How fairly are promotion opportunities communicated throughout your organization?

Our reader poll today asks: How fairly are promotion opportunities communicated throughout your organization?

• Very: as soon as a position is open, everyone knows and can apply 29.35%
• Somewhat: select people are encouraged to apply for open positions 30.54%
• Not very: you have to dig around and look for open positions 23.35%
• Not at all: you only find out about open positions after they’ve been filled 16.76%

Expand the applicant pool. It’s disappointing that almost 40% of you report that promotion opportunities aren’t easy to find until it’s too late. While you may have a favorite candidate, not publicizing positions can have severely negative effects. First, you might miss out on a better candidate you didn’t know was in the organization. Second, it might lead your people to feel like the game is “fixed” and there’s no way they can advance because they don’t even have visibility into promotion opportunities. That may lead them to leave the organization since they know they won’t get a fair shot at advancement. Finally, it could prevent you from identifying the next generation of talent. People who apply might not be right for that role but they could fill future ones and should be n your radar when new openings arise. Bottom line: publicize the promotion opportunities and give everyone an equal shot at advancement.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.