30.4 months: Are your employees overdue for a promotion?

It takes about two-and-a-half years for an employee to be promoted to a higher position within their company, a new analysis has revealed.

Standout CV analysed the listed career histories of 19,363 employees of the largest companies by market capitalization in the UK and US on LinkedIn to determine the time it takes for an employee to get promoted.

It found that it takes 30.4 months to be promoted from within the company. It further found that 43.1% of employees have had at least one promotion.

The report, however, noted that promotions appear to be taking a longer time to win across all industries.

"The data found that, on average, employees at these companies had been in their current role for 48.6 months – that's 18.2 months (a year and a half) longer than they had been in their previous role," the report read.

"In total, it took on average 30.4 months to be promoted previously, but in every single company the average employee has worked longer than this in their current position."

^{Source: Standout CV}

By position, the report said interns were most likely to be promoted - with just 8.7 months after joining the company.

"The data clearly shows that as you climb the career ladder, promotions take longer and longer to achieve," the analysis read. "Each promotion you get afterwards takes longer and longer to achieve, for example, it takes an average of 22.1 months for a Vice President to be promoted."

Percentage of people promoted

Meanwhile, the percentage of people who are promoted also varied, according to the analysis by Standout CV.

Vice presidents have the highest promotion rate at 90.3%, followed by associates with a promotion rate of 70.1%.

According to the report, interns are almost twice as likely than a junior employee to be promoted, while associates are three times more likely than a junior to be promoted.

^{Source: Standout CV}

Companies with lowest promotion rates

In looking at the companies with the lowest promotion rate, Google and Meta come out on top, finds the report, with less than a quarter of workers promoted from within the company.

In fact, six of the 10 (60%) companies on this list were from tech companies, found Standout CV.