Understand Leadership Progression

At a glance

Leadership Progression is OneClick's module for tracking a team member's internal development and promotion path. It gives leaders a structured way to document where a team member stands on the store's career track, which milestones they have completed, and what is next. This reference explains what Leadership Progression is for, how progression tracks work, and how the module relates to Passports, Ratings, and Permissions.

Before you start

This is a reference article. Read it once, return when needed.

Core reference content

What Leadership Progression is for

Leadership Progression is internal promotion tracking. The module answers questions like "where is this team member on their path from Team Member to Shift Leader?" or "who in my store is ready for the next step?" It is a leader tool for intentional leadership development, not an automated promotion engine.

Three use cases drive most of the module's value:

1. One-on-ones. Leaders reference the record during coaching conversations to ground the discussion in specific completed and upcoming milestones.
2. Promotion decisions. When a position opens up, the record helps identify ready candidates across the team.
3. Succession planning. Knowing who is at which stage across the team lets leaders plan backfill and development resources.

How a progression track is structured

A progression track consists of a defined sequence of stages. Each stage contains one or more milestones that a leader can mark complete as the team member demonstrates the required skills or behaviors.

A progression track is typically a defined series of stages, each with one or more milestones a team member must complete to advance. Stages represent levels of leadership development; milestones represent specific competencies, certifications, or completed work that evidence readiness for the next stage.

Whether the track is store-level, organization-level, or individually customizable is an implementation detail that affects how each store configures it. Progression tracks are configured at the store level. Operators and Directors can customize the track structure. The default track reflects standard leadership development stages.

How Leadership Progression differs from Training Passports

This distinction is the single most common source of confusion for readers new to the modules, so it deserves a dedicated explanation.

Training Passports certify competence at a specific position. A Passport says, "this team member is trained and rated well enough to work Runner at Shift 1." One passport per team member per position.

Leadership Progression tracks readiness for roles above the team-member level. A progression record says, "this team member has completed the milestones that indicate they are ready to consider a Shift Leader role." One progression record per team member.

Passports are many (one per position), scoped to the position. Progression is one (per team member), scoped to the person's overall development. A team member can have several stamped passports without being far along in progression, and can be far along in progression while still building new passports. The two modules track different dimensions of the same person.

How Leadership Progression relates to other modules

Training Passports. Often an input. Stamped passports on multiple positions may be a progression milestone. The relationship between passports and progression is informal. Completing a relevant passport does not automatically update a progression milestone; leaders reference passport completion as evidence when manually marking milestones complete.

Ratings. An input. A team member consistently rated at the higher tiers across positions may be progression-eligible. Not an automated trigger; leaders reference ratings when evaluating progression.

Permissions. Scopes who can view and update progression records. See Understand Permission Levels.

Infractions. Not a direct input, but the overall team member record includes infractions that may inform progression decisions. A team member being considered for Shift Leader with a recent attendance pattern on the Infractions tab is a different candidate than one with a clean record.

Who can view and update

Viewing. Leaders with the appropriate permission can view progression records for team members in their store. Manager-level access or higher is required to view and update progression records. The permission controls for this area are in development.

Updating. Updating a milestone requires a permission and is typically limited to leaders who own development for the team member.

Team member self-view. Whether team members can view their own progression record depends on store configuration. Some stores enable team member visibility; others keep progression records leader-facing only. Contact your operator to confirm the setting for your store. This is a significant policy question at the store level, since some stores prefer transparency and others prefer leader-facing only.

Progression is manual

The module does not automatically advance team members based on other OneClick activity. Milestones are updated by leaders. A team member who has stamped three passports does not automatically reach a "has stamped three passports" milestone; a leader updates that milestone when they see it is complete. OneClick does not support automatic milestone advancement. All progression updates are performed manually by a leader.

This is intentional. Internal promotion is a judgment call that benefits from human review, and automatic advancement would create a brittle, gamed record.

Video

Not planned.

Common gotchas

I confused Progression with Passports and tracked position certification in the wrong place.

Passports handle position-level certification; Progression handles overall development. If you find yourself tracking something like "knows how to run Front Counter," that belongs in a Passport, not a Progression milestone. A Progression milestone is more like "has demonstrated leadership on a shift" or "has completed the Shift Leader onboarding series."

A team member has been effectively operating at the next stage for weeks but the record does not show it.

Progression is manual. Update the milestones that reflect where they actually are. The record is only as accurate as the updates leaders make.

Two leaders have different pictures of where a team member stands.

Almost always a data-entry or communication gap, not a product bug. Open the progression record together during a one-on-one and align on what is true.

A team member's progression looks backward after a role change.

Progression records are preserved when a team member's role changes. Existing milestone data is not reset or rescoped.

I want to report on progression across my whole team.

A team-wide progression summary is available for leaders with appropriate access from the Leadership section of the app.

Related articles

1. Track a Team Member's Progression (How-To Guides)
2. Update a Progression Milestone (How-To Guides)
3. Understand the Passport Lifecycle (Reference)
4. Understand Permission Levels (Reference)

Still stuck

If Leadership Progression behavior does not match this reference, or if you cannot find the progression surface, submit a support ticket with your store number, the team member's name, and a screenshot of what you are seeing.