One thing we expect from every job we have is an opportunity for some form of advancement. A potential promotion is just the kind of dangled carrot that can eradicate feelings of meaningless and dreary repetition about the daily, weekly, and monthly duties of our current jobs.
But not every employer was created equal in this regard: some treat employees like glorified contractors, without any sense of the long term value they may add to the company; others cast a wary eye on employees who don’t try for advancement, sure that a lack of ambition means a dead end employee. Today we’ll examine responses to the question, “Does your current company provide you meaningful opportunities for career advancement?”
The information comes from the latest reading of an ongoing study by Comparably. Over 10,000 employees responded to the question.
Over half of the employees surveyed said they did have good opportunities for advancement. Males (54%) and females (55%) were very much in line on this topic.
According to responses, African-Americans (60%) get more opportunities for advancement than any other ethnic group. Hispanic and Latino respondents (58%) also beat the average, as did the Asian/Pacific Islanders (57%). Caucasians ranked the lowest.
When viewed by department, responses vary widely. Executives, many of whom advanced all the way to the top during their careers, were most positive (73%) about receiving advancement opportunities. At the other end of the scale are the Admin (47%) and IT (45%) departments. Most departments were in the middle, lining up generally with the overall average.
Opportunities decrease steadily with age. The 18-25 age group logically get the most opportunities for advancement, with each age bracket after that seeing a decreased number of chances for promotion. Considerably less than half of the 46-50 age group (43%) report feeling they still were given chances to climb the ladder.
Opportunities also decrease steadily with experience, which would seem counterintuitive. The more years one has worked, the more skills and potential value one would seemingly have – yet the longer employees work at a job, the less they are offered advancement opportunities. This may be a factor of employee burnout over time, and well as the lowered expectations that sometimes come with life.
When we look at the voting breakdown for individual departments, we see that men and women generally voted similarly in most cases. That said, males in Admin are 14% more likely to say they are offered a good amount of advancement opportunities. And women in Operations are nine percentage points more likely to say they get similar opportunities. The same is true for women in Design, with positive responses to the question coming in at 8 points higher than their males counterparts.
Latest reading as of January 18.
