CAREER
PLATEAUING
Human Resource Management
TANUPRIYA SINGH
22SMG1R19
22
February
2023

What does it mean?
o Ference (1977), defined “Career Plateau” as a stage in career where additional promotion or growth is less likely. It
is used in a negative tone describing a condition of defeat or failure from employee perspective, and
organizations experience decreased work satisfaction, job involvement, motivation and higher employee cost.
o A career plateau is described as a time in a professional's career path where the likelihood of a vertical promotion
is low and the nature of the work kind and quality becomes monotonous. With the same and repeated tasks and
duties, the employee's position becomes stagnant. Due to the way that organisations are structured, the
hierarchy of organisations limits the ability of individuals to advance vertically after a certain point until a position
at the top becomes available and their skill level increases.
INTRODUCTION
Relevance of HRM
o In order to prevent a sense of stagnation among employees when they feel trapped and stuck in such
circumstances, the organization's human resource function is in charge of offering possibilities for lateral
movement. In the absence of promotions, the employees' current jobs must be made more fulfilling and
interesting, and they must get alternative forms of compensation.

01 02
03 04
Reskill/Upskill
Learning about new fields
and trends in the market in
same or different job role
can help in getting reskilled
and get better roles which
may help in long run.
Job
Enlargement
volunteer to take up
additional responsibilities to
help and learn and become
more relevant and critical in
the organization.
Job Rotation
moving from one department
to another can open up new
avenues
Job Switch
if vertical growth and better work is
not possible in the current
organization, a person can move to a
different organization which may
provide a better role and structure
than the current role
Ways to
remove the
Career
Plateau

oAster Retail (AR) is the pharmacy arm of health-care
conglomerate, ADMH (Aster DM Healthcare), with
interests in hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers and retail
pharmacies. The DNA and promise of the group, “We
will treat you well’’ is engraved in all people and business
processes.
oAR, with significant presence in UAE, is considered as an
organization that fulfills dreams of people, by providing
stable careers and continuous growth opportunities.
oTraditionally, AR adopted a relationship/referral-based
hiring of employees at entry level, the hiring was initially
from Kerala, India.
oPharmacists expected career growth within AR, as it
provided higher remuneration, status and sense of
achievement.
oWith the online model kicking in, and rising operating
costs, establishing new pharmacies was difficult, scope
for creating more growth opportunities diminished.
oThat’s where AR’s HR team knew it’s a case of
plateauing.
CASE
STUDY

LEARNINGS
o A “Hybrid Model,” involving multiple strategies, at
different time periods, can be used for addressing
structural and content plateau in tandem. In the
long run, we suggest HR managers to focus on
content plateau, as structural has its own
limitations.
o AR approach increased scope of job and
employee recognition along with creating
“business sense” while not compromising values.
HR managers should consider both employee
care and business sense while planning
interventions.
For
HR
Managers

REFERENCES
○ https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SHR-10-2020-188/full/pdf
○ https://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/human-resources-hr-terms/1786-career-
plateau.html