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HR MATTERS E-TIPS
THIS WEEK'S E-TIP: Ten Steps to Better Promotion Decisions
Published by Personnel Policy Service, Inc.
"Your Policy and Compliance Experts Since 1972"
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THIS WEEK'S E-TIP: Ten Steps to Better Promotion Decisions
Don't let your promotion decisions turn into employment lawsuits. Follow
the ten steps below to ensure that your promotion criteria are clear,
fairly
applied, and enhance your employee retention. |
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THIS WEEK'S E-TIP: Ten Steps to Better Promotion Decisions
Here's an employment principle that seems easy enough to
implement.
If an employee performs well, you promote him. If he doesn't,
you don't.
But, as with many employment decisions, the
promotion process is
never
as simple as it looks. In fact, promotion decisions can easily
lead to
discrimination claims if not implemented properly.
Fortunately, many of these claims can be prevented if you use
business-
and job-related criteria for your decisions and are consistent
in how you
apply them. The discussion below shows how courts treat these
claims
and outlines ten steps you can take to prevent them.
* Inconsistent Use of Promotion Criteria *
Any promotion process can lead to discrimination claims if
implemented
improperly. Generally, employee claims of intentional
discrimination are
upheld when the employee is denied a promotion because the
employer
manipulated the selection criteria or did not adhere to its own
stated
procedures.
So, for example, in Bergene v. Salt River Project Agric.
Improvement &
Power Dist., 272 F.3d 1136 (9th Cir. 2001), the Ninth Circuit
let an
employee proceed with her sex discrimination claim which was
filed
when she was denied promotion to a position for which she was
qualified. She was able to show that her employer manipulated
job
requirements to make the preferred male candidate eligible and
tacked
on additional job qualification requirements not listed in the
original
posting that benefited the male candidate.
Similarly, in Bray v. Marriott Hotels, 110 F.3d 986 (3d Cir.
1997), the
Third Circuit allowed a minority employee to proceed with her
race
discrimination claim which was based on her being passed over
for a
promotion. The court found that the employer's explanation that
it
selected the most qualified candidate was suspect. The employee
showed she was held to more stringent evaluation standards and
was
reviewed less frequently than the white candidate chosen.
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* Subjective Criteria *
Employees also have sued successfully when employers make
promotion decisions using subjective criteria. For example, in
Patrick v.
Ridge, 394 F.3d 311 (5th Cir. 2004), the court permitted an
employee's
age-discrimination claim. The employer's explanation that she
was not
"sufficiently suited" for the position was not specific enough
to be a
legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason not to promote her.
And, in Dennis v. Columbia Colleton Med. Ctr., Inc., 290 F.3d
639 (4th
Cir. 2002), a female employee successfully proved sex
discrimination.
Her employer offered inconsistent explanations for its decision
to hire a
man, considered qualifications not listed in the job posting,
and followed
different procedures to review the female candidate's
application. |
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* Ten Ways to Create Equal Promotion Opportunities *
A fair and effective promotion process is key to advancing, and
retaining,
good employees. So, to ensure equal promotion opportunities for all
your employees, you should incorporate these ten strategies into
your
promotion process:
- Publicize promotional openings so that all employees are aware
of advancement opportunities. Some courts have found
discrimination
occurred when the employer failed to notify employees about
opportunities for promotion.
- Train supervisors and managers to make decisions based on
performance, skills, and experience, and not on group stereotypes.
- Limit material to be accessed in candidate
personnel files and
require supervisors to consider only performance-related
information,
such as appraisals, attendance records, and recent disciplinary
actions.
This restriction can help ensure that decisions are based on
nondiscriminatory information and reasons.
- Have supervisors identify all employees who have promotion
potential so that they can be given full opportunities for
training,
transfers, or mentoring to build and develop the skills needed for
promotion.
- Offer accommodations to
disabled employees both in the
promotion process and in
new job positions.
- Make training opportunities available to protected-class
employees on the same basis as to all other employees.
- Ensure that minority, female, and other protected-class
employees are not placed disproportionately in jobs that provide
little or
no preparation for higher-level positions.
- Document the rationale behind promotion decisions and explain
the decisions to the affected employees.
- Allow promotion candidates who have been rejected in the past
to be reconsidered after they have received more training or
experience.
- Encourage employees to discuss concerns about rejections with
the human resources department and then give them an appeals
process using your complaint resolution procedures.
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Subscribers to the
Personnel Policy Manual and HR Policy Answers on
CD can find more information on promotions, Chapter
206.
Promotion discrimination claims are discussed in note 11..
If you don't have the manual, but would like to order a trial
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Information provided in HR Matters E-Tips is researched and reviewed
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