Award For Career Growth website

Apply today to become one of Leadership IQ’s 2023 Amazing Companies For Career Growth

Career growth is one of the Top 4 Factors that attract candidates to work at a company, after compensation, benefits and work-life balance. [See this study for the latest data].

According to employees and candidates, career growth is more important than flexible working arrangements, job security, diversity, and strong corporate values.

That’s why your organization should apply to be one of Leadership IQ’s 2023 Amazing Companies For Career Growth.

If you’re awarded this honor, you’ll be able to catapult your company into the elite tier of companies that are, by far, the most appealing places for candidates to apply and work.

You’ll have an award banner to proudly display on your career website (and on social media and internally) to let people know that you’re one of the only companies to successfully grow careers!

The next frontier in attracting and retaining great talent is Career Growth. And this is the only award that recognizes your achievements in this field.

how to apply

Unlike most awards, there is no cost or obligation to apply, and you do not have to purchase a survey or test.

All you have to do is, FIRST, submit a short application [at the bottom of this page] to ensure that you’re a fit for the award process.

And SECOND, if your company is a fit, have your senior HR executive or CEO participate in a one-hour interview with Mark Murphy (Forbes Senior Contributor, New York Times bestselling author, and Founder of Leadership IQ). And yes, you can have multiple people on the call to answer specific questions and provide details.

After you submit the short application down below, you will be notified if you've made it to the next round. YOU MUST SUBMIT THAT SHORT APPLICATION BY MARCH 31ST, 2023 (second round interviews may continue into April).

how the interview works

During this interview, you’ll be asked a series of questions about your organization’s career growth initiatives, including the following:

  • How do you track employees’ career growth? For example, do you track metrics for internal promotions, like what percent of leaders came from internal promotions rather than outside hires?
  • Does your organization conduct coaching and career growth conversations with every employee? How do those take place? How frequently?
  • Are you offering training for employees that not only develops their current skills but prepares them for future roles? 
  • What percent of your employees take advantage of learning opportunities? Does your company track and reward increased utilization of those opportunities? 
  • Do employees’ annual goals extend beyond their current roles to foster development for future roles? 
  • Do employees have opportunities to serve in leadership roles outside of the normal corporate hierarchy (e.g., serving in leadership roles on task forces or employee resource groups)?
  • Does your company offer mentoring or career coaching? How does your program work? What percent of employees participate?
  • Do you track turnover and promotions for high-potential employees? How are employees identified as high-potential?
  • Also share any other relevant statistics, like Percent of Candidates Who Accept Your Job Offers, Time to Hire, New-Hire Turnover, Total Turnover Rate, Voluntary Turnover Rate, etc.

NOTE: Organizations are sometimes strong in one area but weak in others. That’s okay. An organization can win the award based on one or two areas of great strength, even if they have other areas that still need work. The interview call is a chance for you to share and showcase your greatest achievements. 

Once the interview is completed, Mark and a team of researchers at Leadership IQ will assess your responses (the interview calls are recorded) and award a select few organizations the Amazing Companies For Career Growth Award.

is our company advanced enough to apply?

Even if you don’t feel like your organization is quite at an award-winning level, apply anyway! There are two reasons to do this.

First, around 80% of companies are underperforming on career growth, so you may be comparatively better than you think.

Second, even if you don’t win the award this time, the Leadership IQ team will give you specific feedback and areas where you can immediately improve. With this valuable feedback, you’ll be able to quickly position yourself to win the award next year.

requirements to apply

  • Your organization must have at least 100 full-time employees
  • A senior HR executive or CEO must participate in the interview call
  • Any career growth activities you share in support of your case for the award must have been active in 2022-2023

start your application here