What Is Career Webbing? Growth Beyond the Corporate Ladder

Key takeaways:

• Career webbing acknowledges that careers evolve laterally, diagonally, and cross-functionally through a web of skills, experiences, and relationships; the corporate ladder is dead.

• Career webbing is good for companies because it fosters a more flexible, deeper talent bench. It’s good for employees because it encourages pursuing skills outside of promotions.

• There are a number of compensation tools to support career webbing at your organization.

Career webbing is an exciting new path organizations are taking to leverage employee skills across the business, not just within a single role or function. Career webbing recognizes that employees grow their careers through lateral, diagonal, and cross‑functional transfers, rather than strictly upward progression. Put another way, careers evolve through a web of skills, experiences, and relationships.

Career Webbing in Action

Imagine an HR generalist who moves laterally into a benefits or compensation specialist role and later advances into a total rewards manager position. Consider another example: a program coordinator in a nonprofit may transition into grants management rather than moving directly into program management. 

In each case, career progression is driven by skills and experience, not just titles.

Benefits of Career Webbing for Organizations

Career webbing is most effective in organizations that support lateral and cross‑functional movement, project‑based or temporary assignments, rotational programs, and network-building across teams and leaders. Career webbing benefits organizations by:

Improving employee engagement by offering employees more ways to grow, contribute, and stay motivated, improving your company’s efficiency.

• Supporting internal mobility, which lowers costs because moving existing employees is significantly less costly and faster than sourcing external candidates. 

• Strengthening succession planning by creating a deeper, more flexible internal talent pool built on skills.

• Allowing managers to develop talent without relying solely on promotions.

Benefits of Career Webbing for Employees

Career webbing strengthens internal talent while preparing employees for future roles. Furthermore, it:

• Expands growth opportunities, allowing employees to reach across the organization for right-fit roles rather than just up the ladder.

• Reduces pressure to chase titles by encouraging progression around skills, not just titles.

• Prevents stagnation (“job hugging”) because employees know there are multiple directions for movement within the organization.

• Supports long‑term career advancement through meaningful skill-building.

Organizational Tools that Support Career Webbing

In support of career webbing, Compensation Resources is available to develop the following tools for your organization.

Implement a job architecture with:

• Broad job families

• Transitional roles into next‑level positions

• Language that supports lateral and diagonal movement

Craft a competency model that:

• Defines progression based on skills and behaviors, not just titles

• Identifies role‑specific and technical skills by level

• Contains core competencies across job families

Establish a salary structure that:

• Is market-competitive

• Supports multiple career paths

• Maintains internal equity

Advancing Careers in a Modern Workforce with Career Webbing

Career webbing, supported by job architecture, skills‑based competencies, and aligned compensation programs, creates a structured yet flexible approach to modern career growth.