As the Head of HR for the Regional Office of a financial institution, on one of your visits to one of the operational divisions within your region, you decide to hold an informal chat with some of the up and coming leaders within the group. These are young graduates selected from prominent universities and who were being groomed as promising future leaders. At this session, a few of these young executives pose various questions on their career prospects.
One of the company’s principles have always been to practice promotion from within. Even if an internal candidate is only 70% ready for the higher role, the company’s p0licy have been to give the internal candidate an opportunity, rather than recruiting from outside. However, lately with the company’s expansion in one particular region, you have had to recruit from outside at the expanse of some internal candidates and this has affected the employee branding. This has caused some potential executives to leave and join the competition. You know that some of the remaining ones have been approached and are tempted.
One particular executive, Aaron asks you if the company really believed in and practiced promotion from within. You respond by saying that it is the policy and the company did that and you give specific examples of senior management who are in the upper echelons of the company. Aaron then gives examples of 3 executives who were passed over and have been in their current roles for the past 5 years despite there being promotional prospects. Secondly, he gives the names of 2 other executives who have left the organisation because they were over looked for external candidates from other companies. Another executive, Pamela, then further comments that the general impression out in the field is that your organisation have consistently ignored internal candidates over candidates from outside.
Timo, yet another executive, joins the chorus to ask how would they know that the organisation will honour their principle and practice what they preach. He continues to add that they do constantly get offers, as the company is renown for its Management Trainee Programme that they have all gone through.
How would you tackle this situation and provide confidence that the principle will be upheld and that their career prospects are not in jeopardy?