Jan 26, 2011

Is Now the Time to Promote an Employee?By Sarah E. NeedlemanOnline.WSJ.com

When should a small-business owner promote an employee?

New data released Wednesday from networking website LinkedIn.com suggest that U.S. employers in general tend to advance workers most often during the months of January, June and July. The findings are based on information listed in the profiles of its more than 90 million members world-wide between January 1990 and December 2010.

Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, says the data likely reflect times when many companies see business slow down or their fiscal year comes to an end. That’s when “a lot of restructuring decisions get made, which creates turnover and openings,” he says.

But unlike their larger counterparts, small businesses generally don’t need to make such judgment calls at a specific time of year to satisfy stock holders, union leaders or other regulators. They also generally don’t need to do as much reshuffling of their workforces on an annual basis since their career ladders tend to have fewer rungs.

For the typical small-business owner, what’s most important in deciding when to promote an employee is whether the company needs – and can afford – to make the investment, says Tim Irwin, an organizational psychologist in Atlanta, and author of “Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership.” And naturally, he adds, it’s also critical to make sure the person in mind is qualified to take on the new responsibilities that a promotion commonly entails.

Read complete article.