Leadership in Practice
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A new care worker may begin their role with enthusiasm, compassion and a genuine desire to make a difference. They complete their induction, learn the routines and begin building relationships with the people they support.
Then the months pass. They continue completing the same tasks for the same pay, with no clear understanding of what might come next. Training is focused almost entirely on mandatory requirements, development conversations are repeatedly postponed and promotion appears to depend on somebody else leaving. Eventually, another employer advertises a role offering slightly more money or a clearer opportunity. The organisation is surprised when the worker applies.
Care providers often ask how they can improve retention. A better question may be whether employees can imagine themselves still progressing within the organisation in two, five or ten years. If workers cannot see a future with you, they may have to leave to create one.
Care is frequently promoted as a career with opportunities for progression. Yet for many workers, the pathway after recruitment remains unclear.
They begin as a care worker, become more experienced and take on additional responsibilities, but their title and pay remain unchanged. They may help train new employees, support with medication and become the person colleagues approach during difficult shifts without receiving formal recognition.
The only obvious next step may be becoming a senior care worker or manager. If no vacancy exists, or the employee does not want to manage people, the pathway appears to end. A career needs more than the possibility of eventual promotion. Workers should be able to see how their knowledge, responsibility and contribution can develop over time. Without that visibility, experienced employees may conclude that remaining loyal means remaining still.
Career conversations should not be reserved for employees who have already announced that they want promotion. Some workers will express ambition confidently. Others may assume opportunities are not available to them or feel uncomfortable appearing dissatisfied with their current role.
Managers should begin asking about aspirations during induction and continue the conversation through supervision and appraisal. What would the worker like to learn? Which part of care interests them most? Do they want to lead, specialise, gain a qualification or become more confident in their existing role?
Their answer may change as they gain experience. Somebody who initially wants only a stable job may later discover an interest in dementia care, safeguarding, training or leadership.
The organisation does not need to promise a particular promotion. It should demonstrate that the employee’s future is worth discussing.
Care organisations sometimes treat management as the only meaningful form of progression. This creates two problems. Excellent frontline workers may leave because no alternative development route exists, while others accept management positions because they want higher pay rather than because they want to lead people.
A worker can be ambitious without wanting responsibility for rotas, performance management and regulatory compliance. Some employees want to deepen their practice. They may become a champion or specialist in medication, infection prevention, dementia, autism, end-of-life care, communication or another area relevant to the service.
These pathways need to carry genuine responsibility, development and recognition. Giving someone an impressive champion title with no protected time, authority or additional reward is not career progression. It is extra work presented as an opportunity. Providers should create ways for excellent care workers to advance while remaining close to the people they support.
Employees cannot aim for roles they do not understand. Set out the positions that exist within the organisation, the skills required for each one and how workers can demonstrate readiness. Explain what training, experience and qualifications may be needed. This does not have to become a complicated corporate framework. Even a small provider can show how someone might progress from a new worker to an experienced practitioner, specialist, senior or manager.
The pathway should include approximate timescales without suggesting that progression happens automatically after a certain period. Workers need to understand that development is achievable but still connected to competence and opportunity. Be honest if the organisation has a limited number of management positions. A small structure cannot manufacture endless promotions, but it can still offer stretch assignments, qualifications, mentoring and broader experience.
Clarity is more motivating than vague promises that something may become available one day.
Care workers complete a significant amount of mandatory training. Much of it is essential for safe practice, but repeatedly renewing the same courses does not necessarily feel like professional development.
Ask whether training is helping the employee grow or simply keeping the compliance system up to date. Development might include specialist learning, shadowing another role, attending external events, participating in audits or contributing to a service-improvement project. Employees could support induction, lead a team discussion or work alongside a more experienced colleague.
The opportunity should connect to an agreed goal. Sending everybody on the same course does not create an individual career pathway. After training, managers should also ask how the learning will be used. If a worker gains knowledge but is never given an opportunity to apply it, the certificate may benefit their next employer more than their current one.
When a senior employee leaves or becomes absent, a reliable care worker may be asked to take on additional duties temporarily. This can provide valuable experience and allow the organisation to assess whether the person is ready for progression. Problems arise when the temporary arrangement continues for months without clarity, recognition or appropriate pay.
The worker carries greater responsibility but remains uncertain whether a permanent opportunity will ever appear. Because they have demonstrated that the work can be completed informally, the organisation may feel less urgency to resolve the situation.
Acting-up arrangements should have an agreed purpose, timescale and level of support. Be clear about which responsibilities the employee is authorised to perform and how the experience will be reviewed. Opportunity should not become a convenient way to obtain senior work at a junior rate.
Employees watch who receives opportunities. If preferred shifts, specialist training and acting-up roles consistently go to the same small group, the rest of the team will notice. They may conclude that progression depends more on personal relationships than performance.
Managers should advertise opportunities openly where possible and explain how decisions will be made. Development should not be reserved for the employees who ask most frequently or have the closest relationship with leadership.
Quiet workers, part-time staff and people working nights can be particularly easy to overlook. International recruits may also have significant experience that is not recognised because it was gained outside the UK.
Fair progression does not require giving every employee the same opportunity. It means ensuring everyone can understand how decisions are reached and has a reasonable chance to demonstrate their potential.
An employee’s future cannot be built entirely from praise and additional experience. When someone develops new skills, accepts greater accountability or consistently performs duties beyond their original role, pay should be considered alongside recognition.
Care providers may face genuine financial constraints, but those limitations should be discussed honestly. Workers can see when the organisation finds money to recruit replacements, use agency staff or make last-minute counteroffers after someone resigns.
If an immediate increase is impossible, explain what would need to happen and when the position can be reviewed. Avoid allowing additional duties to continue indefinitely under the description of development. Progression that only increases workload will eventually feel like punishment for being capable.
Some of the people most uncertain about their future are already managing services. A registered manager may have reached the most senior operational role available in a small organisation. Their responsibilities continue growing, but they receive little supervision beyond discussions about performance, staffing and compliance.
If managers cannot see their own path, they may struggle to create meaningful pathways for other people. Senior leaders should ask what managers want from their careers. They may be interested in quality, operations, commissioning, training, regional leadership or organisational development.
Managers also need time and support to develop their teams. Career conversations are easily postponed when they are dealing with staffing shortages and daily operational problems. An organisation cannot claim to prioritise workforce development while giving managers no capacity to deliver it.
A resignation has a remarkable ability to reveal opportunities that were previously unavailable. Suddenly, the organisation may offer a pay increase, additional flexibility or a development plan. Even if the counteroffer is generous, it may arrive too late.
The employee has already spent time imagining a future elsewhere. They may also wonder why their value was recognised only when leaving created a problem for the organisation.
Regular stay conversations can identify what employees need before they reach that point. Ask what keeps them, what frustrates them and what might eventually cause them to look elsewhere. Not every resignation can or should be prevented. People relocate, change careers and pursue opportunities an organisation cannot offer. The aim is to avoid losing good workers simply because nobody asked what they wanted until their notice arrived.
Progression is sometimes treated as an employee benefit with little connection to the people using the service. In reality, workers who continue learning are better equipped to recognise changes, respond to complex needs and share knowledge with colleagues. Clear pathways also support continuity by encouraging experienced people to remain.
The people receiving care benefit from staff who feel invested in the organisation and confident that their contribution has somewhere to grow. Development can also strengthen recruitment. Workers talk to each other. An organisation known for promoting fairly, supporting qualifications and developing frontline expertise becomes more attractive to people who want to build a career rather than simply find their next shift.
Care workers understand that progression takes time and that not every organisation can offer immediate promotion. What they need is evidence that continued commitment will lead somewhere.
That evidence might be a development plan, specialist responsibility, qualification, mentoring relationship or honest route towards a future vacancy. It may involve becoming better and more recognised within the current role rather than moving away from frontline care.
The pathway must be visible, credible and supported by action. Ask your employees where they hope to be in two years. Then ask whether your organisation currently has anything capable of taking them there. If it does, make sure they know about it. If it does not, begin building it.
The strongest workers will continue developing whether you support them or not. The only question is whether they will need to leave your organisation to do it.
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Posted by:
K Jadon
Editorial Assistant – The Daily Round
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