How to Successfully Promote from Within

While it’s great to conduct a nationwide search when you have an opening to fill, sometimes the best person for the job is currently sitting in your office. Promoting from within is beneficial, as you already know this individual’s strengths and weaknesses, giving you a better sense of how they would perform in this new role. In order to successfully promote from within, consider these pointers:

• Provide growth opportunities in your organization: If promoting from within is something that’s important to you, then make it easy for your team members to rise to the occasion. Regularly provide educational opportunities that will enable them to grow their skills and become better prepared for a promotion.
• Take the time to get to know your team members: This is more challenging in a large company, but it’s still an essential part of management. It’s hard to promote internally if you’re not fully aware of what your employees can do. Beyond that, find out about their goals and interests too. If you can help someone get into a position that they absolutely love, you’re helping them to be a more engaged employee. You’re also lessening the likelihood that they leave for a more appealing opportunity.
• Don’t overlook contractors or other part-time employees: When you’re looking to fill an opening, don’t forget to consider part-time employees or contractors. If you already have a positive working relationship with these individuals, it can make filling that staffing gap much easier. They know about company policies and typically require less training than someone starting totally fresh.

Lastly, make it a point not to pigeonhole people in your company. It’s easy to assign roles or labels to team members, especially when these people are long-time employees. However, by doing this, you may fail to recognize talents that could allow the person to excel should they receive a promotion within your organization. Try to look beyond the scope of a person’s job description in order to recognize untapped talents.

Image: monkeybusinessimages/BigStock.com