How to Promote Employees: Steps, Methods, and Tips for Small Business Owners

Promoting top-performing employees is not just about recognizing their hard work and dedication, but also about fueling their growth and development. As your team members continue to learn and excel in their current roles, you can identify opportunities for them to take on more responsibility. By promoting them, you are not only rewarding their efforts but also providing them with a new role to showcase their skills and talents.

Follow the steps below to learn how to promote employees.

Step 1: Establish Clear Career Paths

Each individual in your company should have a career path plan that outlines the key performance indicators (KPIs) necessary to be successful in the role. Once you’ve outlined this, provide employees with a development plan and training opportunities to be successful.

Create Career Development Plans

When your employees have career development goals in place, they know the path they must take to progress with the company. Additionally, it can help managers know when employees are ready to move to the next level in their careers.

By tailoring development plans to each employee’s skills, interests, and career goals, you can ensure you are providing the necessary support and resources for growth. Additionally, when you define the criteria for promotion and communicate it to employees, you foster a culture of merit and motivate employees to strive towards their career goals.

Provide Training Opportunities

Aside from having a career development plan in place, it is important to continuously provide your employees with professional development opportunities. By investing in the development of your workforce via training, you not only enhance their skills and knowledge but also show that you value their growth within your company.

Providing diverse training opportunities allows employees to expand their expertise in a variety of areas—making them more versatile and adaptable to different roles. This not only benefits the individual employee but also contributes to the overall success of the company by creating a more skilled and dynamic workforce.

Step 2: Assess Employee Potential and Performance

When assessing employee potential and performance for promotions, start by evaluating current skills and competencies. From there, you can identify your top performers and cultivate their leadership potential.

Evaluate Employees

Using the KPIs created in the individual career development plan, you can assess each employee against those metrics to determine if they are ready for a promotion or lateral advancement. Once they have mastered all the skills in their KPIs and consistently perform at or above average, consider promoting the employee.

Identify Top Performers

Part of overall employee management in any company is identifying top performers. This goes beyond merely looking at their output—look for employees who consistently go above and beyond, show initiative, and take on additional responsibilities willingly. These individuals are often driven by a passion for their work and have a strong sense of ownership over their projects.

A top performer is not only skilled in individual tasks but also excels in teamwork, communication, and building positive relationships with colleagues. Their ability to inspire and motivate those around them can have a significant impact on team dynamics and overall productivity.

Encourage Leadership and Initiative

Leadership development focuses on identifying and grooming future leaders from within. It provides an opportunity for high-potential employees to enhance their leadership skills and prepares them for senior roles.

To set your employees on a fast track to leadership success, you should:

• Encourage them to take on new challenges outside their comfort zone
• Provide opportunities for mentorship and coaching
• Recognize and reward leadership potential early on in an employee’s career
• Value and support growth
• Provide leadership development and training avenues

Great leaders go beyond just providing high-quality work. They have the people management skills needed to motivate others, build strong teams, and resolve conflict. By investing in leadership development and training for your employees, you not only ensure a pipeline of skilled leaders but also boost overall employee morale.

Step 3: Implement Fair Promotion Processes

When you clearly outline the skills, experience, and performance indicators required for each level of the employee promotion process, employees have a better understanding of what they need to strive for. This clarity helps to eliminate ambiguity and favoritism in decision-making, creating a more level playing field for all candidates.

• Be transparent: Transparency sets clear expectations and communication about the criteria used to evaluate employees for advancement opportunities.
• Incorporate feedback: Solicit feedback from peers, managers, and HR to gain a more comprehensive understanding of an employee’s qualifications for a promotion.
• Embrace diversity: Having a diverse panel of evaluators can help prevent bias and bring different viewpoints to the table, leading to a more holistic assessment of an employee’s qualifications.
• Eliminate bias: Ensure all promotion decisions are made based on merit rather than favoritism or bias.
• Offer training: Providing employees with access to training programs not only enhances their skills and knowledge but also highlights that you value their growth in your company.

Step 4: Hold a Promotion Meeting With the Employee

Once you have determined that your employee is ready for promotion, it is time to hold a meeting with the employee. When holding the meeting, be sure to emphasize the qualities and skills that make them deserving of advancement. Highlight specific achievements and contributions that demonstrate their readiness for a new role, while also providing constructive feedback on areas for further growth.

Your meeting should consist of the following:

• A clear outline of the criteria used to evaluate the employee
• An open discussion about the candidate’s qualifications, strengths, and areas for growth
• Input from managers or other key stakeholders (optional)
• A discussion of the expectations of the new role (have a new job description on hand)
• Detailed information about new salary expectations and benefits
• Opportunity for the employee to ask questions
• An updated employment contract for signature

Encourage open communication during the meeting to ensure the employee feels heard and valued while allowing them to express their career goals and aspirations. Additionally, set clear expectations for the new role and discuss any training or development opportunities that will support their success in the promoted position.

Types of Employee Promotion Methods

How you promote your employees will be based on several factors: skills, readiness, vacancies, etc. Click through the tabs below to learn the different types of employee job promotion.

This approach encourages motivation and healthy competition among employees, as they strive to excel in their roles to earn recognition and advancement opportunities. By focusing on merit, you can ensure that employee promotions are given to those who truly deserve it, leading to a more efficient and productive workforce.

This method involves creating clear pathways for employees to advance within the company. It provides employees with a sense of direction and purpose in their careers by outlining exactly what is expected to progress. Promoting using a career pathing method starts with a detailed description of job expectations and typically includes levels that the employee can work toward. With mastery in one level and movement to the next, an employee will be promoted as they reach each new level of their role.

A skills-based approach to promoting employees focuses on developing specific skills or competencies that are essential for higher-level positions. Instead of solely considering tenure or experience, this method ensures that employees are promoted based on their ability to acquire new skills and adapt to evolving job requirements. By investing in skill development and providing growth opportunities, you can groom employees for future leadership roles while maximizing their potential within your company.

With a rotational program, employees are given exposure to various departments or roles within the company. This allows them to develop well-rounded skill sets and a deeper understanding of the business as a whole. This method can show you areas where employees are ready for more senior positions, while also fostering innovation through cross-functional collaboration with team members.

Similar to a merit-based approach, this method rewards hard work and dedication by recognizing and promoting top performers. A top performer is someone who goes above and beyond in their role—achieving greater results than average and increasing the overall company ROI. This can also motivate other employees to strive for excellence in their roles.

A vertical promotion is where individuals are promoted to higher levels of authority within the same department.  For example, a cashier in a retail business may be promoted to key holder—they still perform the same job but with added responsibility and a higher title. This allows employees to advance their careers and take on more responsibilities while still working with the same team members.

A horizontal promotion involves moving an employee laterally within the same level but to a different role or department. This approach helps employees develop new skills, gain diverse experience, and collaborate with different teams. It can also set them up for leadership roles in the future. A horizontal promotion typically does not come with a salary increase as the position is similar to the one already held by the employee.

Tips for Promoting Employees

When promoting employees it is advised that you adhere to the following promotion guidelines:

• Implement structured evaluation processes: Consider using performance reviews and assessments to evaluate employees for promotion. This takes into consideration their overall skills and production.
• Have policies in place: When you have a policy in place that outlines the guidelines for promotion within the company, your employees have a clear understanding and transparency into how to get promoted.
• Base promotions on merit: When employees are promoted based on their performance it helps eliminate subjective judgments and ensures employee promotions are awarded fairly.

Tailor professional development: Offering professional development opportunities that are tailored to individual interests and goals empowers employees to take on new challenges within your company.

Employee Promotions Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Click through the frequently asked questions below to learn more about promoting employees.

When you promote an employee, you move them from one position in your company to another. Typically this means moving the employee to a higher position based on merit and involves a salary increase.

You should base the promotion of an employee on their overall productivity and skills, as well as their readiness to move into a new role. By making sure the employee is a high producer and has obtained the necessary skills to grow in the new role, you set the employee and your company up for success.

An employee is ready for promotion when they have consistently exhibited a vast understanding of their role and have reached their full potential for that role. This can be judged by performance reviews and the overall productivity of the employee.

Not all employees are ready for promotion. This could result in the employee rejecting your offer. If this happens, ask the employee to explain why they feel they are not ready to be promoted or why they don’t want to take on the additional responsibilities.  It may come down to them not understanding what is expected of them or they may be happy in their current role. If this happens, take a step back and work with the employee to grow in their current role.

Bottom Line

Promoting employees can create a strong company culture where employees are recognized and rewarded for their hard work. By following the steps outlined here, you can create a positive environment that encourages employee advancement. Prioritize promotion processes that are fair, transparent, and merit-based to ensure the continued growth of both employees and the company as a whole.