Professionals of nearly every kind inevitably run into the dilemma: They want to advance in their field, increase their salary, and in general, go further in their career. They have the skills, experience, and ambition to get there. Then, after years of hard work, they reach a sign in the road pointing toward their only available destination: management.

In many industries, moving forward has become synonymous with managing others. For some, this is a natural and desirable next step. But for many, especially in technical fields, the role of managing other people simply isn’t what they signed up for. In some cases, the prospect of taking a management role to advance ends up actively discouraging them from taking the next step in their journey.

Understandably, it can be hard to believe that it’s possible for technical professionals to remain nonmanagerial and grow in their careers. Companies promote people into management roles for a variety of reasons they believe make business sense. In short, they often want their most talented people leading processes and teams because that’s more likely to lead to success. The alternative might, therefore, seem detrimental to the growth of the business and future employees alike—for they both require proper guidance.

The truth we’ve seen, however, is that the short- and long-term benefits of building a program for technical employees to grow individually far outweigh the perceived drawback of having fewer of them managing others.

Why your company needs a technical growth program

In the energy industry and beyond, it’s time for more desirable options for talented employees who want to move forward. While this is true of professionals of many kinds—creatives, for example, also often face limited paths forward within their organizations—the focus here is on building a program to empower technical employees in their professional development. Naturally, energy companies employ hundreds, sometimes thousands, of brilliant technical personnel who can thrive when given the opportunity to advance along paths suitable to their skills, experience, and professional aspirations.

When companies develop effective growth programs for technical employees, they should experience a variety of subsequent benefits across the organization. The progression of such a program may look something like this.

First, employee empowerment and satisfaction will grow quickly and drastically. Above all, an employee growth program with multiple promotion paths beyond management gives your people more opportunities to discover their own form of success within the company, leaving them more financially empowered, personally fulfilled, and productive in their work.

Better incentives and rewards improve motivation and morale. With an effective growth program, employees are financially rewarded and publicly recognized for the unique value they bring to the company. Employees who feel valued in their work are more motivated, bringing more value to the company as a result.

As the program grows, employees share knowledge and expand their influence. Employees can expand their circle of influence internally and externally by sharing their technical knowledge and expertise as they progress. In turn, the company benefits from an integrated network of knowledge and thought leadership.

Through mentorship and leadership opportunities, technical employees build a stronger community. Promoting your talented technical people doesn’t mean keeping them isolated. In fact, these programs can and should provide opportunities for mentorship and community-building to empower all employees along their unique path.

As more technical employees flourish, companies increase their competitive advantage. Ultimately, all these benefits amount to collective gains for your company. As your technical experts progress, so do your products and services. Not to mention that these heightened levels of expertise can be leveraged as value-adds for various contracts and collaborations, becoming lucrative services in and of themselves.

When to start a technical growth program

The simplest way to know if your company needs to develop a nonmanagerial growth program is if it doesn’t already have one. That said, there are a few glaring indicators that your company can benefit from developing a program to support technical experts on alternative paths.

• Attrition of technical employees: If your technical experts are leaving your company before or shortly after they’ve reached mid-level or senior positions, it’s likely a result of limited opportunity for desirable advancement. If your people don’t want to stay, it’s time for a major change.
• Misalignment of skill sets in managers: When companies only promote employees to management roles, many of those people end up less effective in those roles due either to lack of desire, skill set, or both. Engineers will be the first to tell you that instead of squeezing square pegs into round holes, it’s better to create new holes.
• A massive, untapped reservoir of technical knowledge: Energy companies employ some of the most talented technical minds in the world, but much of that potential goes unused when there is only one path forward. A comprehensive growth program not only taps into their knowledge but generates more value and potential as a result.

How to build a successful technical growth program

Of course, providing desirable alternative paths for technical employees requires more than just a shift in mindset or a one-off approach for individual employees. Like any systemic organizational change, it requires an intentional, holistic approach in the form of rigorous program development, adequate resourcing, comprehensive communication, and consistent execution. Here are six steps to get your nonmanagerial employee growth program up and running.

Establish a core philosophy and principles

To build and sustain an effective program, you first need to establish its core philosophy and supporting principles. This is the “Why” stage of the process, where you establish a foundation on which to build and guide the program. These principles will vary depending on the company's pace of advancement, scope and variety of opportunities, performance incentives, thought leadership and education opportunities, mentorship, and more.

Determine and communicate program parameters

Another benefit of an effective growth program is that it provides a clear framework for employees to understand how to advance at the company. Establish parameters for who is eligible for the program, financial incentives and other rewards, and expectations and obligations so employees know exactly what the program entails. Communicate these parameters to technical personnel early and often and watch them flourish in their newfound understanding of how to move forward in their roles.

Install internal governance

The best growth programs for technical employees are governed by technical experts themselves, rather than human resources or outside management personnel. By creating an internal governance structure to guide and monitor the program and the people in it—but not to manage, crucially—you establish a community of mutually supportive technical employees to sustain the program.

Create mentorship and leadership opportunities

In a similar vein, programs like these are built on the knowledge that more junior employees benefit greatly from mentorship of people who aren’t their managers, while experienced employees can benefit from supporting them. Though financially incentivized, this is not the same as management, as the sole purpose of the relationship is to support the growth and development of the more junior employee.

Build a knowledge sharing platform

One of the key benefits of a technical growth program is that it drives further learning and innovation. Building a dedicated forum or product to share the knowledge of technical employees capitalizes on value generated in their work. This knowledge can be shared internally and externally.

Harness the power of your people

Once the growth program is established, the opportunities to utilize the knowledge and skills of your talented technical personnel, who aren’t encumbered by management duties, are endless. Thought leadership, premium consulting services, innovation incubation, and internal education are all highly valuable uses of the potential in your newly empowered technical people.

The benefits of developing a nonmanagerial growth program for technical personnel are practically limitless. By being provided with a variety of desirable, clear paths to advancement, consistent financial incentives, mentorship opportunities, public recognition and rewards, and a supportive community of other personnel, technical employees are empowered to discover personal success while supporting the goals of the company in the process. For companies invested in generating energy, employee empowerment is always a sustainable solution.