Promotion is an exciting time but also a daunting one as everyone adjusts to the new role. Louise Druce finds out how HR can manage the transition smoothly and tackle any green-eyed monsters lurking in the team left behind.

Promotion comes with a mixed bag of feelings. There is excitement and enthusiasm, a keenness to get stuck into the role and take on new responsibilities. Then comes the anxiety, doubts and insecurities – and that’s just from the team mates left behind.

The transition into a new role is never easy, which is why HR is fundamental in offering a multitude of support to the person moving into a senior role and the line manager taking them on, as well as helping to bridge any potential skill gaps before the move takes place.

To give you some idea of how stressful it can be, a survey of 600 managers by HR consultancy DDI revealed over half said coping with career transitions came only second to the upheaval of divorce and separation – and there’s no decree absolute. Once the promotion has taken place, it’s only the start of a whole new relationship.

“Promotion is a funny thing,” says DDI director Simon Mitchell. “Too often, we think it is the end goal. You strive for it, you get it and you think it’s all going to be great. But you quickly realise the reasons you have been promoted are exactly what you haven’t got to do at the next level. It’s a step. What you do next will determine whether you success or fail and people often aren’t prepared for that.”

Jump up or jump ship

First of all, HR needs to assess the criteria on which people are being selected for promotion. A common mistake is to bump up high performers without looking at whether they have the right skills to become responsible for others. Another typical scenario is when a company sees a reliable workhorse who has been with the company for years suddenly feeling despondent about the job. A token new senior title can seem just the thing to give them a boost. But it often causes more problems than it solves.

“When you don’t know what to do with a person it’s easy to put them on a fast-track promotion course. The danger is that is causes a rupture because people wonder why they have been promoted,” says Mitchell. “You need to be able to show people why someone has or hasn’t been promoted and the criteria it was measured on. It needs to be fair and transparent.”

Before contemplating who should be moved up the career ladder, the key elements the role demands need to be identified. Just because someone has excelled in their current position, it doesn’t automatically make them a good manager. “Very often people with technical skills don’t make good managers,” says Mary Mercer, principle consultant at the Institute of Employment Studies.

“When people become eligible for promotion, you can start to test them by setting tasks around the competencies in the senior role to look at their suitability and abilities. That way, when they come to the role, it’s not so much of a shock to them. If you move them from a very rigid role and expect them to do something completely different without any training and advance preparation, it is going to be extremely difficult.”

This also quickly determines what training and development they might need once they have got their feet under the table. “The skills needed as a manager are around managing the team but also thinking about how to deal with appraisals, how to delegate tasks, the facets needed to manage budgets and resources, and how not to slip back into your old, more comfortable role,” explains Jo Causon, director of marketing and corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

The experts all agree that coaching and mentoring can be invaluable for anyone taking on new responsibilities. Not only does this offer invaluable guidance and support from those who have experienced all the foibles and challenges a promotion entails, work ‘buddies’ can also be a good sounding board for any problems a person might have that they would rather keep off the record.

Causon says line managers also need to set clear goals and expectations, and back them up with regular performance reviews to spot any weak areas straight off the bat. “It’s about building their confidence and helping people to be clear about what the role is and the objectives, as well as how that interplays with the rest of the team,” she adds.

“This also means building a relationship with the line manager, making it clear there is always an open door policy if you want to talk about any problems and where they can go for further help and support.”

Green-eyed colleagues

Inevitably, there is going to be some jealousy and resentment in the office if one person is promoted over another. Even if your old team mates are happy that you’ve been promoted, be warned that the dynamics are going to change.

Suddenly adopting an “I’m the boss and what I say goes” stance is unlikely to win you brownie points with anybody in the office. But you might also want to bear in mind that the people you were once happy to go down the pub with to discuss all the shortcomings of the company might not be so keen to be your confidante anymore.

“Managers need to detach. They can’t be everyone’s best friend,” says Mercer. “It’s a different way of working and HR needs to explain that it is going to be difficult to manage people you have previously been friends with.”

The root of the envy might come from the fact that colleagues feel left in the lurch, which is why it’s equally important for HR to look at what valuable skills are going to be lost and, more importantly, how they are going to be replaced. This also needs to be clarified to the team. “Once the person is promoted and out of the team, it’s too late to say everyone is stretched and stressed,” she adds.

To further reduce tensions, the senior manager needs to reassert the importance of the team and set some context around why a particular person has been promoted, without it becoming personal. This means clarifying what the company is looking for when it comes to promoting people (which should also be in tune with its objectives) and how these targets can be achieved.

On both sides of the fence, Causon says you should never wait until the end of year appraisal to deal with conflicts. “If there are areas where a person is struggling, identify them early on and put a plan in place to help that individual address them,” she continues. “There should be regular, on-going, one-to-one reviews to check the objectives as well as how a person is feeling, areas they might want to explore further and behavioural issues.

“They may just need guidance and you want to encourage people to solve problems for themselves. But it’s not a crime to say ‘I don’t know how to deal with this’.”