Five customers on career development without promotion

Dawes Ramos started out as a seasonal sales associate at GAP in New York. Today he is Talent Delivery Partner at PVH, the company behind Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. That's the kind of career you'd want for everyone in your team. And it's exactly the prospect that keeps good people on board.

Yet in practice, career growth often stalls. There aren't enough roles to move into. There's no time to learn. Or the growth path is out of date before it's even finished. Five organisations share how they tackled those bottlenecks.

There aren't enough roles to grow into

In retail, the pyramid is narrow. Lots of sales associates, a handful of store managers and even fewer area managers. Look only upwards and you soon hit a ceiling.

Johandri Kieck, Global L&D Manager at Hunkemöller, knows this well. "People always want to keep growing," she says. And that growth pays off. People become happier, healthier and more creative. And they stay longer. The catch: Hunkemöller has a flat structure with few senior roles. So they build skills that people can take with them into a different role. At Hunkemöller, a step sideways on the shop floor counts as growth too.

At Eye Wish Opticiens, Hanny van de Weerdt, former Manager People Experience, focused on meaning. "You have to add meaning to the job," she said, "because you don't wake up wanting to be an optician." Growth lies in pride in your craft, and in what you mean to your customers.

The job feels like a stepping stone

Ask a child what they want to be when they grow up. The answer is rarely recruiter or sales consultant. Tomi Pantić, former Head of Talent Development & Talent Acquisition at RGF Staffing, knows that better than anyone. "Many people see the work we offer as a stepping stone to something else," he says.

So Tomi took a different route. "If we don't offer dream jobs, then let's invest in people's competencies." Many of RGF's people are young and still working out who they are. In the online academy, they discover where their strengths lie. If those strengths don't fit RGF, they might fit one of its customers. "It all starts with me," says Tomi. "You should always be in the driver's seat of your own life, and therefore your career."

Dawes is living proof that a side job can be the start of a career. After more than twenty years in retail, he knows what career development means to him. "Passion, clear objectives and winning."

There's no time to learn

At BLOS Kinderopvang, childcare staff spend the whole day with a group of toddlers. "Their attention is 100% on the children," says Anoek Klein Swormink, Recruitment & Development Director. After a long day like that, nobody fancies an hour of e-learning.

Anoek is honest about what didn't work. Long, text-heavy e-learning. Topics that missed the mark. Mandatory training. Now BLOS makes learning shorter and more relevant. And they ask employees what they need. "Employees should feel heard," says Anoek. BLOS would rather grow its own people than bring in managers from outside. "I think internal mobility makes an organisation strong."

Time is scarce in retail too. The advice from the L&D professionals at our TinQtable: start small. Pick one or two roles that make the difference. Build a growth path for those first, then expand.

The growth path is out of date before it's finished

Roles change fast, and so do the skills that come with them. Hunkemöller learned this the hard way. Johandri looks back on the big competency frameworks of the past. "It was interesting and exciting, but it was tremendously hard work. It took you three to six months to put this together. And by the time you were done, it was outdated."

The lesson: keep it light. Break a growth path down into small steps, with tasks and projects. That way people see progress sooner. And you can easily adjust a step when the role changes.

At PVH, there's another factor. A growth path has to work across Europe. "Different cultures have different approaches and opportunities in career development," says Dawes. Small steps leave room to vary by country. That's why PVH Play gives employees content tailored to their brand, role, store type and country.

Nobody sees the opportunities

The best growth path in the world is useless if it sits in a drawer. Hanny was clear about this: "The career opportunities should be so clear that people are able to find their own path."

That's why at Hunkemöller, the conversation sits with the manager. "Constant conversations are needed between managers and their team members," says Johandri. "This should never be left to HR." It doesn't have to take an hour: coaching works fine in the gaps between customers.

Six questions for your next career conversation

1. What tasks and responsibilities do you have now, and which do you enjoy most?
2. Where do you want to be in a year? And in three years?
3. Which skill would you like to develop first?
4. What training or experience would help you most?
5. What gives you energy at work?
6. What's holding you back from taking that step?

Which bottleneck sounds like you?

Too few roles, too little time or opportunities nobody sees? Every organisation gets stuck somewhere different. You don't have to solve them all at once. Pick the one that pinches hardest, and start there.

Curious how to make career growth visible for your whole team? Book a demo and we'll show you how our customers do it.