Would rather have workers take initial promotion (10)
I believe the answer is:
preferment
'promotion' is the definition.
(I know that preferment is a type of promotion)
'would rather have workers take initial' is the wordplay.
'would rather have' becomes 'prefer' (I've seen this in another clue).
'workers' becomes 'men' (men can mean staff or employees).
'initial' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'take' is 't'.
'prefer'+'men'+'t'='PREFERMENT'
(Other definitions for preferment that I've seen before include "Promotion to higher office" , "step ahead?" .)