Can’t Promote Your Best People? Here’s What to do Instead

Can’t Promote Your Best People? Here’s What to do Instead

The Promotion Squeeze: A common complaint I hear from leaders is that they can’t reward their best people with promotions, impacting their ability to retain the staff they most want to keep. Perhaps the organization is too small or too hierarchical, baby boomer workers are retiring later, or the budget doesn’t stretch that far. What I recommend is that they consider other rewards.

What Do People Value About Promotions? Promotions may be viewed as the only way to increase someone’s compensation, prestige, challenge or skills. One thing that’s important to learn is WHY your staff wants that next step up the ladder. Their reasons may not be what you think.

What Do They Really Want? Leaders assume that their people want promotions, yet there are many other factors that impact retention. Training and development opportunities, for example, count as one of the most significant perks in many surveys, especially for millennials. Read about these and other findings in the 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey.

What Should You Do?

Ask, Ask, Ask: You may assume that you know someone wants a promotion or that you know why they want one, but your suppositions may be way off base. When you have development conversations with your people, ask general questions about their goals and objectives and the reasons behind their desires.

For example:

“Is there anything that I’m doing or not doing — or that anyone else is doing or not doing — that could help make you more successful?”

  “Where do you see yourself in a year, five years, and/or ten years in terms of your career?”

 “What kinds of benefits are most important to you?”

When you first start asking these questions, you may not receive much information, but if you keep asking every time you meet with them, you’ll eventually find out what they would like to do.

Frequently, leaders tell me that they don’t want to ask because the answers might raise someone’s expectations. Even if they request a perk that you know you have no power to grant, it’s important for you to understand what they want so that you can manage their expectations.

If they say that they want a promotion, find out why? Is it the money, perceived power, or experience? Perhaps you can match what you are able to offer to their real needs and interests.

Offer Training, Development and Lateral Moves:   Once you know what people want and why, you can match what you can offer to what they truly need and want. Offer training and development so they can work in another group, suggest they switch jobs so they can learn new skills, send them to conferences, classes or introduce them to a potential mentor for their long-term goals.

Teach New Skills and Mentor Them Yourself:  Study after study has found that employees value one-on- one time with their leaders. Even if what they want doesn’t correspond with your current department’s needs, offer to coach them in developing the skills for their future job. Explain what they’ll need to do to learn in grow in that area, offer books, degree suggestions or videos. Follow-up with potential ideas for how they can eventually move into the career they want. Your time and attention is a valuable commodity and reward.

Let Them Go:  At some point, you may find yourself mentoring someone into a new job with a different organization. This can be perceived as a loss but frequently is not. A former employee can be a valuable part of your network. They may go to work for a customer, return to your group when you have more positions to offer, or refer a great new hire. In my experience, investing in someone over the long term always pays off.

Want more ideas about how to retain your best people:

How to Keep the Ones You Love: The Number One Retention Strategy Attracting and Keeping the Best Employees: What Really Works

What Do You Think?

Have you observed behavior in yourself and others that seems completely out of character? Call or write us at:303-216-1020 or Lynne@workplacesthatwork.com