Why promotion is so important in an organisation?

A statistic from Access Perks showed that top reasons for leaving a job included inaccurate performance reviews – being passed over for promotion based on a review that didn’t reflect performance and bias. A majority (75 percent) of job seekers also said that being passed over for a promotion was among the reasons to move on and go job hunting. These findings indicate that having no promotion program in the industry can increase turnover rate and will likely fail to attract new candidates.

See also: HR Challenge: Meeting Evaluation and Promotion Expectations of a Diverse Workforce

Promotion seems like a simple metric but it provides a lot of benefits for both employees and employers. It does improve employee engagement, leadership development, and inclusion practices. Promotion is also not only a way to give a sense of more responsibility to employees, but also a major form to boost employee motivation and morale.

Criteria for promoting employee

Given the importance of promotion, employers and managers should pay attention to the criteria of employees who will be promoted. Why? Because promoting wrong employees will cost you a fortune. Therefore, developing promotion criteria is as important as the promotion itself.

Typically, the criteria of promotion are based on employees’ performance in their current position and whether they demonstrate readiness for a position with additional responsibilities. According to Workable, here are the considerations to develop promotion criteria.

1. Duration of experience in the job or tenure
2. High-performance level in (two) recent review cycles
3. A skill set that matches the minimum requirements of the new role
4. Personal motivation and willingness for a change in responsibilities
5. Employee’s punctuality. The employee must be compliant with small rules such as attendance.
6. Good attitude towards their work, company culture, and other employees
7. Minimum educational requirements and minimum seniority requirements for a given position (additional consideration)

After you get all the criteria you need for promoting your employee, you need to ensure that the practice is known by the whole employees within an organisation to ensure a healthy competition. You should also write the general and specific criteria of promotion under company policy for proof in the future.

Under the statement policy, there should be an agreement between employer and employees to make sure it covers and does not discriminate against certain groups of employees, hence ensure equality and company harmony.  

See also: Right Ways to Announce Promotion to Employees