How to create a culture of progression in your organisation
Two thirds of the 1,000 organisations surveyed in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 ‘Future of Jobs’ report cite improving talent progression and promotion as a key focus over the next five years. This comes at a time when skills gaps are causing headaches in many major industries, creating competition for the best talent. So it makes sense that organisations are recognising the need to retain and invest in their people. And those with a reputation for enabling internal progression are also best-placed to attract outside talent.
We can’t talk about progression and promotion without considering how fairly opportunities are distributed. In reality, organisations rarely promote purely on merit. Informal networking systems exclude certain groups. Unspoken cultural expectations favour people from a particular background. And promotion criteria might overlook important contributions. This is a problem — not just for employees, but for organisations that lack diversity of thinking at decision-making levels. When senior people mostly come from the same backgrounds, groupthink thrives; opportunities to innovate are missed and flawed ideas go unchallenged.
The organisations best-placed to compete in challenging times are those that put DEI at the heart of how they work. And, as we explore in our report — ‘Beyond the backlash: The leader’s guide to integrating DEI’ — that means a robust, long-term approach rooted in practices, not projects. Below, we’ll explore what’s required to create a lasting culture of progression that includes all employees.
Access, access, access
In her 1977 book ‘Men and Women of the Corporation’, Rosabeth Moss Kanter introduced the concept of “structural empowerment”. She argued that four kinds of access are crucial for career advancement: Access to opportunities, information, support, and resources. As outlined in our report, employees also need “the freedom to exercise both formal decision-making power, and informal power through relationships and alliances across the organisation,” in order to meaningfully progress.
Full-spectrum mentorship
In 2010, Herminia Ibarra, Nancy M. Carter, and Christine Silva published a landmark study in the Harvard Business Review titled ‘Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women’. They found that women and minorities often have mentors who help them psychologically, but lack sponsors who can actively advocate for their advancement. 15 years later, this situation remains common. It’s up to leaders, therefore, to actively help underrepresented groups build the kind of strategic networks that make progression possible.
Ensuring good people aren’t overlooked
In our work with a highly respected international law firm, we identified that part-time employees and those with care responsibilities were missing out on opportunities to progress. Overwork and presenteeism were pervasive. Using our 5DFlex® framework, we developed a range of firm-wide actions that normalised work-life balance and stopped part-time staff being overlooked for promotions.
Developing future leaders
Working with Defence Equipment and Support — an organisation that negotiates and manages contracts on behalf of the UK Armed Forces — we supported women who had been identified as high-potential to progress in their careers and fulfil their ambitions. Combining professional and personal development tools, we helped participants develop their identity as a leader and find support from within the organisation. One out of three women secured promotion within 18 months, and 98% remained at the organisation 3 years after taking part.
System-level change
In our ‘Beyond the backlash’ report, we show how “culture change happens gradually, through sustained attention to both formal systems and real-life behaviour,” and that “success comes not from grand gestures but from maintaining momentum on fundamental practices.”
So what kinds of fundamental, system-level changes should leaders focus on in order to build a culture of progression? The key is using behavioural principles to design systems that make it harder for bias to influence decisions.
Clear progression frameworks
Rather than relying on subjective assessments, organisations should establish detailed frameworks that outline the skills, experiences, and competencies required for each level. These frameworks should be public, allowing employees to understand exactly what's needed to progress and helping managers make consistent decisions.
Skills-based advancement
Moving away from time-served promotion criteria toward skills-based advancement creates more opportunities for talented individuals to progress rapidly. This approach also helps organisations respond more quickly to changing business needs by developing and promoting people based on critical capabilities rather than tenure.
Measuring the right things
Building a culture where talented, ambitious employees always feel like there’s room to grow is difficult without the right data. Data lets you benchmark where things are, so you can prioritise the right interventions. And tracking the right things is key for incentivising change, because it lets you reward the behaviours you want to encourage.
But as we explore in our landmark report: “Many focus exclusively on snapshot metrics like the percentage of women in senior roles or ethnic minority representation on boards, ignoring questions like how far people from different backgrounds are able to progress in the organisation, and how quickly.”
Benchmarks
Organisations should regularly analyse promotion data across different demographic groups to identify potential barriers or biases. This includes looking at factors like promotion rates, time to promotion, and representation at different levels. When patterns emerge, leaders can investigate root causes and take corrective action.
KPIs
Making progression a key performance indicator for leaders helps ensure it receives sustained attention. This might include setting specific targets for internal promotions, measuring the diversity of promotion pools, and evaluating leaders on their track record of developing talent.
The journey of change
When large organisations come to us with a challenge like getting more women into leadership positions, we focus on four things:
Commitment
We sit down with the leadership team to define specific goals they’ll commit to. This gives us a mandate and drives action.
Diagnosis
We make sure we fully understand the situation. Lack of diversity rarely has just one cause, and it’s different for every organisation. It might be that senior roles lack the flexibility prospective candidates are looking for. Or that hiring and promotion processes are creating obstacles. Perhaps the internal culture is putting people off.
Testing
We help organisations design inclusivity into the business. This starts with testing. It’s essential to prototype new job designs or processes and refine the design of these based on results.
Implementation support
We always offer HR teams support in making change happen, ensuring that small issues don’t impede end results.
Better progression, better performance
In today's skills-scarce market, organisations that genuinely enable all their people to advance will outperform those that don't. But success requires more than good intentions. It demands rigorous systems that counter bias, meaningful access to opportunities and resources, mentorship that opens doors, and rewards for leaders who develop diverse talent. Get this right, and you'll build an organisation where ambitious people want to stay and grow.
Sources
World Economic Forum, ‘The Future of Jobs Report 2025’ https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, ‘Men and Women of the Corporation’, 1977
Herminia Ibarra, Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva, ‘Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women’, 2010 https://hbr.org/2010/09/why-men-still-get-more-promotions-than-women
