When promotions aren’t a reward or even a good career move
Let’s see if this sounds familiar. Bob has been a fabulous employee but you’ve been concerned lately because he’s been in the same position for over two years and you’re afraid he might leave the company. The answer seems obvious… you’ll promote him. In fact, you believe that he’ll be such a great influence on the people reporting to him that you’ll end up with a whole team that’s fabulous. You pat yourself on the back while thinking you’re pretty fabulous, too!
There are two big problems with this solution. The first problem is the way we think about promotions. We’ve all gotten wrapped up in the belief that success requires climbing the corporate ladder. Don’t take it personally; both employees and management have gotten stuck in that mindset. Since there are fewer and fewer positions available the higher you go in a company, it’s obvious that promotions are limited. Think of your business first: did someone leave to create a job opening or do you have a legitimate need for this new role? If you create new positions just for the purpose of rewarding someone, you’ve set a dangerous precedent that’s very hard to correct. It’s important to be creative in retaining your employees without constant promotions.
The second problem is the way we think about promotions. I’ve noticed a large percentage of companies that seem believe a new title magically gives an employee new skills. This can easily lead to disaster on several levels. Unless Bob has the right skills, he’ll probably be a poor supervisor and a legal risk to your company. Some of these skills may come naturally to Bob but real training is needed for many of the skills.
Putting Bob in a supervisory position removed him from a position he excelled in and put him in a position for which he has no experience or training… and, possibly, no aptitude. Even with training, he may never be a good supervisor if he doesn’t have the right aptitude for a supervisory role. Statistics say that 70% of employees blame their supervisor when asked why they left a company.
Let’s face it. Some people will never become a great supervisor, even with training. In fact, I know people who will do just about anything to avoid supervising people because it’s so stressful for them. This is where aptitude comes into play. A good supervisor really enjoys supervising people, including the challenges. These are the type of people who will benefit from a promotion to a supervisory position… and will be much more likely to be successful in the job.
So, let’s do a status check on Bob’s promotion. You no longer have fabulous Bob in his old position. You have not-so-great Bob as a supervisor. And you have less-than-fabulous Sam now doing Bob’s old job. Meanwhile, a lack of success in his new job could easily wear on Bob’s confidence and force him to leave your company. You could try to salvage this by offering Bob his old job back (assuming you still have an opening) but this is rarely successful because it looks like a demotion, no matter how you word it. How’s that brilliant idea of a promotion looking now?
Change your mindset about promotions. Determine whether or not your fabulous employee has the needed skills and knowledge or can be trained for ANY new position. Communicate with your employees to find out what they’d like to be doing in a year or two. You might be surprised to find that many are perfectly happy doing their current job and don’t have ambitious plans.
Don’t lose a good employee by making the mistake of thinking a promotion is the only or best solution for rewarding good performance. Either do your homework or plan to do some recruiting.
