Managers can often be afraid of providing career advancement opportunities for the best talent in their team out of fear that they will ultimately lose those people, either to other parts of the organization or to external firms.
Research from Pennsylvania State University shows that not only does this practice harm the individuals involved but also the organizations and the managers too. This is because career advancement is a particularly sought-after characteristic among job hunters, so managers that provide it to existing team members end up attracting the best talent, both from inside and outside the firm.
Career paths
The researchers examined nearly 100,000 internal applications made in a health services organization in the United States. The analysis found that when managers promoted team members more regularly, they tended to not only receive more applications for vacancies, but those applications tended to be both from people outside their function and also generally of a higher caliber.
Indeed, when promotion rates were just 13% above the norm, those managers saw a 9% increase in the number of applications they received, with a 12% boost in the number of star applicants who put their names into the hat.
The researchers followed up this analysis with interviews of 30 managers from different industries to see if their findings applied equally elsewhere too. The findings support the initial results.
Considerable influence
Managers hold significant sway over employees’ career advancement, either by supporting or impeding progress. Positive endorsements from managers can outweigh interview performance, while discouraging managers hinder growth.
Managers influence hiring decisions and may resist transferring valuable employees. Informal communication spreads news faster than formal announcements. Employees can discern between supportive and obstructive managers. Organizations often fail to facilitate talent flow, leading to stagnation.
“Managers often want to hold on to their high performers, but we find that those who help their people advance to new jobs inside the company get more applications from employees across the firm when they’re hiring for open roles,” the researchers explain.
