How to Create a Career Path and leveling Strategy for Your Team
Career pathing is more than promotions and titles, it’s a strategic approach to employee growth that supports retention, clarity, and long-term organizational health. Whether you're a tech startup, digital agency, recruiting firm, or professional services business, offering structured development opportunities is essential to keeping top talent engaged.
At The Hazel Group, we help small and mid-sized businesses design custom career path frameworks aligned with business goals and employee development. For remote, in-office, and hybrid teams, a strong career pathing strategy also provides consistency, clarity, and connection in a virtual workplace.
Why Career Pathing Matters
Drives Engagement and Retention: Employees are more likely to stay when they see a future with your company. Career pathing shows you’re invested in their growth.
Supports Performance and Goal Setting: Clearly defined levels and expectations make it easier to set relevant goals, measure impact, and offer meaningful feedback.
Enhances Equity and Transparency: A structured path minimizes bias and helps ensure consistent compensation and promotion decisions.
Prepares for Growth: As your business scales, having levels in place helps with workforce planning, leadership development, and hiring strategy.
Elements of a Strong Career Path Strategy
Paths and Levels: We help define both the overall career paths (e.g., Individual Contributor, People Manager) and the levels within those paths (e.g., Specialist, Senior, Lead).
Role Expectations and Competencies: Each level includes scope of responsibility, independence, complexity of work, and required skills or behaviors.
Performance Criteria: We align your career path with performance management so promotions are tied to readiness, not tenure or vague feedback.
Communication Plan: Employees need to know what exists, how it works, and how to take ownership of their development. We guide internal rollout strategy to build understanding and buy-in.
Flexibility: We design systems that evolve with your company, whether you’re a 10-person team or a 300-person organization.
How The Hazel Group Builds Career Pathing That Works
We tailor each framework based on your team structure, roles, growth goals, and leadership culture. Our team has designed and implemented career path strategies for organizations across a range of industries and sizes including both flat and multi-layered team structures. This experience allows us to create practical frameworks that reflect how your business actually operates.
Our services include:
Discovery and role mapping
Leveling frameworks for ICs and managers
Job architecture design
Promotion readiness guidelines
Manager toolkits and employee education
Performance review alignment
HRIS integration support (for systems like BambooHR, Lattice, or Rippling)
We build frameworks that scale while preserving culture, clarity, and fairness.
Ready to create a roadmap for your employees’ success? Book a 30-minute consultation with The Hazel Group to build a career pathing strategy that supports growth—for your team and your business.
