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Benefits
Problems to be tackled
Do's and Don'ts
Examples of good practice
Improving the knowledge, skills and attitude of all employees increases the ability of an organisation to remove the "glass ceiling" that very often affects women, ethnic minorities and disabled people. Time, effort and resources must be invested in order to improve the capacity of individuals from groups that are rarely found at senior levels. (Link to business case)
Benefits
- Improving the skills and knowledge of those traditionally excluded in the labour market means you have real access to an under-utilised pool of talent.
- Career development of people from excluded groups can improve your reputation and reduce staff turnover
- Promoting an internal candidate saves time because the position is filled more quickly.
- Promotion within an organisation can be a positive reflection of the recruitment and selection process. Promotion is usually seen to encourage and motivate staff, which provides a positive working moral.
Problems to be Tackled
- Informal and closed systems of selecting people for internal promotion
- Stereotyping of managers in terms of "male" qualities which are less likely to be possessed by women, ethnic minorities and the disabled.
- Institutional discrimination which has been shown to exist in both the public and private sector.
Do's and Don'ts
Do
- Treat staff applying for promotion, the same way as you would recruit externally, to ensure fairness and avoid discrimination.
- Make the promotion process transparent, with clear criteria for what is required for the position.
- Use job descriptions, person specification, short-listing and interviewing applicants as you would when recruiting externally.
- Provide constructive feedback to applicants, successful to keep motivation there and also to unsuccessful applicants who can improve on their performance.
Don't
- Promote someone just because you know them personally and you like them, remain objective and measure them on performance.
- Promote for the sake of it, promotion needs to be on merit and the individual person needs to be able to take on the extra responsibilities.
Examples of Good Practice
- Candidates for internal promotion are identified by methods that carry the smallest risk of bias (internal advertisements, formal assessments)
- Key measure of success of the promotion process is the achievement of diversity on all levels
- The promotion process is flexible and recognises different approaches to achieving goals.
- Encouraging promotional opportunities for all employees not only those in middle to senior levels within the organisation.
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