health insurance coverage, retirement contributions, etc.

Tip: A compensation professional or benchmarking company can provide trending market data that enables you to design an attractive compensation package to support your recruitment and retention initiatives. Use this data to align salary bands with your organization’s levels and titles as a competitive and equitable approach.

6. Map out career paths

Career paths and job-leveling information can be incredibly detailed. So, it’s important to present it in an informative and digestible way. Your employee audience must clearly understand their current position and potential growth opportunities. Provide this by:

• Designing visual career progression frameworks that map out a breadth of paths within each department
• Including lateral and vertical moves to highlight opportunities for upward progression and lateral movement to other roles or departments
• Developing competency models that highlight transferable skills across functions
• Leaning on AI-based software like Deel Engage to generate these detailed frameworks

7. Develop training and development programs

Armed with the facts about what every job level needs and any gaping skills gaps in your org chart, use this intel to:

• Identify training needs: Determine the training and development needs for each role and level
• Design tailored learning programs: Create customized training programs using a mix of on-the-job training, mentoring, cross-functional projects, and formal education to build relevant skills and prepare employees for internal growth opportunities such as promotions or lateral moves
• Integrate professional development opportunities: Incorporate training programs, mentoring, and continuous learning opportunities to equip employees with the necessary skills for career progression
• Analyze past performance data to understand what resources you need to progress your employees

Additionally, select relevant self-assessment questions from our extensive list so your employees can reflect on their career development goals.

8. Align with organizational goals and career framework

Refer to the goals you defined in step one to ensure your department or organizational career paths align with these broader strategies and values.

Whether you use a single unified career path across your entire organization or opt for a web of department-specific paths, ensure your employees understand your approach and how they integrate with your business goals.

9. Review and update career paths regularly

Remember that your strategies will likely evolve, so regularly revisit and update your framework to stay aligned with organizational goals. This requires:

• Continuously assessing organizational needs and updating roles, levels, competencies, and skills as necessary
• Regularly reviewing employee performance data to understand how well your career paths are working and identifying areas that may need improvement or adjustment
• Encouraging ongoing employee feedback to ensure that goals align with available growth opportunities

10. Creating structure without traditional corporate ladders for flat organizational hierarchies

In many startups or small to mid-sized businesses, employees may work in flat structures with fewer layers of management. Even in simpler organizations like these, creating structure without overwhelming your workforce with an unnecessary chain of command is possible.

Try some of the following ideas:

• Focus on skills development: Encourage your team members to develop existing skills continuously, acquire new skills, and become experts in their current area
• Encourage lateral moves and project-based roles: Provide opportunities in adjacent teams to broaden experience and skills
• Create project-based opportunities, including project leader roles, to foster growth
• Implement a competency-based progression model: Use competency frameworks to define career progression based on skill acquisition and mastery
• Regular development conversations: Conduct regular career development conversations to understand employee aspirations and identify growth opportunities

Flatter organizational structures can create an environment where junior employees are more likely to contribute to high-stake projects and decision-making.

Speaking on a “What the Denmark” podcast episode about flat hierarchies, management author Chris Shern discusses how junior employees may be more likely to contribute in high-level discussions when the organization has a flatter structure:

In flat hierarchies, providing structured career paths is not about climbing a traditional corporate ladder but about creating diverse and enriching growth opportunities. By encouraging lateral moves, skill development, and project-based roles, employees can see clear pathways for career advancement, just like the junior trainee who felt empowered to contribute to high-level discussions. This approach ensures that all employees understand their potential for growth within the organization, fostering a motivated and loyal workforce.

Define consistent career paths with Deel Engage

Clear and structured career paths provide a level playing field for your entire workforce. When they’re designed effectively, each employee understands the expectations of their role and how to grow vertically or horizontally within your organization.

Deel Engage provides a range of features to help you define exciting career paths in just a few clicks:

• Career development software: Build career planning frameworks for all the different roles in your organization to ensure role clarity and enable career development conversations
• Performance management software: Collect feedback on competencies, goal achievement, and company culture and values and assess whether employees are ready to advance in their career paths
• Employee training software: Build, assign, and track engaging employee development courses using AI or our vast range of content providers to create the perfect library of training content.

Ready to build structured career ladders for promotion and progression in your company? Request a free demo of Deel today.