{"id":149721,"date":"2026-05-28T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/?post_type=articles&p=149721"},"modified":"2026-05-21T09:24:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:24:04","slug":"when-employees-learn-faster-than-the-reward-system-meant-to-support-them","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/articles\/performance-management\/when-employees-learn-faster-than-the-reward-system-meant-to-support-them\/","title":{"rendered":"When Employees Learn Faster Than the Reward System Meant to Support Them"},"author":52,"featured_media":149745,"template":"","tags":[4897,5181,36897],"class_list":["post-149721","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ai-learning","tag-career-growth","tag-lattice-career-model","global_topic_tax-performance-management","global_topic_tax-personalization-and-learning-pathways"],"acf":{"sponsored":false,"gated":false,"gated_content_type":"","file_attachment":null,"gated_content":"","form_instruction_header":"To access the full article, please fill out the form below:","pardot_html_embed":"","author_override":true,"author_name":"Melissa Kruminas, MOL, CPTD, SHRM-CP","author_image":"","author_bio":"Melissa Kruminas<\/a>, MOL, CPTD, SHRM-CP, is vice president of learning experience and enablement at Litmos, where she helps organizations use learning to drive meaningful business outcomes. With a background in learning strategy and organizational leadership, she specializes in L&D, customer education and enablement.","excerpt":"Employees are learning faster than ever, but outdated promotion systems are slowing career growth and recognition.","main_content":"Across industries and companies, a surprising trend has begun to impact teams of all sizes. As employees acquire new skills faster, their efforts aren\u2019t consistently reflected in career progression. People are putting in the work to improve, but systems meant to reward them are falling behind, creating a \u201cmerit paradox.\u201d\r\n\r\nWorkforce ambition hasn\u2019t declined. If anything, it\u2019s accelerating. Technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI)-powered learning, has made professional development more accessible. Employees who are upskilling quickly and continuously assume faster training will lead to more opportunities and upward mobility, but that isn\u2019t always the case. Recent data underscores the mismatch.\r\n\r\nA new report on evolving career growth models found that just over a quarter of HR leaders say AI-driven skills reduce time to promotion, while 34.<\/a>5<\/a>% of surveyed employees believe building new competencies hasn\u2019t helped them<\/a> move forward any faster. The issue stems from a lack of alignment in how capabilities are developed and how organizations recognize them. Traditional advancement systems are no longer keeping pace with the speed of modern learning.\r\n