Synopsis: According to a report by ADP, 29% of employees quit their jobs within the first month of getting a promotion. The report suggests that employees may quit after a promotion due to inadequate preparation, compensation, or resources. However, at the leadership level, it is uncommon for leaders to quit soon after a promotion.
A friend recently told me something that I found absolutely strange: Her colleague decided to quit his job right after getting promoted to a position that he deeply desired. Surprising, right? But after digging a little deeper, we realised that this phenomenon is more common than you think.
According to a report released by ADP, a payroll and HR services provider, 29% of respondents in a series of surveys quit their jobs within the first month of getting a promotion. Does it imply that getting a promotion makes employees quit? If yes, why?
“These data suggest that landing a promotion gives a person a leg up in their search for work outside their current employer. But they’re also consistent with another workplace phenomenon: People who are given more responsibility without adequate preparation, compensation or resources could be more likely to quit,” according to the ADP report.
Ashutosh Khanna, Co-Founder and Director of WalkWater Talent Advisors, an executive search and talent advisory company, says that promotion is a result of your performance over a period, and high-performance candidates are always in demand. Nonetheless, he says that there is very little correlation between quitting and promotion at the leadership level. “When leaders get promoted, they generally become more invested in the success of the company. While there are exceptions, it is generally uncommon for leaders to quit soon after a promotion,” he says.
On being asked about the possible reasons for employees quitting right after promotion, Khanna says that several factors lead to the decision to quit a job. The manager, the workplace environment and flexibility, growth and learning opportunities, engagement levels, compensation and location are the major factors people consider when comparing the prospects of new opportunities with current ones, Khanna adds.
Neelabh Shukla, Chief Business Officer, Careernet, a talent solutions provider, has seen similar trends. He says that it is not very often that candidates resign soon after getting promoted unless there are unexpected changes. “These changes are mostly related to difficulty in aligning with the new reporting structure, expectations from the role with respect to time zone overlaps in the case of MNCs, or scenarios where promotions are more notional and one is not happy with the associated compensation or roles and responsibilities in general,” adds Shukla.
Are there any potential pitfalls of quitting right after promotion?
As you gain more experience and your industry connections deepen, the chances are that you might encounter a few disadvantages associated with the trend of quitting right after getting a promotion.
In Shukla’s opinion, a job change planned carefully and done for the right reasons usually does not impact one’s prospects even at senior levels. However, he says that the usual pitfalls to avoid are changing jobs too often without any concrete reasons or just for a title change, minor compensation gains and so on.
He says that frequent job changes without real value addition and advancement to one’s profile in the initial 12-15 years of career can impact the person’s ability to migrate from mid-managerial to leadership roles in the long term.
What kind of strategies do organisations implement to boost retention?
Shukla of Careernet says that employers usually rely on robust internal movement programmes, various career paths within a function, movement across various countries, etc, to promote retention for mid-management professionals. At the leadership level, he adds that interventions usually include ownerships across various geographies, horizontal ownerships of certain strategic initiatives, long-term wealth creation opportunities.
Source: The Economic Times