Your employee is performing well and exceeding expectations. Should you be looking to promote them? How can you tell if they are ready for promotion? Look out for these signs:
They are asking for more work
Are they finishing their work quickly and with minimum effort and looking for more challenging tasks? This could be a sign that they are finding their current role easy and need more in order to remain motivated. Whilst it’s great that your employee is efficient and getting the job done, you don’t want them to feel the work is too easy, resulting in boredom and ultimately looking for another role elsewhere.
They have had a positive appraisal
The best way to monitor staff performance is through appraisals or continuous reviews. In this situation, you can judge how they are faring, what their peers’ feedback is and where their career aspirations lie. This is a great opportunity for you to discuss how they see their role developing and the direction they would like to take in the business, and the route needed to get there.
They can work autonomously
Are they getting on with the work required needing minimal supervision and input from managers? It could be that they are ready for the next step and able to manage someone themselves.
They inspire and motivate others
Are they challenging their colleagues and leading the way? Do other employees look to them for help? This is the sign of a good leader and they could become a good manager for your business in future, particularly if they are well-respected within the company.
Able to deal with failure
Another sign of a good leader is someone who can admit if they have made a mistake and take responsibility for it maturely. They are able to admit failure, learn from it and move on without making the same mistake in the future.
They are taking control of their development
Often employees feel they are ready for promotion when they are not, or set expectations of promotion which are not realistic. If your member of staff has been working on their own development, in order to push themselves and add to their skills – this is a positive sign of someone working towards promotion without pushing the issue. Do they identify areas of improvement for themselves or perhaps gaps in their skills where they would like to improve? All of this suggests drive and ambition and ultimately an employee looking to develop their professional skills.
They are outperforming their peers
If you’ve got more than one employee undertaking the same role then it will be easy to assess the level of performance. It’s important to take note of employees who consistently out-perform their colleagues as ignoring this can have a detrimental effect on all (de-motivating for those not performing as well and frustrating for the over-performer who could feel de-motivated and un-challenged in the role).
They work well as part of a team
Your business needs team players, someone who operates well as part of the team as opposed to someone who is focused purely on themselves and their own development. A good leader is an all-round team player, so monitor this and assess other team member’s feedback on the employee.
If there is nowhere to promote them, you should have a discussion to find something else they can do or take on to help stretch them. It could be a course or learning a new skill which will keep them motivated.