How to know which team members to promote and when

Promotions are an important part of any workplace, as they help reward those valuable members of the team, while also encouraging any team members who need to improve hopefully step up.

But figuring out how and who to reward isn’t easy. Each decision you make has a knock-on effect. In this article, we’ll offer some tips on how to acknowledge and promote your team members to keep everyone motivated and happy.​

How to assess who is worthy of a promotion

Whenever you’re considering giving someone a promotion, it's important to think it through and understand how that promotion might affect the broader workplace dynamics.

Often it's the more vocal or “present” team members that end up getting promoted. And in many cases, that’s totally fine; employees that demonstrate initiative and know-how to communicate confidently can be great assets.

However, sometimes it can be the quieter, less assertive employees that are actually doing the better job; they are just less vocal about it and simply get on with their tasks. So it's worth considering this when you're identifying who to promote and why.

It's a good idea to cast the internal net a little wider than you might think to look at each team member individually and assess their worthiness of a promotion. That way you can consider less obvious candidates and not just those who are more top-of-mind because they've been more assertive or extroverted​

Who is the right candidate to promote?

To shortlist who you should promote and whether or not they’re suitable, ensure you have a comprehensive job description of either what you want the new role to be or what it currently is if it’s an existing role that has become vacant. That way you can use it as a framework to work out which of your team members would be most appropriate for that particular role.

Detail all the responsibilities of the role and what personal characteristics and skills a successful applicant will need to have to be successful in the position. Of course, there will be some degree of training involved because the person will be moving from their current role to a new role, and so that will also need to be considered when assessing the possibilities.

With the job description in hand, you can then start to evaluate candidates on the specific job promotion to build up a clearer guide as to who would be best for the role.​

Take notes of wins and weaknesses

Often when you're considering candidates for a promotion, it might only be the most recent successes (or failures) that come to mind, and you may not remember past achievements.

It’s always a good idea to keep notes on each team member’s successes and areas for improvement - just a word or sentence will be enough to trigger the memory. It’s a great resource to look back on when evaluating your team.​

Title, salary or responsibility?

Each one of your team members will have different ways they measure their own success. It might be an increase in pay, greater responsibility, or simply a better title. It's always good to know these things before you enter into promotion discussions, that way you can make sure your team feels valued, recognised, and appreciated.​

Performance evaluations and checklists

Many employers offer regular performance evaluations to help benchmark personal growth and development. It’s a great way to help guide your team as it sets out clearly defined roles and objectives. This also works well as a way to measure how well they’ve done and where they might need improvement. A simple checklist can suffice to see how they measure against their KPIs. You can then update their checklist to follow as necessary moving forward.​

Key takeaways

Working out who to promote and when isn’t easy, but with a few considerations, you can increase the likelihood of keeping your whole team happy, engaged, and performing well for your company.

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