Earlier this week, we mentioned how important it is to promote from within and shed some light on the variety of promotion types. But the big question is, how do you go about selecting employees for promotion? First, you should have a list of general characteristics to put promising employees into a basic ranking. Here is a list to get you started:
- Performance
- Length of service/seniority
- Merit and ability
- Educational/technical qualifications
- Assessment of potential
- Training (how much they have/how much more they may need)
Once you identify the employees that score pretty high on the above categories, it is time to ask the more in-depth questions. Here are some questions that should be asked:
- Are they always seeking the next challenge?
- Do they have strong people skills?
- Do they handle their failures maturely?
- Are they already making an effort to do work at the next level?
- Do they routinely identify and solve organizational problems?
- Do they consistently demonstrate their impact on the business?
- How often do they proactively take responsibility?
- Are they solutions-oriented?
- Are they respected by fellow coworkers?
- Do they support their coworkers?
- How well do they handle stressful situations?
Obtaining answers to these questions for each employee that has the potential for promotion—the ones you identified with the first list above—will give you a reasonable idea of who deserves a promotion, as well as who will handle the promotion well.
Now that you have references for a starting point, it’s time to get out there and start identifying which top performers have the potential for promotion.
