Instead explain, how badly we want to promote you and how can we together make that happen.
The attrition rate jumped to an all-time high in the Indian IT sector. While the overall industry recorded 8.03 percent in just one quarter, from Jan to March 2021, some IT services and consulting firms like CTS, Infosys recorded up to 21 percent. And we were worried that we were going to loose our jobs due to the pandemic eh?
Aside from the market demand and remote working culture, recruiters shift part of the blame to the character of the people who quit, they are self-centered, motivated by only money and not trust-worthy.
The other side of the coin they don't see is, why would anyone want to leave an awesome team, awesome company and awesome boss? the reason is probably you are not that awesome.
And one reason could be your Hire-in vs Hire-out process
Most managers don't have proactive conversation with their teams about what is the next role for them. How can they be more valuable to the company? This conversation mostly happens when a team member initiates it or runs out of motivation or to counter the outside job offer. How about walking extra mile and showing initiatives that you ask for in the reviews back to your top performers?
Another major roadblock-when it comes to internal promotions, managers set unrealistic expectations with no clear deliverables, with little or no support. Want to be promoted? talk to the hiring manager, find a mentor and learn by yourself, prove why you deserve this promotion.
A couple of recommendations here:
Adopt a shared-responsibility model:
You are not doing a favour by promoting or hiring internally. The benefits are mutual, in fact more for the company in long term. Insist on managers having a career map for all roles that they manage. Set realistic targets, communicate and share them openly so that there is transparency and motivation.
Development and Enablement:
While the internal hiring happens more at the entry level job roles, they become rare as the required job skills go up. Companies usually have a fleet of recruiters, they seldom have a well-functioning team on talent development and enablement. Commit to a plan to enable your top performers in 3-6 months and aim to generate a pipeline of job-ready internal candidates for the next promotion cycle at all levels.
Bottomline- Fix the process. I quit an awesome company, said nobody ever!