Progress and Promotion
Once an employee has joined your organization and settled in, you can’t expect they will want to stay in that same position forever. On the contrary, people want to learn, grow, and continue to make a contribution—especially younger members of your workforce. They want to progress.
Progress is one of the elements of emotional compensation, a topic we’ve been writing about lately in our blogs. Progress is a universal need that allows people to thrive at work, and that’s what you want your employees to do.
A big part of employee development and a big responsibility of managers is performance management. And we can never say it enough—performance management is a process and not an annual event (the dreaded employee appraisal). That means that frequent conversations or check-ins with employees, or feedback are the most critical part of the process.
Provide feedback as soon as you notice something noteworthy—positive, not just corrective, in nature.
Shape the feedback around accomplishments and/or task or project status.
Let the employee know what you’ve observed and its impact (positive or corrective).
Take the time to listen and ask questions.
Use the conversations as an opportunity to explore potential, future opportunities.
If you’ve made growth opportunities—a topic of a prior blog—available to your employees, that’s a good first step. But how do you know that progress is actually being made? What’s a manager’s role and responsibility?
You can start by following up with an employee about any opportunity they’ve taken advantage of. Ask them:
What they’ve learned and if there are things they don’t understand.
If others might benefit from the same opportunity.
Most importantly, how they might apply what they learned.
This last question provides managers with a great opportunity to consider new assignments, projects or tasks—perhaps a growth assignment—that could help prepare the employee for future roles with the organization. Such assignments could lead to a promotion for the employee—a way to progress.
Employees, of course, have to take responsibility for their growth and progress. However, managers have a role to play in guiding them through this journey. Beyond making resources and opportunities available, managers should help employees set realistic career goals and logical next steps toward achieve those goals.
To learn more, The Big Book of HR, 10th Anniversary Edition includes a new chapter on promotions and a revised chapter on performance management. It is available at https://tinyurl.com/ejjbkp69, or from other book sellers. Visit our website www.bigbookofhr.com for more information.