Good employees should move up the ladder. Promote from within. Reward those who perform. It seems so easy, doesn't it? Well, like anything in the workplace, from hiring to training to firing, the process of employee promotion has its pitfalls and must be carefully thought out.

The issue of promotions is a true double-edged sword. You can have trouble when you promote, and trouble when you don't.

The trouble with promoting recent hires:
Say you make, what I like to call, a Fabulous New Hire (FNH). FNH fits into the job like a dream and everyone is happy with the success of FNHProductivity soars and everything seems to be running smoothly  until the supervisor's job comes up for grabs. You look at the field of candidates and come to the conclusion that FNH is the best person for the job. And then things start to fall apart. Co-workers are more than a little resentful that FNH gets promoted when he/she has less experience than they. FNH, in turn, feels more than a little awkward supervising his/her former co-workers. Friendships begin to falter. Productivity begins to drop. The employees who didn't receive the promotion are now casting their eyes elsewhere because they feel unappreciated.


The trouble with not promoting.
Say you've got good workers in high-level jobs who remain in the same role for many years. While it's wonderful that these employees are satisfied with their current roles, it can leave little room for promoting lower-level employees., In turn, these employees often start to feel restless, stagnant, and wonder if they need to look elsewhere for advancement and higher pay.

Making sure your employees feel valued and that they understand how their work fits in to the overall goals of the organization is of utmost importance. Promotions are a positive part of this process, whether they're troublesome or not. Here are a few helpful tips for negotiating the promotion minefield.

" Promote the right people.
It's not always the case that a good worker will make a good manager. You need to know if your candidate can cut the mustard in his new job, not just how well he or she performed his old job. He must possess leadership skills, decision making skills, certain personality traits being comfortable supervising people, for example  and even scheduling and budgeting skills that he or she has not necessarily displayed on the job. Use testing for intelligence, personality and character and structured interviewing techniques to discern exactly who is right for the job.

" Create a new team, not just a new manager.
When you promote an employee, tell his or her co-workers about it in a group setting. Make it a fun celebration of the "new team, not simply the new manager or supervisor. Make sure each employee knows his or her value on this new team and how much the new manager is going to rely on them to succeed.

" Tell employees the truth.
When you're hiring, let people know exactly where and how they can expect to move up within your organization. If there's little room for advancement, you had best let people know it. Clear expectations  even if it's not what the employee wants to hear  trump dashed hopes every time.

" Get creative
Promotion isn't the only way to keep great employees on the job. If the top echelon just isn't moving, what about increasing lower-level salary, vacation time or other benefits? What about creating new job titles that indicate promotion (customer service specialist, for example), along with a bump in pay?

Keeping employees happy is the bottom line, whether you're promoting them or not.



Charlie Wonderlic is the President and CEO of Wonderlic Inc., a premiere provider of employee recruitment, selection, development and retention solutions. For more information about customized hiring solutions from Wonderlic, visit www.wonderlic.com