Staffing organizations and changing promotion systems

CSD is not aligning the necessary skill sets for success at a particular job with the qualifications of the persons being hired. Tom is a highly competent salesman, but the personal qualities, skill sets, and experience of being in sales do not necessarily align with that of a manager. To some extent, this is unsurprising, given that little in Tom's background has prepared him for his current position. CSD does not seem to offer a mentoring program to groom entry-level persons for leadership positions. It also takes a purely horizontal view of the promotions process. Once someone has proven himself to be successful in one position, the employee is promoted until he is no longer competent.

CSD could have prepared Tom for a managerial position with training and grooming early on in his career, once he distinguished himself as a salesperson and showed initiative and drive. This could have cultivated the other skills necessary for Tom to shine as a manager that were not necessarily honed in sales. Or, the company could have given Tom additional responsibilities in sales (such as training new hires in sales techniques that worked) and hired a manger from outside the company. Instead, CSD now has the 'worst of all worlds.' Tom is no longer doing what he does best as a salesman and is instead an incompetent manager. Tom will not be able to rise up through the company, given his current poor ratings. The company is denied the ability to have a competent manager in this critical position. Tom's career is thwarted. There also seems to be no mechanism to move Tom into a position for which he might be better-suited. While the company is considering investing in some additional training for Tom, it would have been cheaper and less painful to train Tom while he was still moving up through the company. Tom would have then been prepared to have been a manager, or, if unable to grasp these skills, the company would have known not to promote him to a managerial position in the first place.

Q2. Promotions at the company cannot be viewed as a 'reward' for company loyalty or even success at a lower-level position. The exact specifications needed to be fulfilled for every position must be reviewed. In the case of a manager, the ability to work well with others, delegate, and supervise are needed -- not necessarily the qualities a good salesman possesses. This does not mean that someone in sales cannot learn these skills, but there must be some sort of proven ability to fulfill these functions to justify a promotion. That is why talent-spotting, training, and evaluation of candidates long before the promotional process occurs is so vital and relevant.

Talent must be 'groomed' for a long period of time before an employee assumes a leadership position. Mentoring and training programs can help screen out candidates who are not good fits for specific positions. CSD must create a comprehensive program for talent management. It must also define the specific skills and character attributes needed for all positions, so hiring can take place in a more rigorous, targeted fashion. Being qualified at one's current position should only be one amongst many considerations when hiring a new employee. And even when someone has both the training and the attributes needed for success in a leadership position, there should still be some type of mentorship and guidance offered during the initial phases of assuming the position, to create a more seamless transition.

A final consideration is that when a candidate does not 'work out' (as in the case of Tom), there must be some mechanism for removing the candidate. Having a 'trial period' after which an evaluation would take place would make removing someone from a position less potentially embarrassing. Positions should not be cemented until there is a proven track record of the candidate at the job.

Q3. Performance appraisals should be one factor amongst many when considering candidates for possible promotions. In the case of Tom, the performance appraisals for his work as a salesman were quite strong, even though these high marks did not translate into good leadership skills. High performance ratings at a particular job do not establish that a candidate is likely to succeed in a higher-level leadership position.

Once again, the idea of training and screening for potential future leaders early on during an employee's tenure at the company is valuable. As well as performance appraisals for the jobs the employee performs, there should also be performance appraisals for potential skills and participation in any training programs. Mentors could assess candidate's leadership potential, as well as their ability to exhibit actual, required skills.