How to Retain Top Talent When Career Growth Stalls

With fewer management positions available, employees ready to take the next step may find it harder to advance their careers. HR leaders must find new ways to help people develop their capabilities, broaden their contributions and receive recognition for their growth.

Even high-performing employees who consistently deliver results, deepen their expertise and take on increasingly complex responsibilities can find themselves with nowhere to go. They may be ready for a new challenge, greater responsibility or broader influence. Yet the next step in their careers remains out of reach because a suitable position has not opened.

For HR, the challenge is to make career development meaningful even when upward mobility is limited or nonexistent. Members of the Senior Executive HR Think Tank, a curated group of human resources experts, recommend creating alternative career paths, recognizing specialized expertise, expanding employees’ organizational influence and having honest conversations about what advancement can realistically look like. Their insights also point to an uncomfortable reality: Sometimes the best way to support a talented employee is to help them find their next opportunity elsewhere.

“Many strong performers are better suited to becoming strategic, hands-on individual contributors and generalists rather than people managers. ”

– Aida Figuerola, Neuropsychologist at Lift

SHARE IT

Redefine What Career Advancement Looks Like

The first step is challenging the assumption that strong performance should automatically lead to people management. When advancement depends on moving into a higher-level position, even highly capable professionals can find themselves waiting for opportunities that are limited by organizational design rather than their contributions.

Aida Figuerola, a Neuropsychologist at Lift, brings a perspective informed by her work in neuropsychology as organizations reconsider how people contribute in increasingly AI-enabled workplaces. She says that as teams become leaner, career progression may involve “fewer management layers, not more.”

“Growing professionally does not have to mean managing people,” Figuerola explains. “Many strong performers are better suited to becoming strategic, hands-on individual contributors and generalists rather than people managers.” Learning to manage people effectively is a distinct skill, she notes, and treating it as the default destination for high-performing employees overlooks other valuable forms of expertise.

As organizations flatten, she says, the individual-contributor path should be recognized as a “legitimate and valued direction for advancement,” not a fallback for those who did not become managers.

This distinction matters because organizations need both strong people leaders and accomplished specialists. HR can formalize senior individual-contributor tracks, define what advancement looks like at each level and ensure employees can develop deep expertise without taking on direct reports.

The 2025 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report reinforces the importance of making career development an organizational priority. LinkedIn reports that only 36% of organizations qualify as career development champions with robust programs, while 33% have no initiatives or are just getting started. The findings suggest many employers have room to build more deliberate systems for employee growth.

Create Career Paths Beyond the Organizational Chart

Once HR recognizes that advancement can take multiple forms, the next step is building pathways employees can actually follow. Making informal promises of more responsibility or opportunities to learn are not enough. Employees need to understand what they can work toward, how their contributions will be evaluated and whether growth can lead to greater compensation and recognition.

Dr. Jonathan H. Westover, an Educator and Futurist, Founder and CEO of Human Capital Innovations, Co-Founder and Chief Workforce and Learning Officer at Future State University and Professor of Organizational Leadership and Change at Utah Valley University, recommends rethinking the traditional vertical ladder. His work spans organizational leadership, workforce development and the future of work.

“Create lateral movement opportunities that let employees build expertise across departments,” Westover says. He also recommends establishing individual-contributor tracks with “senior-level titles and compensation that rival management roles.”

These tracks should be supported by stretch assignments, special projects, cross-functional leadership and skills-based development. Employees might pursue certifications, serve as mentors or become subject matter experts while building capabilities that matter to the organization.

Westover also recommends making compensation increases possible without title changes through regular market adjustments and merit reviews tied to impact rather than hierarchy. Career conversations should help employees define success on their own terms, whether that means mastery, influence, flexibility or innovation.

His recommendations make an important distinction: An alternative career path should be a real route to advancement, not simply a collection of additional duties. HR should establish transparent criteria for progression, communicate the requirements for each level and ensure employees can see how their increased expertise and contribution will be recognized.

“Decouple executive-level compensation from managerial headcount. ”

– Volen Vulkov, Co-Founder of Enhancv

SHARE IT

Reward Growth With More Than Additional Responsibilities

Alternative career paths will not retain employees if they require greater effort without offering meaningful returns. When organizations ask high performers to lead projects, mentor colleagues or take on more complex work, compensation, autonomy and recognition must reflect the additional value they bring.

Volen Vulkov, Co-Founder of Enhancv, a career platform that helps professionals communicate their experience and strengths, highlights the compensation issue directly. His background in resumes and career development informs his focus on how professionals demonstrate their value in the job market.

“Decouple executive-level compensation from managerial headcount,” Vulkov says. He warns that forcing high-performing specialists into management simply to earn a higher salary can damage teams and create unnecessary middle-management layers.

His proposed solution is to build “parallel Individual Contributor Mastery Tracks” that allow technical and strategic talent to earn director-level compensation based on domain impact rather than direct reports.

The principle extends beyond technical specialists. HR can review salary bands, promotion criteria and job architecture to identify whether pay progression is unnecessarily tied to management responsibility. Employees who develop scarce expertise, solve complex problems or deliver enterprise-level results should have a credible path to higher compensation even when their job title remains unchanged.

Make Employee Growth Visible Before Promotions Become Available

Nicole Cable, Chief People and Experience Officer at C3 Health, brings extensive experience in people strategy, employee experience and organizational transformation across healthcare, hospitality and other customer-focused industries. She emphasizes that development must be accompanied by tangible recognition.

“When strong employees cannot see the next promotion, HR has to make sure they can still see a future,” Cable says. She recommends expanding employees’ “influence, exposure, capability and contribution” before a title change is possible.

That can mean giving high performers access to senior leaders, inviting them into important decisions, letting them lead enterprise projects or creating opportunities to teach, mentor and represent the organization. These experiences can help employees build skills and influence while contributing to the business.

But Cable cautions against asking people to grow indefinitely without changing their compensation, autonomy or recognition. Such an arrangement can eventually feel less like development and more like additional work.

She also advises: If a promotion is unavailable, be honest and ask, “What would growth look like for you right now?” That conversation gives HR and managers a starting point for identifying meaningful next steps instead of offering vague assurances about future opportunities.

“Don’t assume your people only want promotions. Ask them what motivates them. ”

– Dr. Kyle Elliott, Tech Career Coach and Executive Coach at CaffeinatedKyle.com

SHARE IT

Give High Performers a Voice in Strategic Decisions

Not every career development opportunity requires a formal program or a newly created position. Sometimes, employees need more exposure to strategic decisions, opportunities to demonstrate their judgment or a chance to contribute beyond their current responsibilities.

Dr. Kyle Elliott, a Tech Career Coach and Executive Coach who works with senior managers and executives through his organization, CaffeinatedKyle.com, encourages HR and managers to ask what motivates employees rather than assuming everyone wants a bigger title. His coaching practice enables professionals to navigate career transitions, leadership challenges and executive development.

“Don’t assume your people only want promotions,” Elliott says. “Ask them what motivates them.” Some employees may want a bigger title, while others may value greater influence, more complex work or exposure to senior decision-makers.

Elliott illustrates the approach through an executive client who sent a promising second-in-command to increasingly important meetings, giving that employee face time with senior executives and even the board. The employee gained opportunities to grow without waiting for a higher-level position to become available, and the client retained a key contributor who might otherwise have left.

HR can encourage managers to identify similar opportunities across the organization. Employees might present recommendations to leadership, represent their teams in cross-functional initiatives, lead a critical project or participate in strategic planning. These experiences can help employees build credibility and prepare for future opportunities while giving the organization a better view of their capabilities.

The key is to align opportunities with employees’ interests and career goals. Greater visibility should not become a substitute for advancement of the employee indefinitely, but it can provide a meaningful way to expand responsibility and influence while a formal promotion remains out of reach.

Turn Development Into a Visible, Ongoing Practice

Career growth becomes more sustainable when it is built into how an organization assigns work, develops talent and evaluates performance. HR should move beyond occasional career conversations and establish regular processes that help employees identify their next learning goals, gain relevant experience and understand how their progress will be recognized.

Dr. Curtis Odom, Managing Partner at Prescient Strategists and Management Professor at Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business, brings more than 25 years of Fortune 100 experience in leadership, talent management and organizational transformation.

“Strong employees need visible pathways to expand their skills, influence and value even when the organizational chart has limited upward movement,” Odom says. He recommends creating opportunities through stretch assignments, cross-functional projects, internal mobility, mentoring, skill development and expert or project leadership roles.

He also advises HR to focus career conversations on “experiences and capabilities employees want to build, not simply the next title.” That shift helps managers understand what employees want from their careers and identify opportunities that align personal development with organizational needs.

“When advancement is scarce, growth must remain abundant,” Odom says. Otherwise, high performers may conclude that leaving is the only way to advance.

To put that principle into practice, HR can coordinate with talent acquisition, learning and development, compensation and business leaders to map the skills needed across departments and make internal opportunities more visible. Managers should be equipped to discuss career goals, nominate employees for projects and connect them with colleagues who can support their development.

Career conversations should also produce concrete next steps, such as a stretch assignment, a mentoring relationship, a skills assessment or a scheduled review. Employees need to see progress, not just hear that the organization supports growth.

LinkedIn’s 2025 research reports that 88% of surveyed organizations identify employee retention as a concern, and respondents cite learning opportunities as their leading retention strategy. Career development is therefore not just an employee benefit; it can help organizations retain skills and build their future capabilities.

Know When the Best Next Step Is Outside the Organization

Even well-designed career paths cannot guarantee that every employee will find the opportunity they want within the same organization. Sometimes the next level of responsibility, a specialized role or a different professional challenge does not exist internally. HR’s responsibility is to recognize that reality rather than allow retention efforts to become a reason to restrict someone’s growth.

Gigi Garcia, Founder and CEO of HR Couch, a people-focused consulting and coaching firm specializing in workplace culture, organizational development and leadership support, offers a succinct reframing of the issue.

“Maybe the problem isn’t that careers are stalling. Maybe our definition of career growth is outdated,” Garcia says. She notes that management has long been treated as the reward for strong performance, even though there are limited management roles to make that model sustainable.

In her view, HR must redefine advancement to include “greater influence, deeper expertise, enterprise projects, mentorship, decision-making authority and compensation that reflects increased value.” If employees can advance only by taking someone else’s job, she warns, the organization has built a waiting room rather than a career strategy.

That requires a broader view of what employees need to remain engaged. Some will welcome a specialist track or a cross-functional assignment. Others may need a role with a different scope, a new challenge or a genuine path to leadership. HR cannot assume one solution will satisfy everyone.

Recognize When Retaining Talent Means Letting People Go

Christopher Bylone, Principal Strategist at Innovation Unbiased, a consultancy focused on data-driven, people-centered workplace culture and belonging strategies, takes the argument one step further. Drawing on his experience leading workplace belonging initiatives at Krispy Kreme and IFF, he emphasizes the importance of trust when an employee reaches a career ceiling.

“The best retention move I know is being willing to lose someone well,” Bylone says. When a strong performer has no room to advance, he cautions, “holding them in place is not loyalty. It is quiet damage.”

His suggestion is to acknowledge the limits honestly, then help the employee pursue a bigger opportunity elsewhere. That might mean making an introduction, contacting a hiring manager or supporting the employee’s next career move. Christopher describes this not as an HR program but as a leadership behavior that requires managers to put an employee’s long-term interests ahead of the immediate desire to retain them.

He also points to the possibility of a future return. Employees who leave after receiving genuine support may come back with new skills and a stronger relationship with the organization. While that outcome is not a guarantee, the principle is clear: A healthy talent strategy should help people grow, even when their growth eventually takes them elsewhere.

Build a Career Strategy With More Than One Direction

• Create advancement paths that do not require people management. Establish respected individual-contributor and specialist tracks that recognize expertise, cross-functional impact and strategic contributions.
• Make career progression visible and measurable. Define lateral moves, skill development, mentoring and project leadership as legitimate pathways with clear expectations and opportunities to progress.
• Tie compensation to contribution rather than headcount. Review salary bands and reward criteria so employees can earn more as their expertise, impact and responsibilities grow without needing a management title.
• Pair development with meaningful recognition. Expand employees’ influence, autonomy and access to important decisions while ensuring increased contributions are reflected in compensation and acknowledgment.
• Ask employees what growth means to them. Use individual career conversations to identify motivations and match employees with relevant assignments, learning opportunities and senior-level exposure.
• Turn career development into an ongoing management practice. Establish regular career reviews, cross-functional assignments, mentoring opportunities and internal mobility processes that produce concrete next steps.
• Replace vague promises with honest career conversations. Explain which opportunities exist, what employees need to demonstrate and where advancement is limited so they can make informed decisions about their futures.
• Support employees when the next step lies elsewhere. When an employee’s goals cannot be met internally, consider introductions, referrals and other practical support rather than engaging in retention efforts to restrict their growth.

Make Career Growth a Strategic Commitment

Traditional promotions will remain important, but they cannot be the only way organizations recognize potential and reward strong performance. HR leaders can build resilient talent strategies by creating alternative career paths, compensating employees for the value they deliver and making development a consistent part of the employee experience. These efforts can also help organizations retain institutional knowledge while preparing employees to meet changing business needs.

Ultimately, the measure of a successful career strategy is not about how many employees move up the organizational chart. It is whether people continue to learn, contribute, earn recognition and see a credible future for themselves. Organizations that make room for different definitions of success will be better positioned to develop talent, strengthen trust and support employees through every stage of their careers—even when the next promotion is not yet available.