UNIT 10

PROMOTION AND TRANSFER Promotion :

Promotion may be defined as an upward movement of an employees position in the enterprise. An employee who has promoted moves to a higher level job that gives higher salary, greater authority and accountability as well.

Why promotion ?
The need for promotion arises in view of the following reasons: 1. Vacancies arise in any organization due to the retirement, resignation, death or disablement of employee. Usually, when a higher post is vacant, it may be filled up from within the organization. For example, if the sales manager retires, the senior most sales officer may be made the sales manager. 2. An employee may be given promotion in recognition of his meritorious service to the enterprise. This is done to honor the employees who has served the enterprise for a longer period. 3. Opportunities for promotion also induce the employees to put in greater effort to acquire higher qualification and to enhance their skills. This benefit not only the individual employee but the organization as well. 4. Promotion is also necessary to keep the level of job satisfaction and morale of the employee high. The employee, obviously, will have a higher level of job satisfaction and morale only if he is assigned a job commensurate with his qualification and experience. 5. An organization that does not provide any scope for promotion for its employees may have to face a higher rate of labor turnover, i.e., employees resigning their jobs.

Criteria for promotion Basically two criteria are used for the purpose of employee promotion. They are: (i) (ii) Seniority, and Merit.

The length of service of the employee in the present organization determine his seniority. If the employee has served in certain other organization also before joining the present organization, the length of his service may be determined by taking into account his service in such other organization as well. The merit of the employee is determined by his performance. Weight age may also be given for his qualification and academic achievements.

Merits of seniority based- promotion The following are the advantages of promotion based on seniority:
1. Determining the seniority of an employee is quite simple. As the length of service decides seniority, the employer can very easily find out from the records who, among the employees of the enterprise, is the senior most. 2. Such a criterion does justice to all the employees of an enterprise. Even a junior employee of today will become senior in course of time. Thus, all the employees have a fair chance of getting promotion opportunities. 3. In the case of seniority based promotion, experienced employees will be holding higher position and youngster will be working under them. Such an atmosphere is quite a natural one and goes well with the principle of natural justice.

4. As due weight age is given for experience, it will motivate the employees to stick on to their job. This will reduce labor turnover. 5. Recognition of seniority will also motivate the employees of a concern. This is possible because they work with an anticipation of promotion.

Demerits

Advantages of Merits-Based Promotion Merits-based promo

from the following limitation: 1. 2. It ignores the merits of an individual. As the organization does not recognize merits, it cannot attract meritorious and deserving persons. 3. Performance is not actually determined by ones experience. It depends much on the merits of a person. A senior employee need not be a good performer. 4. The junior in the enterprise do not have any chance to get promoted in the near future even if they are meritorious. They may have to wait for the seniors to retire to get promoted. As a result, they may not work to their potentials. 5. Seniority- based promotion may not encourage employees to enrich their qualification and skills, as it is not going to be of any use to them. Seniority- based promotion, however, suffers

Merits-based promotion can provide the following benefits:

1. The enterprise can attract talented and meritorious persons. 2. It will encourage employ7ees to enrich their qualification and skills

3. There will be maximum efficiency as only meritorious persons are promoted to higher positions. 4. It also encourages healthy competition among the employees. Each one will try to prove his worth to the organization.

Disadvantages
The following are the drawbacks of merit-based promotion: 1. It ignores experience

2. Determining the merit of an employee is difficult 3. A situation of seniors working under juniors may sometimes arise when a junior is found to be more deserving and promoted to a higher post. 4. It is also possible that an employee who is found to be very efficient in the present job may fumble when promoted to a higher post due to lack of experience. To conclude, it may be said that both seniority and merit as the basis for employee promotion has its own plus and minus points. The best approach, however, would be to give weight age for both. That is, an employee should get his promotion only if he has proved his merits and also has considerable experience to handle a higher level job.

Transfer

Transfer of an employee takes place when he is shifted: From one section to another- A record clerk in an office may be transferred to cash section.

 From one department to another- A mathematics professor in a college may be transferred from the maths department to the commerce department to teach maths for the commerce students. From one branch to another- A clerk in a nationalized bank in, say, Anna Nagar Branch in Chennai may be transferred to the T. nagar branch. From one town to another- The employees in state government service in Tamil Nadu are liable for transfer to any place within Tamil Nadu. From one state to another- The employees in the central government service in India are liable for transfer to any state within India. from one country to another- If the organization, whether government or provide, has its offices outside India, it may , as per its rules, transfer any of its employees to such a foreign office also. However, the term transfer is usually used to refer to shifting of an employees from one place to another either within the state or country. Why transfer?

The need for transferring an employee to some other place arises mainly because of the following reasons: 1. Transfer due to vacancy - When an employee is considered surplus in the

place where he is presently working and there is a vacancy in another place where the enterprise has its office or branch, the employee may be transferred to such other place. Such a transfer may be called transfer due to vacancy. 2. Promotion transfer - An employee getting promotion, say, as branch

manager may be transferred to be a branch that requires a manager. Such a transfer may be called promotion transfer. 3. Compulsory Transfer - If the organization has a policy of transferring its

employees at regular intervals to different places, the employees must accept

such a transfer. For example, the teachers in the state government service in Tamil Nadu will be transferred in five years within the state. Such a transfer is called compulsory transfer. 4. Punishment transfer - an employee showing negligence in his duties may

also be transferred as a measure of punishment. Such a transfer is called Punishment Transfer. 5. Request Transfer - transfer may also take place when an employee, due to

personal reasons, request his/her employer to transfer him/her to a specific place and the same is accepted. Such a transfer is called Request Transfer. A woman, who has to get to go to her husbands place after her marriage, may apply for transfer. 6. Mutual transfer - Sometimes, there may be two persons working for the

same organization in two different places and each of them may be willing to get transferred to the place of the other. For example, if a persons serving in Chennai is willing to get transferred to coimbatore and another persons serving in coimbatore is prepared for a transfer to Chennai, the employer may permit the same. A transfer of this kind is known as Mutual Transfer.

Demotion

It is just the opposite of promotion. An employee who has been demoted will move from a higher position to a lower position. Such a measure is adopted when he is found to be incapable of discharging his duties in his present job.

Suspension
An employee who is placed under suspension will be relieved of his post temporarily. This is done as a measure of punishment to an employee who has shown negligence in his duties or has behaved in a manner that is detrimental to the interests of the organizations.

An employee who has been placed under suspension may have to face an enquiry. During the enquiry he will be given an opportunity ti offer suitable explanation. If the explanation given by him is found to be convincing, he may be reinstated.

Dismissal or Termination of Service

This is yet another punishment measure. An employee may be dismissed from service under the following circumstances: (i) If the explanation offered by a suspended employee is found to be unsatisfactory. (ii) If the employee is a party to any illegal transaction and is caught red-handed or has committed some other crime. (iii) (iv) If he is absent for long without a valid leave application. If his where about are not known.