Most employees want to improve and advance in the organization. Promotion from within is a widely practiced personnel policy that is beneficial to the organization and to employee morale. Supervisors know their employees’ strengths and abilities; they do not know as much about individuals hired from outside. When employees know they have a good chance of advancement, they will have an incentive to improve their job performance. In short, promotion from within rewards employees for their good performance and serves notice to other employees that good performance will lead to advancement. At the same time, promotion from within requires the supervisor to provide support to individuals who are promoted so they can successfully make the transition from a peer to a supervisor.

Although organizations should promote from within whenever possible, strict adherence to a promotion-from-within policy is not always practical. When internal employees have not received the necessary training, an external candidate may be preferred. Sometimes, too, an outsider may be needed to introduce innovative ideas.

Because promotions should serve as an incentive for employees to perform better, it is generally believed that employees with the best performance records should be promoted. Nevertheless, seniority still serves as a basis for many promotions. Seniority is easily understood and withstands charges of favoritism and discrimination. However, a promotional system based solely on seniority removes the incentive for junior employees who want to advance.

Although it is difficult to specify an exact basis for employee promotion, there should be appropriate consideration of ability and merit on the one hand and length of service on the other. P9658