Movie Case Study
Riya Saran (Played by Preity Zinta) informs Dev about the new promotion that she is being offered. She goes on to say that they want her to move to London. That would mean a better position, a higher salary, a bigger house, and other benefits. Dev (played by Shahrukh Khan) isn’t very happy with her success. In this blog, Learning Perspectives explore the meaning of promotion.
What is Promotion?
Promotion refers to the advancement of an employee. This is generally accompanied by monetary benefits. Promotion in most cases means added responsibility for the employee. The rank of the employee in the organization increases and so does their responsibility.
The word promotion in a business is used in two contexts, one in marketing and the other in jobs. Under marketing, it generally refers to advertising products or services that the business is offering. The other context is in jobs, where employees get promotions i.e. advancement. Now, employees generally ask for promotion by showcasing their skills and talents to their reporting manager.
Tools Used in Promotion
Promotion is given to employees on the basis of work done by employees. They are rated by the supervising officer generally twice a year. The supervisor uses many tools to do this. Every year an employee is judged on the basis of the work they have done and accordingly, they are given a raise on their current salary. It is usually based on percentage, e.g. you might be given a 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, etc hike on your salary. Performance appraisal helps in making these salary and promotion decisions.
The ranking method, graphic rating scale, and CIM ( critical incident methods) are some tools used by managers to evaluate employees. These tools help in making promotion decisions.
Graphic Rating Scale:
A graphic rating scale is the most simplest and popular method used for evaluating performance. As this method uses the most generic of standards such as communication, attitude, and team player. One needs to be aware of what is being measured i.e. measurement can be based on competencies and objectives.
Ranking Method:
Ranking various employees on a particular attribute from best to worst is the alternation ranking method. for e.g. choosing communication (attribute) and listing the names of employees and ranking them on it. Say Rajesh stands on top in communication, while Tina is in second place and Rohit stands in third place in communication, and so on.
Critical Incident Method:
Under the critical incident method, the manager would keep a tab on both positive and negative instances (critical incidents) of the employee’s work-related behavior. BARS or Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales is a tool that has a numerical rating with instances of both superior and weak performances.
How to ask for a Promotion?
In any organizational task, if work needs to be done with accountability and responsibility then both parties need to understand the meaning of these words. An employer needs to give responsibility to the employee and the employee is accountable for the work done. This creates a fiduciary relationship between the two.
An employee should be rewarded and recognized for the work done. An employee needs to set goals and be proactive if they are expecting a promotion in the coming year. The employee should be responsible and speak up so that expectations are clear with the employer. They should set goals in advance for the year and strive to reach them.
These goals can be reviewed with the reporting manager mid-year so that there is transparency and no surprises at year-end. With this kind of transparency, both parties tend to win.
Being upfront and direct while asking for a promotion, helps both the employer & the employee. The employer would know an employee is looking for additional responsibility along with monetary benefits. This opens the way for open communication and resolves gaps, if any.
