How to provide feedback to an employee who is asking for a promotion?

Don’t panic, your employee asked for a promotion.

Promotion has 3 major issues you should consider:

First, does someone deserve a promotion?

Second, do you have money for this promotion?

Third, do you have a position for this promotion?

Issue 1: How to understand whether someone deserves a promotion?

Talk to the team lead (if it’s not you) and ask her:

Whether someone started to be more productive (make more money for your team) and autonomous (doesn’t require supervision, hence time of you senior team member).

If yes — 1 point goes to the promotion.

Talk to employee and ask her:

Why do you think you must be promoted?

If the answer is sort of “I started to do this and this, became more productive” then it’s another point for promotion.

If the answer is “I cost more because another company pays more”, then think whether you need this kind of person or it’s better to give him a chance to work at another place.

Think like a tribe leader:

Justice is our animal part, when you promote someone, you send a signal to the whole team.

If you have someone in your team who is more talented but more shy, then you should consider the following:

Give a raise to both — team stays healthy, but your financial stability decreases.

Give raise to none — team stays healthy, money saved, but you could lose employee, who asked for promotion.

Issue 2: Do you have money?

If you have, then just skip this part. If no — continue reading.

Sometimes someone may ask for a rise due to changed life conditions: started to rent a place, had kids or any other issues that require money.

So, if it’s not a promotion, but a raise in salary — then consider your financial conditions and if you could raise: do it.

Reciprocity is our natural characteristic: if you give, then with high probability you would be given.

Think long-term.

If you have a team member whom you helped because she really needed a hand, she would stay loyal in times of trouble, and if you do business, it might happen often.

Issue 3: Do you have a position for promotion?

If you don’t have a position, speak honestly.

Include your employee into an opportunity discussion, what you could both do to make the promotion possible.

If you can’t give a promotion, why give a refusal? There’s always a third way.

Bonus: How to make promotions fair and transparent in your team?

We launched a product called Vectorly. It’s in early beta, so many features are nascent. But you could get the idea, if you make a little effort (we work to make it easier).

1. Sign up and create a skillboard for a role in your team. You can use our templates our create your own.
2. Add skills. Group them, add materials and wiki.
3. Invite your team. Show your team what skills they need to develop to succeed.
4. Integrate with Trello (soon we add many other integrations) and track progress.
5. Analyse how your team develops.
6. Next time someone asks for a raise — open skillboard and see how well someone performed over time and how productive she is compared to others in your team on the same role.

If you have any questions tweet us or use a chat on https://vectorly.team