In the last post we discussed about “pay more and disengage”.
Now, let us consider can we use promotion as a tool to engage employees?
Let us consider the following:
1. Promote and Disengage Employees:
A
Communication and technology client during my consulting days positioned
careers as a differentiator. While the company was growing at a rapid stride,
it was easy to promote people and provide larger roles. As the growth slowed
down, promotions led to change in designation and compensation without a
material change in role. We observed that all those promoted without a role
change demonstrated an increase in engagement for a year and then the
engagement dipped even below the level of engagement before the promotion.
2. Promote beyond the level of Incompetence
This was
more than a decade ago. One of my team members was very high performer and was
a high potential. But we strongly felt that he was not ready for the next role.
However, he threatened to resign and we did not want to lose him. We promoted
him. In about a year’s time he resigned. When I called him to discuss the
reasons, he said that he resigned because he was promoted. I insisted that he
told me more. He said that a year ago he felt wanted by the firm, loved by the
team members and respected by the clients. With the promotion the expectations
from all the three stakeholders changed dramatically and he found it difficult
to meet the new set of expectations. Therefore, he felt that none of the
stakeholders respected him any longer. He felt he was in a fix as he could not
request us to demote him. After that episode I preferred to lose people rather
than promote them, as that would eventually lead to a loss in any case.
3. Promote and Sack People
As in
example 1 above, another client promoted people leading to higher salaries and
better designation, without a role change. This did not give people an
opportunity to increase their value add to the organization. In turn, they did
not add value to themselves. When the market stagnated as these employees did
not add value concomitant to their hierarchy and the compensation they received
they were the first ones to be asked to go. As they did not add value to
themselves, they did not find an appropriate job in the market. They had to
settle for less, impacting their self esteem.
So, those who thought that they can
use promotion as a tool to engage and retain employees could be up for a rude
shock. You may end up disengaging employees, exiting them and impacting their
self esteem for a long time.
Even while they stay, they stay disengaged. They do not help the
business.
Should you then not promote? You should definitely promote. Promotions
should be based on:
1. Performance and Potential
2. Availability of a bigger role
3. Readiness for the role.
Such promotions will engage employees who are promoted and
motivate others to strive harder. This would be good for people and good for
business. Therefore, this would be sustainable, even if you lose a few in the
bargain.
If Pay and promotion should not be used as tools to engage and retain employees, should PMS be used as a tool to engage employees? Let us discuss next week.
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