Promotions that Lead to Attrition Part V: The Too-Late, Falsely Promised Promotion

This is the fifth of a six-part series. Read parts I, II, III, and IV.

What it looks like initially: Michael was hired because he had amazing potential. While his experience in fundraising was limited he came on board with 10+ years of sales experience and wowed everyone during the interview process. He was subsequently hired as a major gift officer. During the hiring process multiple people, including his boss, mentioned that they expected him to be a director of development within a year.

Cut to 24 months later; Michael has proven to be a performer but no promotion has happened. Red tape and bureaucracy make it difficult to promote someone so soon after hire – a reality no one initially relayed to the employee. On top of this – Michael has started to see a nice return on his outreach and is competitive with his peer development officers, all while earning $20k+ less than them. He has also seen his peers turnover for big titles and salaries outside of the org. He brings up his expected promotion yet again, finally provoking his manager to push it through and elevate his salary and title to be equal with his peers.

Where it goes wrong: Michael has effectively spent a full year+ fighting for a promotion he was promised at hire. When it finally does happen there is no rush of gratefulness or satisfaction by the employee at the recognition he receives in a promotion.  The benefit the organization gets from promoting him is far outweighed by the decreased engagement caused by the frustration he has faced. The strenuous process has furthermore left him with serious doubt as to the career potential of staying at the organization long-term. He also doesn’t trust what he hears from leadership as much; if they weren’t honest with him at the hire, what else could they be hiding?

How people usually leave: Michael will get his promotion and likely try to make the best of it. His next job, however, will be multiple steps up and out of the organization. The promotion experience has taught him that growth is achieved by leaving not staying. Instead of trying to find a way to grow internally he will apply elsewhere when he’s ready for more rather than approach his manager.

What you can do about it:  These delayed promotions happen particularly often when hiring individuals with transferable skills and resumes. There are things we can do on the talent management side to lessen their impact:

• Don’t make promises at the hire that you cannot keep. If your organization’s HR process and approvals don’t allow for rapid promotions then you must admit that and focus on “selling” the other benefits of working at your organization to your candidate of choice.
• Establish clear timelines and expectations for new hires over years not months. Development officer work in particular is subject to its ups and downs and someone new to the industry does not have a full understanding of the numerous factors in performance. In this example, Michael might have been focused on documenting estate commitments or might have been visiting and soliciting dollars close to the equivalent of other DOs in his first year, but is actually simply closing gifts cultivated by his predecessor. This makes the numbers look good but actually is a weak long-term strategy and might legitimately prevent him from moving up a level for some time. Without a clear timeline of long-term milestones and expectations, however, it is unfair to ask Michael to understand why he’s not getting a promotion when his numbers look good.
• If you do hire with a promise of an early promotion: approach the hiring and early promotion process as the equivalent of a probation period. Instead of an annual review use the one-year anniversary as a measure of performance and confirmation of the position change. Work with HR to codify this process early and confirm with them before you make an initial offer.