During the early phases of a new business, most individuals who work for you are on the same level. However, once your business begins to produce consistent sales, you’ll be able to pinpoint the most valuable employees. Employees that are recognized and rewarded tend to have less turnover than others. These individuals will need a promotion at some point, and you can prepare to promote your first candidate by using the tips in this guide.
Length of Employment
All businesses have two types of employees, which are long-term, dedicated workers and recent hires. Both of these individuals will want a promotion when they think that their contributions have benefited the company. However, many things must be considered in order to determine which candidate gets the first promotion. According to Account Learning, “there are pros of promoting using seniority, and the same is true about promoting using merit. The pros and cons of seniority based promotions are: seniority is objective, builds loyalty in employees and reduces turnover, limits the ability of favoritism, nepotism, etc., and it’s a commonly accepted metric for promotion. The cons are as follows: it can lead to laziness on the part of the worker if they assume they’ll get promoted anyway, new and talented workers can’t be recognized for their talents, good and bad workers are considered as the same. For merit based promotion, here are some advantages: since talent and productivity is rewarded people tend to work harder, puts the most productive and hardworking people in positions of power, and causes a general improvement in all workers since they all could be promoted. The disadvantages are: heavily susceptible to nepotism, favoritism, etc., senior employees may become unsatisfied and may cause problems, and it’s hard to track merit based promotion.”
Typically, the person who has worked for a company the longest gets a promotion. Many managers give employees with seniority a better position; as older employees, they fully understand the ropes and every business policy. However, in some cases, someone who has just started working for a company may meet the qualifications and skills that are needed for an important position. When this happens, you could give the first promotion to a young, qualified employee and a bonus to the employee who has seniority. This strategy will boost morale and prevent conflicts in the workplace.
Examine Past Performances
According to The Hire Talent, “just as with external candidates, past performance is key to choosing who to promote. An employee may not have the exact experience you’re looking for, but you should be able to recognize the skills, work habits, and other attributes you’re looking for.” For this task, you may need to research all of your employees if you don’t spend a lot of time at the office. When you review an employee’s past performance, there are a few key things that you must consider. The most important performance element to consider is skill. Without a proper skill set, productivity, efficiency, and sales will suffer after a candidate is promoted. The second thing that you must consider is each candidate’s work habits. Dedication, drive, determination, and motivation influence work habits on a daily basis, so you must promote someone who is prompt and rarely takes time off from work.
Create Possible Scenarios
Scenarios should be considered if you have a tough time picking someone to promote. Great scenarios can help you make a smart choice because you’ll have opportunities to find out how each candidate will handle different situations. According to TrackVia, “employees that are actively seeking promotion will be prepared for whatever employers give to them. They will show that they can run multiple projects, show they can accept responsibility, and will get their work done according to goals.” Your scenarios should be fair, and each situation must challenge everyone’s skill set.
These tips can simplify the process of promoting your first employee. Immediately after someone is promoted, you’ll need to fill the vacant position in a timely manner in order to keep your business stable.