Employee Promotion

Definition: Employee Promotion can be described as the upward movement of an employee in the organizational hierarchy. It is the process of raising the position or rank of an employee working in an organization, which results in an increase in remuneration, designation, status, authorities and responsibilities, etc.

Promotion is a form of internal mobility, which is a result of an employee’s outstanding performance in the tasks assigned.

When there is only a shifting of an employee from one job to another that has better working condition and location, it is not considered as promotion, because promotion involves better pay and higher responsibilities.

Furthermore, when the salary of the employee is increased, but there is no change in the job title, it is called as “upgrading“, whereas when the employee is upgraded to a higher designation, but there is no change in the salary, it is called as “dry promotion“.

Objectives of Employee Promotion

• To encourage employees to improve performance.
• To fill the vacancies of higher positions in the organisational hierarchy, from within the organization.
• To build loyalty, boost morale and sense of belongingness in the workforce.
• To acknowledge and honour an employee’s efficiency.
• To retain qualified and competent employees.
• To communicate a message to other employees that there are opportunities for growth and development if they perform effectively.

Employee Promotion is like an achievement for employees which they get through their hard work, patience, dedication and perseverance.

Principles of Employee Promotion

Promotion results in employee satisfaction on the one hand and encouragement to the employees on the other hand if the policies for promotions are framed in a systematic manner. Here are some principles that help in the preparation of sound promotional policies:

1. The Human Resource Manager (HRM), must specify the way to fulfil higher positions in the company, i.e. internal or external recruitment.
2. After deciding how to fill the higher positions, the criteria or basis for fulfilling the positions are to be set, i.e. seniority or merit or the combination of two.
3. The HRM must specify the promotional policy with regard to whether the promotion of the employees is against vacancies or non-vacancies.In most of the entities, promotion of employees is based on non-vacancy, i.e. when they complete a specified term in a particular designation. As against, promotion against vacancies are affected when any high-level employee resigns or retires from his positions; then the subordinates get a chance of promotion.
4. Frequent promotions must be avoided as it increases the overall cost to the organisation, as well as frequent changes in the job, is likely to make the employee stagnant.
5. Before making any promotion job analysis and performance appraisal must be done, as it will help the employer to know the efficiency of the employee in the present job profile as well as to know whether he/she is able to fulfil the job requirements or not if he/she is promoted.
6. Labour unions are to be involved while framing the policies of employee promotion, as their consent is equally important, in the form of agreement.
7. If the promotions are based on competence, then the openings for promotions are to be declared conspicuously at various places, to see who are interested and those employees who have an interest will apply to it accordingly.

Employee Promotion is a great way to give an opportunity to the existing employees to grab those position in the organization which gives higher personal satisfaction, pay and prestige. Moreover, it provides an opportunity to the management to appreciate hard working employees.