Some might say that it’s always better to hire internally and grant promotions to deserving employees. Their familiarity with the business and their colleagues can help them and may give them an advantage if they step into managerial shoes.

That said, promotions should never amount to guesswork. There is a right and wrong way to go about things here, and if you want the best for your workforce, you must perfect this balancing act.

What are the types of things you should think about when upskilling your workforce? Are there potential pitfalls where you might stumble? Read on for our top tips around promoting internally.

 

Try To Be Fair

Fairness is a big part of initiating a promotion. Otherwise, emotions like resentment can start forming between colleagues, impacting teamwork, productivity, or even staff turnover.

For example, research has shown that remote workers tend to be less likely to get promoted, as they experience less facetime with their superiors and are even forgotten about entirely during daily work processes. Obviously, none of this is justifiable, and remote workers should still be considered to be internal, even if they’re working in a different location.

Of course, you may be apprehensive about promoting somebody you see less of. The answer to this is to schedule routine conference calls with your remote workers, keep in touch with them with systems like Slack, and still invite them to meetings and staff social events. If you don’t fulfil the potential of these workers, not only do they lose out, but your business does too.

 

Help Candidates Excel

Some bosses make the mistake of sitting back and waiting for their employees to impress them. The most competent leaders bring out the best in their workforce.

Give candidates all the tools they need to excel. After that, you can identify candidates for promotion by those who made the most of the opportunities you presented. Supporting them will make them embrace promotions more enthusiastically and help them stick around long enough to accept them.

Utilise valuable and informative resources. Work with companies like , as you can create engaging e-learning content with them. Aside from their “Learning Suite” – which is a Learning Management System and Learning Experience Platform in one – they offer great authoring tools which you can use to create high-quality e-learning content. The Learning Management System behind the Learning Suite has analysis tools available, too, enabling you to see how well your employees perform.

 

Promote The Promotion

When colleagues climb another notch on their career ladders, an announcement should be made. Doing this will send a very clear and positive message to everyone else in the company.

A promotion is always a positive thing for everyone in the business. While many people try to see the value in dead-end jobs, those with high career aspirations can’t be personally or professionally satisfied for long. Career stagnation can quickly kill enthusiasm for a role, particularly for aspirational individuals.

That said, the promotion of any colleagues is proof that people can thrive in your business. New starters may feel more confident that they’ve joined the right firm where their hard work is rewarded. Send out an email, hold a staff party, or lead a round of applause in a meeting. Develop a culture where every worker will know that a win for one person is a victory for all.