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How does your company manage situations where  your employees can only go so far up the management chain due to a limited number of positions.  So many people leave a company for an elevated job elsewhere.  What are some tools people are using to get your good folks to stay even though there isn't a management position open?  Sometimes people need more than just added responsibility and want an elevated title.  What if you don't have an elevated title open to give?  Or maybe somebody who is really good at their job but would not be good manager but still aspire for something more.  Are there ways to give them something else without being moved "up"?

Ariashley's picture

I was expecting this to be about something entirely different based on the name.  I was expecting there to be some kind of discrimination involved.  I'm assuming that you're already doing the manager basics of O3s, team meetings, coaching, delegating, etc...

Getting good people to stay:

1) Manage expectations.  Be honest that opportunities for promotion can't be predicted.  If you only have a certain number of management positions available and people don't move quickly in management, then, if asked by a direct report when they might expect to be manager, you need to be upfront that management positions are not frequent opportunities and the timing of those opportunities cannot be guaranteed.  Thus, you couldn't say for sure when an opportunity might become available.  Strining people along makes them not trust you.

2) Listen to the Manager tools podcast Results and Retention from June 2015, if you haven't already.  It emphasizes the necessity of assessing the individual and determining what they need to stay.  There is also an April 2006 podcast called "Employee Retention", which is a lot more specific about retention.  And also Race, not chase.

3) Fewer people than you think REALLY consider the title the key thing.  That certainly isn't a universal thing, but I know I've always valued the work more than the title.  I still value the work a lot more than the title.  Nothing would make me go to a terrible job I hated every day just so I could be called a VP or get paid more.  I got a call recently about a position that had less responsibility than my recent manager position, had a more impressive title, and paid about $30k/year more.  It also wasn't a position that would manage people. I wasn't interested in interviewing for that position because I really LIKE having more responsibility and I like managing people.  At the same time, I value vacation time enough to try to negotiate for more whenever possible!

 

As far as people who are not promotable, but are rock solid performers, that's entirely dependent on your company.  At my company, we have a certain amount of technical roles where the people in them do not want to be managers and have room for salary growth and increased responsibility within those roles and maybe have been in those roles for 18 years.  At the same time, the number of those positions is limited and definitely impacts the budget.  But, in general, the objective with those individuals is to keep the work interesting and really focus on what growth opportunities are appropriate within that role.  It's an excellent opportunity for delegating those little white balls that turn into big orange balls from the manager to that person, and then for that person to delegate their little white balls they're not as interested in anymore to less senior team members.  It's a good way to cross-train and keep that long tenured person happy.  At the same time, there needs to be enough big orange balls given to the person who will one day assume your position, and those have to be perhaps even more relevant to your role.

At my Company, neither our budget, nor our succession plan can afford to have more people promoted into that level of role that are not interested in management, because at my Company, there are career opportunities that appear, both due to some level of attrition and some level of movement around to different roles (or ex patriate positions at other operating entities).  We need to constantly be grooming the next level of managers so that when the CIO gets promoted/moved to a different operating entity, the ripple effect throughout the organization does not create manager positions that we can only hire from outside the Company.

Ariashley's picture

I was expecting this to be about something entirely different based on the name.  I was expecting there to be some kind of discrimination involved.  I'm assuming that you're already doing the manager basics of O3s, team meetings, coaching, delegating, etc...

Getting good people to stay:

1) Manage expectations.  Be honest that opportunities for promotion can't be predicted.  If you only have a certain number of management positions available and people don't move quickly in management, then, if asked by a direct report when they might expect to be manager, you need to be upfront that management positions are not frequent opportunities and the timing of those opportunities cannot be guaranteed.  Thus, you couldn't say for sure when an opportunity might become available.  Strining people along makes them not trust you.

2) Listen to the Manager tools podcast Results and Retention from June 2015, if you haven't already.  It emphasizes the necessity of assessing the individual and determining what they need to stay.  There is also an April 2006 podcast called "Employee Retention", which is a lot more specific about retention.  And also Race, not chase.

3) Fewer people than you think REALLY consider the title the key thing.  That certainly isn't a universal thing, but I know I've always valued the work more than the title.  I still value the work a lot more than the title.  Nothing would make me go to a terrible job I hated every day just so I could be called a VP or get paid more.  I got a call recently about a position that had less responsibility than my recent manager position, had a more impressive title, and paid about $30k/year more.  It also wasn't a position that would manage people. I wasn't interested in interviewing for that position because I really LIKE having more responsibility and I like managing people.  At the same time, I value vacation time enough to try to negotiate for more whenever possible!

 

As far as people who are not promotable, but are rock solid performers, that's entirely dependent on your company.  At my company, we have a certain amount of technical roles where the people in them do not want to be managers and have room for salary growth and increased responsibility within those roles and maybe have been in those roles for 18 years.  At the same time, the number of those positions is limited and definitely impacts the budget.  But, in general, the objective with those individuals is to keep the work interesting and really focus on what growth opportunities are appropriate within that role.  It's an excellent opportunity for delegating those little white balls that turn into big orange balls from the manager to that person, and then for that person to delegate their little white balls they're not as interested in anymore to less senior team members.  It's a good way to cross-train and keep that long tenured person happy.  At the same time, there needs to be enough big orange balls given to the person who will one day assume your position, and those have to be perhaps even more relevant to your role.

At my Company, neither our budget, nor our succession plan can afford to have more people promoted into that level of role that are not interested in management, because at my Company, there are career opportunities that appear, both due to some level of attrition and some level of movement around to different roles (or ex patriate positions at other operating entities).  We need to constantly be grooming the next level of managers so that when the CIO gets promoted/moved to a different operating entity, the ripple effect throughout the organization does not create manager positions that we can only hire from outside the Company.