In the world of business, it’s highly unlikely that an employee will remain contracted to the same position forever. Whilst we often discuss the advantages of hiring new talent or the pitfalls of having to dismiss members of staff, we rarely debate the policies and benefits around promotion, demotion and employee transfers.

It’s always important for companies to look at staff members and reassess their value within a current position. If every member of staff held the same position for their entire time within a company, the team would become stagnant and employees would become less motivated to work to their full potential. With this in mind, it’s necessary for business owners and managers to consider playing workplace snakes and ladders every couple of years.

Over the course of three articles, I will be discussing the advantages in assessing employee standing, as well as important information to include in all relevant policies.

Offering a promotion to an employee often provides the incentive to be ambitious and loyalty to the company, as well as motivates staff members and minimises discontentment. The purpose of promotion is to recognise employee performance and commitment, retain skilled and talented employees and develop a competitive spirit amongst workers. Sometimes promotion can be a simple shift in staff, especially if a role becomes vacant due to retirement or resignation.

Before a manager offers an employee a promotion, it is imperative to plan ahead and consider why the staff member should receive the promotion above others. More often than not, an employee’s loyalty and moral can take a dip if a co-worker is promoted above them. Employers can avoid such problems by creating a promotion policy and process, and applying its principles to every employee seeking promotion.


The Promotion Policy

An effective and clear cut policy should concentrate on promoting staff members through skills and performance instead of favouritism. If an employee is promoted to a position that they aren’t ready for, this can be detrimental to the business and team members and a company may face lawsuits if other members of staff feel they have been unfairly discriminated against. Where possible, promotions within a company should be encouraged above outsiders filling any vacancies.

The policy should include the following:

• As mentioned above, ability alongside seniority should be focused on. Employees should be made aware that capability for the role, efficiency, previous job performance and experience, proven leadership skills, length of time in the company, and general all over attitude will be taken into account.
• If an employee must be with the company for a certain length of time before being offered or applying for a promotion, the length of time should be noted.
• An organisation chart should clarify the ranking of roles and opportunity for promotion in the company. Each role should be analysed and an idea of salary for each position should make it easy to design up such a chart.
• The system and stages of the promotion process should be made clear to all employees. Department heads are likely to initiate and make their team aware of promotions available, however personnel must carry out background checks and consider potential repercussions before final approval is signed off by top management in the company.
• It must be noted that promotions, like other roles, are for a trial period and that the promoted employee can be demoted if it is not believed they are fulfilling their role. During the trial period, the staff member will receive the rate of pay of the higher role, however if they do not hit agreed targets, they will be returned to their former post and pay.

 

Steps to Take

A number of steps must be adhered to before a manager decides for definite if an employee should be promoted.
Firstly, all business owners have to plan for succession through strategies which ascertain how a role will be filled, the process for promotion and qualities needed for filling the said position. If a role requires training or offers staff development, then this should also be noted.

Appraisals are the next most important step in promotion. Appraisals should track an employee’s career development, attributes and flaws and general characteristics throughout their time in the company. Looking over previous assessments will help in deciding if the employee has grown professionally during their time in the company and if it is the right stage for them to be promoted.

As mentioned above, some employees will feel the sting of not being promoted and therefore it is important to know why an employee has been promoted over another. All reasons should be noted and a meeting should be set with the passed-over employee before the outcome is announced. In the meeting a manager should be open and direct with the member of staff and list the capabilities needed to meet the requirements of the role. Any areas where the employee struggles should be discussed and if available, staff training for further role openings should be offered.

Office politics play a huge part in job promotions and can often lead to divisions within a group, therefore once the employee who has secured the promotion has been announced; managers should encourage team building exercises. Holding a team meeting to explain the promotions policy, how and why the decision was made and further plans for the company will show that there are opportunities for all to progress.

Next week I will be discussing policies and strategies for demotion in the workplace.


The contents of this article are necessarily expressed in broad terms and limited to general information rather than detailed analyses or legal advice. Specialist professional advice should always be obtained to address legal and other issues arising in specific contexts.

You will often see cases involving or have heard of disputes in family businesses that highlight why policies and agreements need to be put in place within a family business.

With that in mind, I have put together a few tips on how to develop a policy within a family business that incorporates business decisions, family employment within the company and codes of conduct. Policies will very much depend on the size of the business as well as how many family members are involved, the company culture and the relationship between the family members, e.g. on good terms or slightly disjointed.
 

​Business Decisions

Decision making is key in any business; however it can become slightly more complicated in a family business if roles are not clearly defined. The decision needs to be made how business matters are decided, such as by vote. If it is by vote, who is eligible to cast a vote?

A lot of the time, business decisions are often made at management level, so generally with a family business is in its first or second generation without a board of directors, it falls to the older members involved in the family business to make individual choices on how to proceed with something. Whilst this is efficient, it may also be an obstacle for growth of the company.

Therefore, a board of directors is key in a family business to establish management policies and instil company values throughout the organisation.
 

Employing Family Members

Deciding which family members will be involved in the business and what their role will be can be hard to determine. Some businesses get everyone involved and make sure each family member chips in where help is needed. Depending on the size of business and the industry this might work, however as the company grows, more defined roles need to be put in place.

It is easy for families to get into disputes over who should be involved in the business, and therefore family members should really be treated like any other employee in regards to work experience and qualifications. The decision makers need to take a step back and properly evaluate the benefits of hiring a family member over a non-family member, or vice versa.

Another issue within family business arises over compensation and performance evaluation. As mentioned in the news story above, there can be much confusion over roles and responsibilities, the amount one is paid, how standards of performance is determined, what is likely to happen if a family member does not meet expectation, and most importantly, if non family employees will be treated in the same manner as family employees.
 

Codes of Conduct
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Sometimes, relationships within family businesses can get a bit heated due to the familiarity between family members. Therefore rules need to be put in place to determine how issues are resolved and conflict is handled. I’m a firm believer that problems should be solved behind closed doors as non-family employees who see disagreements within a family can sometimes begin to lack job satisfaction.

Below I have included some steps to follow when developing a policy for a family business, which should hopefully lead to a successful company and a happy family.

1. Decide on what the policy should include, such as guidelines for now and the next generation. If there is little experience in developing a policy, the family should keep it as simple as possible, or if there is budget, look to an HR advisor to draft up a policy.
2. Get advice from non-family members and HR professionals about a policy. Research other family policies and see how they could be adapted to suit the business values and goals.
3. Assign responsibilities to individual family members involved in developing the policy. There are many factors that go into putting a policy together, such as researching, writing drafts and gathering company documents to include in one master policy. All of the elements should be delegated but overseen by one person.
4. As mentioned above, ensure rules on decision making have been made and agreed upon and include these in the policy.
5. Again, as above, consider family employment and compensation procedures to be stated in the policy.
6. Policies should begin with a short statement outlining the thinking behind the policy and what it hopes to achieve. This should be discussed with family members and drafted up so everyone knows why the policy is being put in place.
7. Draft and discuss the policy as many times as needed to ensure everyone is happy with the final document. Each draft should be dated and any conversation that takes place regarding the policy should be recorded or have minutes taken.
8. Have an HR professional check over the policy to ensure all necessary and important points have been included.
9. Once the family are happy with the policy, present it to the board of directors to ensure they are satisfied with the document so it can then be authorised and printed.
10. The policy should be added to any other company policies, such as health and safety, maternity, bullying and harassment to make sure all documents are in one manual.

 
 

The contents of this article are necessarily expressed in broad terms and limited to general information rather than detailed analyses or legal advice. Specialist professional advice should always be obtained to address legal and other issues arising in specific contexts.

I came across an interesting article last week on Business ETC which informed us all that an American company is to launch in Ireland ahead of the opening of their European headquarters in Dublin. The company is called Glassdoor and allows workers to review and leave feedback on companies they are working with or have worked for. The company already has 26,000 reviews on the American platform, so it will be interesting to see what people in Ireland have to say about their employers.

Although it can be difficult for business owners to constantly monitor what is being said about their business online, it is important for them to be aware of their online reputation.  Quite often, a company’s brand has been strongly developed over years, and so it can come as quite a shock to read defamatory remarks online. Even worse, comments that appear in high ranking websites can negatively impact on business.

Whilst negative comments in person can be dealt with efficiently, online reviews are harder to manage and often lead to losses in sales, hiring ability and a general bad reputation. With this in mind, I have included a few points below on how businesses can try and limit a negative perception of their company online, as well as deal with damage control should they need it.
 

Be at the Top of the Search Engine Game

Probably the most important point of all is to try and own as much of the search engine results page as possible. A few links at the top of the page is a good start, however most people will search through the first two pages of a search engine, so the more space a business can cover, the better. This can be through different web links on the company website, blogs, social media, or media coverage.
 

It’s a Blogger’s World

Blogging is one of the best ways to show a customer target base what the company values are and what impact it is having in its industry. Blogs should include professional information about the business and its product, as well as support and advice on industry trends and topics. Articles that have been published online by the company should show up on search engine pages and has the added benefit of portraying positive information about the brand. In addition to this, blogging attracts more traffic to a website and therefore can help with lead generation.
 

Social Media is Key

Managing social media accounts is just as, if not more, important than a business website. All social media profiles should have a similar name/handle that are easily identified and linked to the company name. All social media accounts should be updated regularly to give the company a bigger presence online and any reviews/comments should be responded to in an efficient and professional manner. Social profiles that tend to have more of a presence in search engines are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.
 

Keep on Top of Mentions

Creating a Google Alert can help in keeping abreast of online mentions about the company. This is a free service that sends email alerts once the business is mentioned anywhere online. This allows businesses to monitor content that is published, as well as respond in an appropriate manner if applicable.

 
Have a PR Strategy in Place

Online content doesn’t need to just be generated through blogs and social media. Having an active PR strategy focusing on sponsorship, press opportunities and corporate social responsibility all lead to an online presence as the activities and coverage are interesting to promote through online channels.

 
Plan Ahead

Don’t wait until something goes wrong to work out how to fix it. Companies should always have a crisis plan in place to handle any issues that may arise with negative information about the business. Ideally someone should be in charge of monitoring online brand mentions whilst also being able to deal with threat detection and limitation of potential brand damage.

The person of choice can either be in-house or contracted, but it is imperative that they communicate with key decision makers in the company to ensure that decisions to solve a crisis are in line with company values and that they act fast when dealing with the crisis in hand.

 
Put Policies in Place

When it comes to current and past employee online discussion about their place of work, policies need to be put in place and made aware of. Social media rules should be covered in relevant policies, such as Social Media Use, Technology Use, Disciplinary and Bullying & Harassment.

Important points that need to be included are:

• First and foremost, any confidential information about the company must not be mentioned online. Language used should be as loose as possible but examples should be included, such as future plans, product information, client details etc.
• As technology is evolving at such a rate, it’s important not to be too specific in what it covers. For example, when discussing technical equipment to access the internet, the term ‘technology’ should refer to PCs, mobiles, tablets etc.
• Personal social media use is important to include as an employee’s online reputation can also affect the company brand. Staff members who have a large online following can affect the amount of interest a business receives. Employees can endorse products and become thought leaders in the industry if their social media is used correctly. However, in the same way it can benefit a business, it can also have a negative impact if staff members criticise the company they work for.

If you wish to read more about the article I referred to at the beginning of this post, you can find it here.


The contents of this article are necessarily expressed in broad terms and limited to general information rather than detailed analyses or legal advice. Specialist professional advice should always be obtained to address legal and other issues arising in specific contexts.