Job leveling matrix: Take the messy guesswork out of growth plans

Offering professional development can seem more like a benefit than a core business strategy. But data consistently shows that companies live or die by their learning initiatives.

For instance, research from Gallup found that a lack of career growth opportunities ranks as the top reason employees leave their current jobs. Gallup also noted that about nine in 10 millennials view professional development as very important. (1)

Despite the strong correlation between retention and development pathways, many businesses could do better. According to Gartner, only 46% of employees say they're satisfied with their career development opportunities. (2)

If you need to strengthen your company’s promotion process, you can set clear success markers and growth pathways with a job leveling matrix. Let’s talk about how to build a framework that makes advancement more transparent, so your top talent stays motivated.

1. Gallup, 2024

2. Gartner, 2024

What’s a job leveling matrix?

Job leveling is the process of distinguishing different roles by defining their essential features and responsibilities. Once those details are in place, you can create a job leveling matrix to serve as a visual, sharable framework, outlining the expectations for each position.

Most job leveling matrices focus on a few broad categories:

• Responsibilities and scope: A job leveling guide shows both the type of work a particular role is accountable for and the authority that position has.

• Skills and behaviors: These details elaborate on the technical knowledge and soft skills needed for each job level.

• Performance and promotion expectations: This section lays out what’s required for advancement to a particular role.

Tips for creating your job leveling matrix

You don’t need to document every possible scenario in your job leveling matrix. Instead, just create enough clarity that employees and managers know how career development happens (and view it as fair).

“We segmented our job levels so managers and employees can see exactly what skills they need to move up. Growth isn’t just about giving you a new title or more money — it’s about mastering new competencies that make you more valuable to the business.”

– Janelle Daugherty, Head of People and Culture at Notion Health

To do that, start by following these three steps: 

1. Define roles, levels, and responsibilities: Identify all the roles in your organization, and the stages of advancement you want to use for their seniority titles (e.g., Associate and Senior). Then document each core role’s responsibilities, along with its scope of work and decision-making authority.

2. Align competencies and performance expectations: Run through each role’s levels again, but this time list the behavior and expertise requirements for each stage. Think of this step as turning vague career advice into a practical trajectory, one employees can use to evaluate their current positions and growth potential. 

You can keep competencies organized using Leapsome. Employees can see the skills needed for different job levels, so everyone knows what the expectations are and how to advance within your organization.

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🪜 Make career progression clear 

Link skills with job levels in Leapsome, so employees know where they stand and managers can lead better development conversations. 

👉 Learn about Competency Framework 

3. Create and maintain promotion criteria: Your job leveling matrix should show the main pathways for career progression. Include specific promotion criteria to serve as reference points for both employees and managers.

To speed up this process, you can quick-start it using our job leveling template. Just fill in the blanks for your company’s specific competencies and progression criteria.

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📃 Put your job leveling matrix into action

Make sure you’ve covered all the bases before sharing your career progression structure company-wide. 

👉 Download the template now

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What your job leveling framework might look like

There’s a lot of variation in job leveling frameworks, but here’s an example that shows an effective basic structure.

How to turn a job leveling matrix into a growth system: Three steps

“Competency frameworks aren't just checklists; they’re roadmaps for growth and accountability. They help managers coach more effectively and give employees a clear picture of how to succeed at every level. When expectations are written down, everyone understands what great looks like.”

– Monica Sarkar, Co-Founder at Purple Umbrella

Unfortunately, simply drawing up a job leveling matrix doesn’t guarantee a perfect promotion process. You can still experience issues because management and employees don’t share the same interpretation of the traits under each title.

Here’s how to make sure your job leveling matrix has the intended effect.

1. Define success at every level

“In a young company, you often have 10 people wanting the same promotion. That’s why we’re introducing a skills framework from recruiting to retirement — to show where employees stand, what gaps exist, and when they’re truly ready for the next step.”

– Michael Latzik, Country Manager Germany at Deel

Clarity starts with spelling out what success looks like in practical terms for each role. Be as detailed as possible, including information about skills, behaviors, expected outcomes, and business impacts. This shows employees what the next level involves, so they can focus on refining the right capabilities.

2. Give managers a consistent coaching framework

“When people know reviews actually lead to growth, they stop dreading them and start investing in them. Linking feedback to concrete outcomes like pay, promotions, and learning plans turns performance conversations into moments of empowerment.”

– Monica Sarkar, Co-Founder at Purple Umbrella

What “doing well” means shouldn’t depend on the whims of individual managers. A high-quality job leveling matrix needs to provide a more objective framework for consistent feedback cycles and fair performance reviews.

According to Gallup, organizations that make strategic investments in employee development report 11% greater productivity and two times higher retention. Teach managers how to use the competencies in your job leveling matrix to guide career conversations, and link skills to specific learning opportunities to encourage constant progress.

3. Align talent decisions with level criteria

Your matrix truly becomes a system for growth when you use job levels to direct internal mobility. Constantly referencing back to your job leveling matrix makes promotions less a matter of perception, and more in line with documented expectations that build trust. 

Leapsome centralizes your job leveling capabilities and connects them directly to people analytics. When all employee data is in one place, it’s easier for managers to base performance reviews on objective standards.

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🤝 Promote meaningful growth conversations

Leapsome gives managers a clear framework for feedback, by connecting the latest people analytics with broader professional development goals. 

👉 Explore Performance Reviews 

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How Leapsome helps organizations build and scale job leveling frameworks

Writing up a job leveling matrix is an important start, but a plan alone isn’t enough to impact career development. The real challenge begins when you try to integrate the new framework into daily operations. 

Leapsome’s HRIS and people management platform offers tools that help you build trust with employees and keep managers using the same playbook for promotions. You can:

• Create a visual competency guide: Leapsome lets you set the necessary skills for different job levels in a way every team member can view and understand. 

• Support meaningful growth conversations: Use people analytics to your advantage when designing performance reviews and feedback cycles. 

• Coach managers with Leapsome Academy: Help managers feel more empowered through educational courses in the Leapsome Academy portal. 

“We were able to include everything we wanted in our performance reviews, such as our structure, questions, response formats, scale, and value and competence model. It works just great!” – Marie Richter, VP of People at Billie 

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🚀 Make career growth easy to pursue 

Leapsome’s integrated performance, development, and people analytics tools help you show employees and managers what every job and level should look like. 

👉 Request a demo