Career frameworks: what they are and how to build them

Career progression, which is the ability of workers to advance along their chosen career path, must be a priority for HR teams if they want to retain and engage their workers. Unfortunately, many businesses lack a career framework that shows employees where they can go and how they can get there. 

Career progression frameworks provide the structure, clarity, and agility that meet both employer and employee needs. They also function as a compliance tool, providing transparency around role levels, responsibilities, and pay classification. 

In this article, we explain what career progression and career frameworks are, look at different types of framework, best practice, and walk through how to create one. We will then examine the benefits and challenges of using this strategy. 

Traditionally, career progression has been thought of in terms of promotions and pay rises. These days, there are more ways than ever before to progress a career. In addition to thinking about advancement in terms of job titles and salaries, today’s professionals are also likely to consider:

• Skill development.
• New responsibilities.
• Sideways moves.
• Complete changes of direction.

The term “career progression” suggests movement and growth, with employees moving their careers forward in the direction of their choosing. It’s a term often used during performance reviews, the job search, and HR strategy planning. 

Career progression is important for both employers and employees. Employers see increased retention, engagement, and productivity, while employees reap the rewards of feeling motivated, engaged, and successful.

A career framework defines the skills, behaviours, and milestones required for each role and each level within the business, demonstrating how employees can progress their careers. Think of it as a roadmap that enables workers to see where they are currently, where they could go, and what they need to do to get there. 

With a career framework, employees will clearly see how their current role fits within the larger organisation, how they can progress based on their skill set, and how they could fit into another role or team. 

Career frameworks are not merely job titles and reporting lines – they are detailed and dynamic documents. They must be reviewed regularly to ensure they remain up-to-date and aligned with business needs. For that reason, it is more useful to work with a modern interactive career development framework solution rather than a static, error-prone spreadsheet.

The Australian market is currently facing a skills shortage and retention challenges. Career frameworks can help businesses to remain competitive and overcome these challenges. They enable skills gaps to be identified and mitigated early, whilst encouraging talent retention through clear career paths. 

A career framework is not: 

• A job description:  A career framework outlines not just one but many roles within the business. Unlike a job description, it shows the links between roles (laterally and vertically) and the progression pathways needed to move between them.
• An organisation chart: A career framework contains more than just job titles – it also contains responsibilities and skills. It is also more dynamic than the organisation chart, which is just a snapshot of the current hierarchy. 
• A performance framework: A performance framework focuses on accountability and results, whereas a career framework focuses on skills and pathways between roles. 

In short, a career framework is a dynamic map of roles, levels, and skills, and the relationships between them. 

Are you ready to invest in career progression? Click below to contact an expert and find out how Careerminds’ career frameworks can benefit your workforce. 

Career frameworks come in different styles, and the style the business chooses to prioritise will depend on its needs. 

The main frameworks are: 

A vertical career focuses on upwards progression (the traditional “promotion” style of career movement), whereas a lateral one focuses on sideways moves that expand expertise. 

Both can be incorporated into the same framework, although a vertical framework is considered best to build leadership pipelines and expertise. Lateral frameworks are used when cross-functional skills development and flexibility are priorities. 

Example of a vertical career: Retail Assistant → Retail Manager → Area Manager 

Example of a lateral framework: IT Support Technician → Customer Success Coordinator

Individual contributors focus on execution and output, whereas people managers focus on leadership and strategy. A good framework shows potential routes from individual contributor to people manager roles, although some employees are happy to remain in individual contributor roles throughout their career. 

Individual contributor frameworks are the priority for organisations focused on technical or specialised work, and people manager frameworks are required when building or scaling teams. 

Example of an individual contributor career: Software Engineer → Senior Engineer → Principal Engineer

Example of a people manager career: Team Leader → Team Supervisor → Department Manager → Director

Technical and professional skills should be included for every role within the framework. For innovation-focused or rapidly changing businesses, technical skills often take the lead. Businesses, functions, or departments in a period of stability may prefer to lead with professional skills.

Examples of technical skills: Prompt engineering, lab techniques, foreign languages

Examples of professional skills: Influencing, report writing, problem solving 

Dual-ladder frameworks enable individual contributors who don’t have an interest in management roles to achieve equal seniority and pay to those who do. Large, complex businesses may offer multi-track frameworks that are based on expertise areas. 

Dual-ladder paths ensure that management roles aren’t forced onto high performers who don’t want them, while multi-track paths meet the increasing demand for non-linear or portfolio careers.

Example of a dual-ladder career:

Senior Engineer OR Engineering Manager → Staff Engineer OR Senior Engineering Manager → Principal Engineer OR Director of Engineering

Example of a multi-track career: 

Technical Track – Data Scientist → Senior Data Scientist → Principal Data Scientist

Manager Track – Data Scientist → Data Science Manager → Director

Strategy Track: Data Scientist → Data Strategist → VP of Strategy

High-impact career frameworks include certain core elements. These key building blocks ensure that the framework is clear, equitable, and adaptable. 

A framework should include: 

The framework should outline every role, including scope, responsibilities, and expectations. This provides clarity to the employee and enables their manager to set fair and useful development goals. Tying role duties to job levels also ensures regulatory compliance. 

The framework should demonstrate both vertical and lateral opportunities. This enables workers to access leadership roles, deepen their expertise, or move to new departments without leaving the business. The level will provide pay classification clarity to ensure the organisation remains legally compliant. 

Transferable soft skills, such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving, should be consistent across departments. This enables internal mobility, reinforces organisational culture, and facilitates conversations around career progression. 

Technical skills, specific to roles or teams, should differ across organisational functions. This ensures that career progression criteria are relevant and tailored to the competencies required to fulfil each role successfully. 

The requirements for progression should be standardised and accessible, which reduces bias and reassures employees that progression is rewarded, based on fairness and proven contributions.

Sometimes employees take on temporary roles or “act up” at a higher level than their existing classification. The framework needs to clearly differentiate between these roles and permanent role changes, and should include triggers at which the classification changes – for example, after a set period of time. 

Progression should be linked directly to training, coaching, and mentoring opportunities. This enables employees to close any skills gaps identified.

The easiest way to create an effective career framework is to break it down and take it a step at a time.

1. Map the organisational structure

• Create an organisational chart that defines departments, roles, and reporting lines.
• Ensure alignment with award and enterprise agreement classifications.

2. Define roles within each level

• Outline duties, responsibilities, and skills required for each role at each level.
• Consider hard (technical) and soft (transferable) skills and behavioural competencies.

3. Collaborate

• Get input from both HR leaders and legal teams, to ensure compliance with the Fair Work Act and National Employment Standards.
• Engage line managers and leaders, encouraging them to hold regular, future-focused career discussions that include conversations around the framework.

4. Embed governance standards

• Include approval requirements for changes to roles and levels to avoid ad hoc line manager changes that increase non-compliance risk.
• Set review and escalation points to maintain auditability.

5. Integrate into existing L&D programs

• Link progression between roles to existing training, mentoring, and upskilling opportunities.
• Promote career development resources to employees.

6. Make the career framework accessible

• Ensure that employees are able to easily access the framework internally.
• Consider sharing frameworks externally to signal the company’s commitment to employee growth.

7. Seek feedback

• Ask employees, line managers, and business leaders to provide feedback.
• Evaluate and act on feedback received to ensure the new framework remains fit-for- purpose.

8. Review and update

• Review and update the framework regularly to ensure it still meets business needs and employee expectations.
• Take into account employee feedback, changing business needs, and emerging industry trends. 

As custodians of the career framework, the HR team plays a pivotal role in ensuring its success. It’s not merely a case of designing it and stepping back – HR also needs to support managers, empower employees, and measure outcomes for the strategy to be a success. 

To ensure consistent and ongoing growth, fairness, and organisational resilience, HR must:

• Design and maintain the framework: Create the outline and regularly update roles and skills in line with changing business needs and priorities.
• Support managers: Equip them to hold meaningful career conversations and to understand the importance of clarity, consistency, and equity.
• Advocate for resources: Negotiate and promote learning and development programs and investment in coaching, training, and mentoring.
• Track outcomes: Define success criteria and monitor metrics such as retention, internal mobility, employee engagement, and promotion equity.
• Measure impact: Evaluate metrics against organisational goals and link progression outcomes to strategic business objectives.

To ensure success with the new career framework, it must be embedded into daily operations, be accessible to all employees, and be supported by line managers. 

These strategies will help to keep it relevant and impactful: 

• Start small: A basic framework can be refined later, using employee feedback to keep it practical, manageable, and responsive to changing business and employee needs.
• Balance structure and flexibility: Achieve diverse employee goals and business needs by building flexibility for non-traditional career paths into the structure.
• Integrate into HR procedures: Embed the framework into onboarding processes, 1:1 reviews, and succession planning to keep career growth visible, consistent, and a natural part of talent strategies.
• Tailor to company culture: Reflect company values in the career framework to make growth opportunities feel authentic and meaningful at every level.
• Seek input: Source employee feedback to improve buy-in, accuracy, and alignment with career goals.

Let’s delve deeper into some of the many reasons that a career progression framework should be a business priority:

• Staff retention: 35% of employees cite a lack of career progression opportunities as a key reason for leaving their job. By investing in career progression, a business signals to its employees that it is willing to invest in their future and carve a path for them. 
• Skills development: The business landscape is constantly changing due to technical or market developments. An agile workforce, that is constantly upskilling or reskilling, is better able to adapt to these changes. Career frameworks enable HR teams to stay ahead of emerging skills gaps.
• Transparency: A clear framework can reduce perceptions of bias and favouritism by ensuring that every worker is aware of the process and criteria required to progress. With Australia and New Zealand reporting one of the world’s highest rates of workplace discrimination, at 47.9%, any action to reduce this figure will be welcomed by the workforce. This in turn can increase trust in leadership and ensure workers have formal recognition of their experience and responsibility.
• Workforce planning: Australia is currently facing multiple workforce planning challenges, including a skills shortage and an ageing population. An up-to-date career framework can enable HR teams to identify skills gaps early, build internal pipelines, and anticipate future requirements, ensuring that critical positions are filled quickly. With a current five-week time-to-fill rate on average, that could represent a significant saving in lost productivity. 
• Employer branding: A visible career framework and employees who advocate for career prospects within the business can strengthen the employer brand. These days, talent – especially Gen Z – are keen to work for employers who offer career growth. 
• Conversation enablement: A robust career framework can be referenced during role and salary changes, ensuring fair progression.
• Compliance: Career frameworks can be used as evidence in audits and disputes, so an up-to-date document offers mitigation.
• Pay equity: Clear levels support pay equity and prevent underpayment, along with the associated legal risks.

Of course, with any new initiative there will be challenges – but forewarned is forearmed. 

HR teams can anticipate and avoid these common problems:

• Overcomplicated frameworks: Career frameworks can easily become unwieldy, especially in larger organisations. Overcome this by using a simple online tool, rather than a spreadsheet. Careerminds uses templates and AI to reduce complexity and speed up delivery.
• Static frameworks: Change is the one constant in a business. Static frameworks that aren’t regularly reviewed and updated are a compliance and employee relations risk. Regular reviews must be wired into HR processes – this is not a one-and-done project.
• Failure to communicate: A career framework that is never read is worthless. Business leaders, line managers, and employees must all be educated about the new framework, understand its benefits, and be able to access it easily. 
• Neglecting to train managers: Miscommunication is as bad as no communication. Managers must be trained to hold career discussions, implement the framework, and understand the risks associated with non-compliance. 
• Poor risk management: A careers framework, when it is correctly designed and implemented, minimises the risk of role misclassification and underpayment. Non-compliance can be mitigated by HR working with the legal team to ensure that roles are correctly classified, both when the framework is set up and when any changes are made.
• Management discretion: If managers authorise pay, role, or level changes, the framework is at risk of being ignored. HR approvals and governance must be built into changes to maintain fairness and avoid Fair Work risk.

A career framework is a living document and requires regular review. It is recommended that this happens annually, but should take place more often if roles, company structure, or legislation changes substantially.

Even if there are no signs of major change, regular reviews are still required to catch those changes that constantly influence workplaces – skills requirements are updated, new technology is introduced, cultures shift, priorities change. All of these impact how work is carried out, and therefore need to be reflected in the career framework. 

The review should cover: 

• Checking that the duties outlined in the framework are still the ones being carried out.
• Checking that level definitions are still accurate.
• Checking that award or agreement classifications are still met.
• Checking that “acting up” roles are still temporary and within the agreed timeframes.
• Whether there are other underpayment risks that could be a legal liability.
• Whether there are any exceptions to rules that may mean roles need reclassifying. 
• Whether approvals are happening as expected and at the right level.
• Whether the framework is still being used correctly by line managers.
• Whether employees feel the framework is still fair and fit-for-purpose.

Of course, a review is only half the job. A list of issues is no use unless those issues are fixed. Use the outcomes of the review to: 

• Resolve misclassifications.
• Clarify roles.
• Train managers.

Career progression frameworks aren’t just a good idea – they’re a strategic imperative if employee retention, organisational agility, and employer branding matters to the business. In Australia, they also contribute to ensuring Fair Work compliance and minimising risk exposure.  

Modern workers expect growth opportunities, fairness, and transparency from their employers, so HR leaders who implement these frameworks are positioning the organisation for success. 

• Career frameworks are not static charts of roles and levels – they are an evolving strategic requirement that adapt in line with market changes and business needs.
• They enable employees to gain clarity on the current and future potential for their career.
• Businesses can use them to build more engaged and adaptable workforces.
• They bridge the gap between today’s reality and tomorrow’s needs.

The powerful Career Frameworks tool from Careerminds enables HR teams to create effective frameworks in minutes, using AI-powered features and templates. Our team is ready to speak to you about your approach to career development and job architecture – just click below to connect with an expert and find out more.