- long past professional experience and, particularly, knowledge of the bank, the way it works and its organisational culture,

- technical expertise,

- motivation, commitment and ambition,

- reliability and loyalty,

- level of general competencies (diplomas,…),

- past experience of having successfully assumed rather high responsibilities, assumed leadership skills and aptitude to manage and motivate people

- team player, co-operative, group acceptance

- high individual contribution, registered past performances above average, reputation of being a strong achiever, extraordinarily productive, successful: To give personal performance a much heavier weight

- growth potential, trainability

- adaptability, being open-minded, creativity, ability to think about the long term, innovative capacities (young age), fresh breeze from the outside, with new ideas,

Discussion of the relative weight of these different criteria that should be considered.

A promotion is a move of an employee to a job within the organisation, which has greater importance and, usually, higher pay. Frequently the job has higher status and carries improved fringe benefits and more privileges. Its purpose is to improve both the utilisation and motivation of employees.

Methods

By management decision

This is where an employee is selected for promotion on the basis of information already known to the management. This method is quick and inexpensive and obviously suitable for a small organisation or for jobs for which the field of possible candidates is small and well known. In large organisations it may cause discontent because the decision is arrived at in secret, possible candidates not having the opportunity to state their qualifications for the post. In all cases, this method depends for its success on complete and up to date employee records which can be used to identify all possible candidates for the job.

By internal advertising

Employees are told by notices or circulars that a post is vacant and they are then invited to apply. Some or all of the candidates are interviewed and one finally selected. It is a comparatively expensive and time consuming method, but it is particularly suitable to a large organisation in which management cannot be expected to have personal knowledge of possible candidates. It does not rely on accurate employee records, and being open rather than secret, appears fairer to the candidates than the management decision method.

Promotion and motivation

Normally, employees derive satisfaction from a company policy of promotion from within, but badly handled promotions can cause dissatisfaction. The important points to note are:

The criteria for promotion must be fair – usually a combination of ability, relevant experience and length of service.

The method must be fair.

Selection for promotion must be based on appraisals by past and present managers.

The wage or salary offered to the promoted employee must be what the job deserves rather than what the management thinks the new jobholder will accept.

Unsuccessful candidates must be sympathetically treated.

There must be no discrimination

Transfer

A transfer is a move to a job within the organisation that has approximately equal importance, status and pay.

Selection for transfer

To manage human resources in a constructive way it is sometimes necessary to transfer employees to other jobs, sometimes because of changed work requirements and sometimes because an employee is unhappy or dissatisfied in his present job.

In some organisations it is the custom for the least satisfactory employees to be transferred from one department to another with the result that a transfer is regarded as discreditable, particularly if it occurs at short notice and without explanation. An unhappy employee may therefore prefer to leave the company rather than seek a transfer.

In other organisations transfers are used as a means of developing promising employees by giving them experience in several departments. A few organisations advertise all vacancies internally and consider applicants for whom the new job would be a transfer rather than a promotion.

Transfer policy

Transfers can increase job satisfaction and improve utilisation under the following circumstances:

A transfer is regarded as a re-selection.

The need for a transfer is explained.

Unsatisfactory employees are not dealt with by transferring them to other departments.

Requests by employees for transfers are fully investigated.

No employee is transferred to another district against his will.

An employee transferred to another district is given financial assistance from the company to cover removal costs, legal fees, refurbishing, etc.

Demotion

A demotion is a move to a job within the organisation, which is lower in importance. It is usually, though not always, accompanied by a reduction in pay.

Reasons for demotion

An employee may be demoted for these reasons:

His job may disappear or become less important through reorganisation.

He may no longer be thought capable of carrying out his present responsibilities efficiently.

Effects of demotion

Unless the employee has himself asked for it, demotion will probably have adverse effects such as:

There will be less satisfaction of esteem and self-achievement needs. The employee may show negative reactions to frustration.

The employee may become a centre of discontent in the organisation.

Other employees may lose confidence in the company.

An employee who resigns because he has been demoted without his agreement may complain of unfair dismissal under the special category known as “constructive dismissal”.

- Engaging numerous young graduates, with a tendency to hire people from the outside for managing positions and even to offer highly specialised positions to people coming from other firms.

- Increasing cross-functional mobility.

- Development and implementation of multiple promotion systems and channels (diversification of professional itineraries and different speeds),

…differentiation between fast and slow track paths, trajectory being distinct between “two-speed” paths (according to capacities measured by hiring tests and accompanied differentiated trainings),

…and constitution of breeding ground for agents with strong potential, either detected at the time of hiring or, often, selected according to the results of internal assessment centres (at least for managers). In-house evolutions and promotions rely, then, on extremely selective in-house appraisals, the share of merit consideration is increasing, which involves setting up sophisticated evaluation methods and structures for internal selection (exploration, experimentation and setting-up of multi-competence evaluation methods).

Discussion of the impacts of such practices

In many of the retail banks from western European countries, career management was characterised by:

- the initial entry of staff tended to be early in the career and at a low level. Even, in some banks, only positions at the lower end of hierarchy were filled with people from outside.

- banks offered long careers within one establishment (lifetime career paths). Employees tended to remain in the same bank for a long time.

So, there was a clear tendency to give priority to internal promotion vs external selection. Promotion to managerial positions was a selection process almost exclusively focussed on internal staff, job vacancies being covered by internal candidates (in-house promotion “coming from the ranks”).  Even if this has changed a lot, due to the recruitment of young graduates, there is still a will to preserve progression possibilities for managers who come from the ranks, to avoid discouragement.

- official progression channels were designed according to precise rules and procedures, along exact structures, systems that were predefined and, most of the time, uniform for every individual and cleared at comparable speeds.

Thus, career progressions were slow.

- criteria used for promotion were traditionally based more on seniority, passing through linear advancement, than on individual contribution or actual performance. Nowadays, seniority often goes on playing a preponderant role, even if it is hotly debated.

- most decisions were taken in a rather short-term perspective: for instance, there was almost no succession planning.

- there was little tradition of (internal) job mobility, which appears to be an obstacle to promotions (little progression towards taking responsibility):

- either geographically, the staff having a strong regional attachment, leading to great sedentariness,

- or cross-functionally: career development is very hierarchically formed. Often, careers used to take place “in the chimney” (within the same functions).

To day this situation is changing quickly, as young graduates perturb internal rules of stability and automatic and egalitarian progressions, sometimes inducing tensions.

Discussion of the impacts of such practices… and research of other ways to manage careers