5 Ways to Design Career Pathways that Retain Talent
Careers don’t always move upwards. Your talent strategy shouldn’t either.
The traditional career ladder is disappearing.
People move sideways to build new skills. They pause to care for children or ageing parents. They relocate, reskill, take on stretch assignments or redefine what success looks like at different stages of life.
But many talent strategies still assume careers progress in a straight line.
Our latest guide explores five practical shifts organisations can make to build career pathways people want to stay and grow within.
Careers don’t always move upwards. Discover five practical ways to build career pathways that help people stay, grow and keep progressing.
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What’s inside?
No organisation can eliminate uncertainty from today’s careers. We
shouldn’t try.
You’ll find five practical ways to rethink career development and create more opportunities for people to keep moving, learning and contributing, even when promotion isn’t the next step.
- Design careers for movement, not just promotion
- Invest in people before confidence starts to fade
- Design for life transitions, not uninterrupted careers
- Treat belonging as a talent strategy
- Design around moments, not milestones
Alongside practical actions, the guide draws on Talking Talent’s Climbing Walls, Not Ladders research to explore what happens to ambition, belonging and progression as careers evolve.
Who this guide is for
For HR & talent leaders:
This guide is for HR and Talent leaders thinking about how to retain ambitious people and build stronger leadership pipelines.
It’s particularly relevant if you’re asking:
- How do we help people see a future here when promotion isn’t the next step?
- Are we investing in people early enough?
- How do we support career progression alongside the realities of people’s lives?
- Are we designing around the moments that actually shape someone’s experience of work?
Why does it matter?
Careers don’t pause when life happens.
People become parents, care for ageing relatives, return from leave, relocate, reskill and take on new challenges. These aren’t interruptions to a career. They’re a normal part of one.
The challenge for organisations is recognising that ambition doesn’t always look like a promotion.
Someone may want to grow without moving upwards. They may need to pause without stepping away from their ambitions. Or they may simply need to see that there is still a future for them in the organisation.
The organisations that retain people aren’t necessarily the ones with the clearest ladders.
They’re the ones creating better handholds for the moments that shape every career.
What next
Talent doesn’t leave organisations. It leaves environments that hold it back.
We should talk about that. Twenty years of coaching has taught us that when talented people struggle, it’s rarely about them – it’s about the structural, behavioural and cultural patterns quietly holding them back.
What is a career pathway?
A career pathway is the range of opportunities and experiences that help someone continue to develop, contribute and progress within an organisation. It doesn’t have to mean moving upwards.
Why are traditional career ladders no longer enough?
Today’s careers increasingly include lateral moves, reskilling, stretch assignments, career pauses and changing personal priorities. Designing only around promotion can mean missing the experiences that actually prepare people for future leadership.
How can organisations support career progression during life transitions?
Organisations can build structured support around transitions such as parental leave and caregiving, offer coaching at key moments and make sure career opportunities remain equitable when people’s circumstances change.
What role does belonging play in career progression?
Talking Talent’s research found that employees who experience a strong sense of belonging are 177% more likely to aspire to executive leadership. This suggests belonging is not simply an engagement issue; it can influence whether people can see a future for themselves within an organisation.
Climbing Walls, Not Ladders
The research behind the guide
The five shifts in this guide draw on Talking Talent’s Climbing Walls, Not Ladders research, conducted in partnership with Minnesota State University.
The study explored the experiences of 1,193 US professionals across industries and career levels, looking at ambition, belonging and the barriers people can experience as their careers progress.