From Promotion to Demotion: Are You Ready If It Doesn't Work Out?
One of your best employees has a proven track record with your company, possessing great technical skills and meticulous cleaning abilities. This person's overall skills as a cleaner are outstanding. You decide this employee would make a great team leader, which leads to a promotion.
Promoting from within can be a win-win situation. Outside recruiting can be very costly and the new-hires won't have a proven track record with your company. Employee moral improves because they see your company offering growth and advancement potential. You pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
What if the promotion doesn't work out?
Shortly after promoting your “star employee”, this new team leader is struggling at her new position. Although her technical skills are outstanding, her leadership, interpersonal, and supervisory skills are inadequate. Unfortunately, this is not the best candidate after all for a supervisory position. So, what do you do next? Fire the employee? That would be unfortunate, especially since she always excelled at her position before the promotion.
The first step is to give the employee every opportunity to succeed at the new job. Provide extra coaching and supervisory training (check out the Team Leader Training Program). If it's still not working out for the employee in the new position and you are not seeing any improvement in performance, even after all avenues have been exhausted, it's time to make a decision on what to do. Do you terminate employment or is a demotion the next step?
Termination
The reasons for termination at this point may be the result of the employee taking advantage of her new role as an authority figure, letting it go to her head, stepping on toes and distancing herself from her coworkers. She may have become lazy and standoffish and her entire dynamic from what you have previously known has changed in a negative way.
You may have also played a role in the situation by allowing the problem to go on and fester within your company culture. You should have noticed the problem right away and dealt with it head on, but instead you pushed it aside hoping she would improve on her own.
Regardless of the reasons, you feel at this point that you have made every attempt to allow your employee to succeed at her new position but you have exhausted all options. Your decision to terminate should come without any qualms. The decision to terminate does not come without consequences however.
When you inform the employee that you have made the decision to terminate her, you may be confronted with a plethora of emotions, such as anger, resentment, embarrassment, and humiliation. Her reactions may tug at your heart strings but be steadfast in your decision and do your best to keep the interaction positive.
Explain the reasons behind your decision and present factual documentation and examples of why you have come to the judgement of termination. Follow your company's protocol when it comes to dismissing employees. Not only will this help you to explain the termination process to her, but help protect your company from possible legal ramifications from wrongful termination.
Be truthful and straightforward during the meeting, explain what procedures will immediately follow the termination, and allow her plenty of time to speak and present a rebuttal if needed.
Demotion
Typically, companies demote employees for reasons such as misconduct, poor behavior, or negligence in the performance of duties. Although this employee didn't break any rules, you still must take the necessary disciplinary steps. When you have a valuable employee that lacks the necessary people and management skills to succeed in the supervisory position you placed them in, you should consider moving the employee back to her previous position. You may be surprised by the fact that this decision may come as a relief for both you and the employee. The demotion decision may be the wise choice.
When the decision is made to demote an employee, the first task at hand is to inform the employee. Meet with the employee, one on one, to help her understand the reasons for her demotion and to make the transition smoother. This can possibly protect the employer/employee relationship while helping the employee during the demotion transition.
This conversation should not come as a surprise to the employee – she knows she's struggling. And if you've done your best to coach her and talked to her about improving her performance in the new position with unsuccessful results, then it's time to remedy the situation.
Guidelines to follow during the one-on-one meeting with the employee:
- Always show the utmost respect for the employee when discussing the reasons for the demotion and/or reassignment.
- Communicate the reasons associated with the demotion to the employee thoroughly and without side-stepping any issues. Let her know that not everyone is cut out to be a team leader and reassure her that she is still of value to the company because of her excellent cleaning skills.
- Allow the employee time for rebuttal. She will likely have plenty of questions so be prepared with your responses.
- Explain and outline in detail the employee's new position, salary changes, transition timeline, and new role within the company. If possible, allow her to work with other employees instead of the ones she supervised to help avert an awkward situation for everyone involved.
- Let the employee know what objectives and goals are expected in this new role to avoid any future conflicts and disagreements. Make sure the employee's team leader is made aware of any communication made between you and the demoted employee relating to the demotion and subsequent processes.
- Follow company protocol for disciplinary and performance policies and procedures. This will likely include plenty of paperwork, but detailed documentation is important. Record the demotion on paper for your records and provide the employee with written documentation of the demotion as well. This process is critical to a defense should the employee challenge the demotion in court.
The demotion aftermath
An employee who is demoted will likely suffer negative attitudes relating to the company and the new position. A demotion can be both embarrassing and de-motivating to the employee and they may start to question their future with the company.
This can adversely affect not only their job performance but can quickly spread to other employees. A disgruntled employee can be disruptive, hold back and demoralize other workers, possibly sabotage work duties and the duties of co-workers. Monitor the transition, keep open communication with the employee's team leader, and be prepared to respond quickly should corrective actions be necessary.
Continue to communicate and reassure her you are confident in her abilities. Show support by providing attention and meaningful work. If there is a reduction in wage associated with the demotion, you may want to consider giving her a transitional salary.
Finally, provide plenty of company recognition of her value to the company. A demotion can provide the employer with the opportunity to retain the services of a valuable employee while allowing the employee to regain her confidence and assume a productive role within the company in her new position.
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PDF Download - The program has 85 pages that are broken down into sections that you can use to train your team leaders over time. Team Leader Training Program for Residential Cleaners Developing and honing the skills of your cleaning technicians begins with proper leadership. In order to do that you must first coach your team leaders on how to be leaders, trainers, evaluators and mentors. This program is designed to help you, the business owner, groom your best employees for the next step in their career development. Convert Customers to Loyal Clients Through Exceptional Customer Service! To learn more about this system and purchase, visit our store. |
