This promotion is something I've worked hard for for many years and is something the company has owed me for at least four years. I can see why a company is "careful" with this particular promotion because with it, the employee can now check and approve designs, and if incompetent people are promoted, the company would be in trouble if things go wrong. Based on the pay increment I got, the cost of this owed promotion is equivalent to half a year of post-tax salary. So you can see what companies can stand to gain if they manage to deprive deserving employees of their rightful promotions. Just so you get a feel of my frustration, my last promotion took place soon after I started work in Australia back when I was living in Sydney 9 years ago! Although I don't think it's a deliberate and sinister plan to cheat employees, I'm sure much more can be done to improve the situation and based on my personal experience, I'll share what I think the problems (and solutions) are.
Shared Responsibility for Development
In some companies, the employees are expected to be responsible for their own career development and I believe it should be joint effort between them and their managers. To enforce that, manager KPIs must include a quota to develop the careers of their subordinates. Once these quotas are in place, managers will then need to follow through with their promises i.e. paying lip service that they will grow their people will no longer cut it.
Focus on Development Despite Changes
Employees changing locations and managers are often reasons why their development plans fall through the cracks and I don't believe these inevitable changes should hinder their progression. There needs to be a central and stable department (e.g. HR) that is tasked to make managers work on the development plans of their new team members. This is especially important for companies going through organisational changes where even the managers are changing roles or removed from the company altogether.
Equal Prioritisation of Development
A general lack of focus on employee career development is usually evident from the delay of performance review and appraisal sessions or placing them at a lower priority. In fact these sessions should be at the same priority as delivering for clients and shareholders. Unfortunately this doesn't usually happen and is one of the reasons why wage growth has been stagnant in Australia. This then contributes to further income disparity between the rich and the poor.
There are two of Richard Branson's quotes that really resonate with me and I believe they should stay on the walls of every manager's office as a constant reminder for them to focus on their people. Sadly human beings are by nature selfish and so can we really blame managers if they take care of themselves first? That being said, it's not a zero sum game. If you want the culture of a company to change, it has to come from the top, i.e. the likes of Richard Branson.
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don't want to.”
“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”
But as a low-lying engineer in the company's structure (albeit I'm now slightly higher with the promotion), I'm unable to effect real change from where I am despite providing feedback to managers many times. This explains why the eyes of dissatisfied employees are always peeled for better opportunities.
“We must take care of ourselves at work because nobody else will.” This is the number one advice I'll give newbies starting their first jobs. I'm sure other bloggers will quote me when I get famous and successful one day. For now, I'll just enjoy the promotion and continue plodding along the path of the daily grind.
One thing's for sure though. I can finally stop getting strange looks from people wondering why I'm still not a senior engineer after working in the industry for so long. And that sense of relief is huge beyond words!
