Optimizing promotions at your organization
There is no arguing that the role of a people leader is critical to an organizations short and long-term success.
Congratulations! You’ve been promoted! One would think hearing those words would make an employee feel proud and excited for the new role. Yet according to the ADP Research Institute’s (ADPRI) Today at Work (September 2023) report, 29% of employees had left their organization within a month of being promoted. Promotions are quite rare, just 4.5% of employees get promoted within two years of being hired according to a previous Today at Work (May 2023) that analyzed the job histories of more than 51 million U.S. workers between 2019 and 2023. So, the overall impact on an organization’s headcount is small. However, it’s difficult to measure the emotional impact that a quick-turnover promotion might have on the organization and the team itself.
At first glance this finding seems counter-intuitive. Why would an employee leave so quickly after becoming promoted? There is no one root cause that explains these sudden departures, but the ADPRI report does give some clues. For example, the report finds one of the greatest risks of a newly promoted employee leaving is when the promotion occurs at a job that requires little to no preparation. The data also shows that when looking at job level, individual contributors pose the smallest risk of leaving their employer after getting promoted, while first-level managers represent the biggest risk.
As leaders and practitioners, there are steps that can be taken to optimize your company’s promotion program and reduce the risk a newly promoted employee will leave the organization.
Clearly define how promotions work at your organization
Promotions are used for a lot of different things. Sometimes, they are used as a recognition tool. Sometimes, they are used to provide an employee with a higher level of compensation. Sometimes, they are used as a retention tool. Sometimes, they happen when an employee interviews and is selected for a job at a higher salary grade. And sometimes, promotions happen when an employee’s work has changed substantially enough to warrant a higher salary grade. When promotions happen for reasons other than a shift in job responsibilities, other employees are likely to question how and why it happened. This often leaves those not promoted feeling “less than” or like they’re not being treated fairly. Defining the promotion process and following that process creates clarity for the organization and helps the promoted employee know their promotion is deserved for all the right reasons.
Provide aspiring managers an opportunity to explore the role
When employees have a desire to grow in their career, that is to move up the hierarchical ladder, often the only way is to take on managerial responsibility. For many, it’s a daunting and overwhelming role that takes employees away from work they love. Organizations can help employees make more informed decisions around taking on a team by providing opportunities to explore the role of leading teams before their name shows up in that box on the org chart. There are some simple ways to provide better visibility into the real world of leading others before an employee commits to the role. For example, provide the employee with the opportunity to lead a short-term project team, offer lunch-and-learns about the role of managers for those thinking about making the move, and offer up one-on-one conversations between aspiring managers and an experienced manager.
Leader training before the promotion, not after
Most organizations don’t have a continuous offering of leader development classes, which often leaves new managers waiting months to attend their first synchronous learning opportunity. eLearning can help, but when an employee takes on the critical role of leading others, synchronous learning provides a level of interactivity and networking that eLearning can’t. This puts the new manager at risk of starting off their new role unprepared and vulnerable to mistakes that are difficult to recover from. Hiring managers and talent practitioners may feel the pressure to fill an open seat immediately, but the positive impacts of investing in a well-prepared new manager will have overwhelming long-term positive impact.
Give new leaders a grace period
A common phrase to hear when a new manager takes on their role is that they need to “hit the ground running”. These urgent tasks often overshadow the critical get-to-know-the-team and settling-into-the- new-role time. One way to circumvent this challenge is to institute an organization wide new role grace period. This 30–60-day period may seem like a productivity loss, but it’s actually an investment in the leader and their team’s future success. This time is not a “don’t-do-any-work” time, but a structured program that includes get-to-know-you time with individual team members, key partners, and a new manager’s leader. The program should also have clear outcomes, including the new manager’s go-forward plan for their teamwork. Giving the new manager this grace period does more than set them up for success; it signals to the workforce how much your organization values the role of a manager, and that you are willing to make the investment of time to ensure the manager’s success.
Related: Should leadership training be a part of employee benefits in 2023?
As surprising as the Today at Work data is that shows newly promoted employees might leave the organization soon after a promotion, this outcome is not inevitable. There is no arguing that the role of a people leader is critical to an organizations short and long-term success. Given that, it seems to reason that defining the process of promotions, investing in leader development for prospective and new managers, and creating a non-optional new leader grace period are worthy investments. There will be leaders in the organization that will push back on these investments in the short-term. But they will undoubtedly praise these actions when leaders, teams and the organization build a better and more impactful approach to promotions.
Amy Leschke-Kahle, VP of Talent Insights and Innovation at ADP