The Corporate Ladder and the Skills Gap

The corporate ladder is a thing of the past for the most part. Gone are the days when you could get a job at a company in the mail room and 30 years later be named CEO. The average worker changes jobs every 4.4 years and for millennials (me) that is down to half that. There are many reasons for that, but I think that we should fight to bring back the corporate ladder.

A major issue that companies are challenged with these days is that finding qualified workers is hard. This is commonly known as the "skills gap" and is a common problem discussed in business circles. There are many high paying technically involved jobs out there, but not enough people to fill them.

I think there is a solution here that the corporate ladder is uniquely qualified to fix. Companies know what skills they need, and in most cases they already have those skills in the company, they just need more. So to solve the issue they could hire motivated but unskilled workers and teach them the skills they need to do the jobs required. The risk of course is that once they have spent the time and money training these people with valuable skills the newly marketable employees will walk off and get jobs elsewhere. This is where the corporate ladder comes in. Most people don't want to move around. People hate change so if you offer them a solid job making good money, invest in them, and offer a clear path (assuming they perform) to promotion and advancement they will stick around.



Treating employees as commodities is a large part of why workers are so mobile. The idea that "anyone is replaceable" is only marginally true, and it most certainly fosters an attitude of disloyalty towards workers.

So if you want to keep you people and have a never ending supply of motivated and skilled labor promote from within, train your people, and give them a clear and achievable path to the top.