When to Promote Employees
The question of when to promote employees has always been problematic. Countless formulas have been devised, each reflecting diverse corporate philosophy. Basically, people are promoted for one (or all) of five reasons:
- To fill or strengthen a position
- To reward a good employee
- To retain a good employee
- To overcome salary caps
- To honor seniority
Promoting to Fill or Strengthen a Position
This should be the primary motivation for promoting someone. If the right person is primed for a move up, and that person's qualifications fit the job specs, the decision is relatively easy. It's the other four reasons that cause the most managerial anguish.
Promoting to Reward a Good Employee
It's been my experience that promoting an employee as a reward for good work seldom accomplishes much. The major problem in rewarding--through--promotion is that unless the employee has demonstrated the increased capacity to take on greater responsibility, a promotion can move that individual into the land of "The Peter Principle," coined a number of years ago by Laurence J. Peter. Mr. Peter's thesis was that we are too often promoted to our "level of incompetence." For example, an excellent classroom teacher is rewarded by being named principal, the administrative demands of which are beyond the scope of that person's abilities or interest. Consequently, a wonderful teacher is lost, and a mediocre principal is created.
A former corporate psychiatrist for Western Electric, Howard Hess, took exception with Laurence Peter's contention. Hess feels that people are promoted to their level of "pain," not incompetence. They reach a threshold of success that they are not emotionally equipped to handle.
Incompetence or pain aside, the salient point is that rewarding people by promoting them can result in placing the wrong person in the wrong job, a situation calculated to be detrimental to a department's functioning.
Promoting to Retain a Good Employee
Using promotions to retain good people and boost their morale can create similar problems unless the process is carefully considered and structured. Here, I am not talking about a reward for having performed a specific task well. There are short-term ways in which to say "thanks"-- a small bonus like a theater or a sporting event tickets, an extra day off, or a featured article in a company publication.
Using a promotion to retain a good employee should only be considered if the person has proven to be a loyal and productive employee, one management would hate to lose. The key is that the job to which the employee is elevated be compatible with his or her capabilities, or that the employee not actually assume new duties and responsibilities but be given a "promotion" in title only.
Promoting to Overcome Salary Caps
This reason is a natural outgrowth of current corporate lean-and-mean staffing considerations. The number of slots to which employees can be promoted, with accompanying raises, have become fewer as staffs are culled to reach leaner levels. Fewer jobs means fewer legitimate opportunities to advance within a company.
Salary caps can create a need to promote employees in order to retain them when meaningful salary increases can't be given. If raises aren't an option, there must be some sort of compensating recognition to motivate and retain deserving employees. Failing that, more employees will enter the revolving door.
Promoting an Employee to Honor Seniority
The fifth reason to promote generally proves to be self-defeating. Unless the person with seniority has the talent or desire for the more demanding job, the company is likely to condemn this otherwise good employee to a destiny of eventual failure. At the same time, others in the department ultimately become resentful and restless because they may perceive that mere stamina leads to promotion, not merit and hard work. They may begin looking for jobs elsewhere.
Giving Job Titles to Recognize Effective Performance
Titles can do wonders for employee morale. Not only do they provide a sense of function and stature within a company, their value extends well beyond the workplace. New acquaintances don't ask how much money a person makes (at least etiquette says they shouldn't), but job titles are readily exchanged in conversation. Families carry with them the pride of a member's title. Our titles at work become an integral part of who we are as we proceed through our lives.
British tabloids enjoy poking fun at royalty, but a 1990 Robert Half International survey confirms that attaining "corporate royalty" is viewed by a cross-section of employees as the second greatest indication of status at a company. (It should come as no surprise that compensation was chosen as the primary indicator. I wonder whether the majority of respondents to the survey focused on "status." Work titles are known to many others; salaries are known to a select few.)
Salary aside, the following percentages show how the respondents rated status:
- Title 52 percent
- Proximity to CEO 19 percent
- Size of staff supervised 8 percent
- Office size 6 percent
- Office furnishings 2 percent
- Some other indicator/Don't know 13 percent
If a title is created in order to motivate a good person to stay, care should be taken not to reach beyond the mainstream of titles already within the company. Some companies are capable of coming up with bizarre employee titles. Consider these from a 1991 survey of 200 executives from 1000 of America's largest companies; they were asked to report on the most unusual job titles they'd come across:
- Graffiti Removal Trainee
- Grand Mogul
- Vice President and Ombudsman of Social Responsibility
- Semi-Senior Auditor
We've all heard jokes and complaints about companies handing out impressive titles without an accompanying increase in salary. Be that as it may, the fact is that titles are extremely important to most people. While they may joke about a new title sans higher salary, they instinctively recognize that loftier titles carry with them inherent rewards, including the possibility of tangible ones at a later date.
Savvy employees, when handed a new title without an accompanying salary increase, won't make jokes about it. They know that once they possess the title, an increase in salary might not be far behind. They also realize that each elevation in title makes it easier to go after the next higher rung on the ladder. When an assistant vice president is promoted to vice president, the opportunity probably would not have been available if the "assistant" tide hadn't been offered and accepted earlier.
The importance of job titles is further underlined in a survey taken by Personnel Journal in which 94 percent of personnel executives felt that titles are important to employee morale. It probably still holds the same importance to workers. Although a few respondents indicated they were in favor of abolishing titles altogether, 91 percent said they would not do away with them if given the opportunity.
Neither would I. Titles provide a necessary shorthand for informing other people about what we do at our jobs. It would be awkward to have to answer the question, "What do you do at ABC Corp?" with a list of duties, instead of being able to say, "I'm vice president of operations."
Some studies have validated not only the importance of titles to employees, but also their importance to companies. Job titles often have a direct correlation with the success and growth of certain firms. When we read in newspapers and business trade magazines about a number of new executive positions being created and filled, we automatically view that company as enjoying a growth cycle. Investors respond similarly. So do potential customers who, like most of us, want to do business with companies that are solid and growing. This is distinctly psychological, of course, but what successful business hasn't benefitted from a positive psychological profile?
I believe in the judicious use of titles to motivate and retain good people, provided restraint is exercised and a department's overall balance isn't upset. One important caveat: When employees are given loftier titles and positions that include more responsibility, hours, and number of people for whom they are responsible-but are not given a commensurate salary increase-they have every reason to complain and to feel they've been taken advantage of. Fair is fair, regardless of whether salary caps and internal policies are involved-unless, of course, business is so bad that all salary increases are prohibited across the board.
If fairness isn't a persuasive argument, glance over at the revolving door. Armed with new and impressive titles, and angry at management, these employees will be grinding out their resumes and using their titles to find new and better-paying jobs.
Robert Half International once surveyed a cross-section of American workers for their primary reasons for seeking a job with a different company. The two major reasons were a feeling that opportunities for advancement were limited and a lack of recognition. A new and better title is certainly a legitimate form of recognition and can appease a good employee for a period of time, but it does not take the place of opportunity for legitimate advancement, including increased responsibility with matching compensation.
Know When an Employee is Ready for a Promotion
Until now, I've referred to promotions, including those in title only, as a means of motivating employees when true promotional opportunities aren't available. When a position opens up, and more than one person in a department is qualified and worthy of consideration, how does a manager make that choice?
Many factors go into such a decision. But, in general, any manager might consider the following three indicators for knowing when someone is ready to move up. I call them "the ABCs of promotion."
- Accomplishments. There should be strong evidence that those considered for promotion have accomplished every task as-signed to them over the period of their employment and also have a history of accuracy, timeliness, and creativity.
- Boredom. Good employees who appear to have become bored with their work, and who have demonstrated the potential for taking on greater responsibility, are prime candidates for ad-vancement.
- Cooperativeness. Employees who combine professional excel lence with a spirit of cooperation and team play are obviously worthy of serious consideration.
In addition, keep these thoughts in mind:
- Promote from within, if possible. This builds morale and simplifies hiring procedures. Bringing in people from the outside, unless really necessary, disrupts the team currently in place and can create an adversarial atmosphere between new boss and old guard.
- Promote only those people you feel will be good role models for other employees, as well as for new hires to be brought in at a future date. Management's decision to promote reflects on a company's reputation and can have serious morale and hiring ramifications down the road.
- Focus on professional strengths as a reason for promoting, rather than focusing on personal weaknesses as a reason not to promote. As President Harry S. Truman once said, "Never mind personal weaknesses, tell me what they can do."
