Would rather have workers taking 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 taking 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' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'taking' is 't'.
'prefer'+'men'+'t'='PREFERMENT'
(Other definitions for preferment that I've seen before include "step ahead?" , "Promotion to higher office" .)