There were actually 2 related questions posted by webinar participants: 

• How can self-directed learning apply to roles with limited upward mobility? 

• How can you help employees understand that career growth does not always equal advancement/promotion?

With people staying in their jobs longer, there may be fewer upward career options at your organization.  Or perhaps it is simply the nature of the job and/or the company that there are fewer career moves available. 

You can still use competency models to enable people to own their development by helping them become the organization’s experts in their current role.  This gets measured as they assess themselves against the competency model.  Then, they can be task-based mentors for others, or be selected to work on the most challenging projects.

Maybe they can assess their skills and prepare for lateral moves, which is quite common, and keeps people challenged. 

Ultimately, so long as you can help people show movement in their skills, and help them grow, you have the best chance at keeping them. 

How can you help employees understand that career growth does not always equal advancement/promotion? 

Ultimately, you can acknowledge the new social contract, “you may not always want to stay here, but I’m trying to help you develop for the future… whether that is here at our company or elsewhere.”  You want to get employees engaged?  THAT gets them engaged.