Criteria for promotions - merit or seniority ?

That is so ad, but this kind of thing happens in almost organisations. Truth is, nowadays, seniority and experience hardly counts for much. The younger people might be good workers and may have talent and knowledge of latest technology required than the senior person may have. But the fact still remains that the senior person has put in more years of his life to the job and has the benefit of better experience and judgement that will come handy while leading others, so ignoring such a person and promoting others is simply not fair.

In my opinion.Merit should be taken into consideration for Promotions. Every Organization will have aims and objectives. A Candidate endowed with that knowledge which help serve the interests of the Organization and in its turn help in making Profits. There is justification if the candidate over takes Senior members with knowledge, but will not serve the Aims, Objectives and interests of the Organization.

It happened in my case when I was working as a Visualizer in the PR Dept of Vizag Steel plant. During all my  promotions, the Personnel Dept. has taken Merit in to consideration.

Due to severe competition today firms are under stress for market share and profits. Who ever can deliver is selected . Young persons have energy which today's firm's aŕe eager to exploit. Merit is important but not always. Seniority is used as a balancing tool in large organizations. Also in fast changing world many seniors find themselves incapable of learning new practices and also are unable to take competitive stress.So many a Times seniors get bypassed. 

Seniors Services are to be taken definitely. Some organizations especially Advertising Agencies are absorbing Seniors as Advisers.But their decisions are not final and binding. But for the main services, Youngsters are preferred for their ability to adopt to the quick changing trends.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

That is so ad, but this kind of thing happens in almost organisations. Truth is, nowadays, seniority and experience hardly counts for much. The younger people might be good workers and may have talent and knowledge of latest technology required than the senior person may have. But the fact still remains that the senior person has put in more years of his life to the job and has the benefit of better experience and judgement that will come handy while leading others, so ignoring such a person and promoting others is simply not fair.

Exactly ! Another fact is that these days percentage wise many of the youngsters are foot loose , changing jobs and looking for better opportunities all the time rather than stick to one job and become thorough! In such a scenario, how wise is it for companies to overlook senior workers who have stuck on and contributed all through their career . Unless a balance is stuck it may become counter productive for an organisation to take on a younger worker and give him more responsibilities.Everything should happen step by step. 

I personally believe both seniority and merit should be taken into consideration. Only a person being senior should not be eligible for promotion, unless the senior person has capability to work for the position and also has the required experience. Most of the time youngsters has lots of degrees but no or very minimal experience, in such cases seniority should be given the preferences.

Seniority is a significant fact and cannot be ignored totally. Merit is an opinion whereas seniority is a fact. Seniority needs be major criterion in promotions. But seniority alone does not suffice. The service record of the senior also needs be seen. If he has performed satisfactory service, he must be promoted. Juniors can wait for their turn.  Only when a senior has shown dismal performance or lack of interest in work, he may be bypassed. For very senior posts needing exceptional merit, seniority cum merit should be criterion.  First, candidates should be shortlisted on basis of seniority. Then their performance during career be reviewed and suitable one may be selected. 

In these days of Globalization and swift changes, any Business organization, looks towards new trends in Business practices in order to make profits. No Business organization can thrive with obsolete and outdated practices. I observed Senor employees generally are not oriented towards new business practices. They feel jumping to new trends may be risky. Whereas youngsters in the organization, being inquisitive show orientation towards trying new trends. Many Business organizations shot up owing to the enterprising and groundbreaking innovations introduced by the youngsters in their respective fields. Youngsters with innovative ideas must be considered for promotions. 

It is a fact that senior members have grown with the organization and are well aware of its needs for sustainanc and growth. A youngster might come up with new ideas which may or may not work since it has not been tested. An ideal situation would be for the youngsters to take advise while implementing their ideas , from seniors who know the ins and outs of the organization much better.It also helps seniors to learn new ideas.

A good solution. But there are many Organizations that view Senior employees as White elephants.Unproductive Man power reduction would be more profitable to these Organizations. In this process,  seemingly productive innovative ideas of the Youngsters who generally are recruited with low salaries. are preferred. by these Organizations.

 

usha manohar wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

That is so ad, but this kind of thing happens in almost organisations. Truth is, nowadays, seniority and experience hardly counts for much. The younger people might be good workers and may have talent and knowledge of latest technology required than the senior person may have. But the fact still remains that the senior person has put in more years of his life to the job and has the benefit of better experience and judgement that will come handy while leading others, so ignoring such a person and promoting others is simply not fair.

Exactly ! Another fact is that these days percentage wise many of the youngsters are foot loose , changing jobs and looking for better opportunities all the time rather than stick to one job and become thorough! In such a scenario, how wise is it for companies to overlook senior workers who have stuck on and contributed all through their career . Unless a balance is stuck it may become counter productive for an organisation to take on a younger worker and give him more responsibilities.Everything should happen step by step. 

Exactly, younger candidates are concerned more about their own growth than the company's growth. I have seen with my own eyes, how younger candidates decisions have been seen as more beneficial to the company which in reality, were damaging in the long run, but they went ahead with it anyway and then had to pay the cost by losing a valuable client. In this case, it was my close friend, a senior manager whose experience and wisdom had been thwarted in favour of a younger, more dynamic guy. But by the time the company realised her true worth, she had left the company for another who favoured experience and wisdom more than younger candidates' so-called dynamism and charisma! So like you said, balance in striking all these factors together is necessary. Younger people also have really questionable loyalty as they keep hopping jobs every two years for better package!

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

usha manohar wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

That is so ad, but this kind of thing happens in almost organisations. Truth is, nowadays, seniority and experience hardly counts for much. The younger people might be good workers and may have talent and knowledge of latest technology required than the senior person may have. But the fact still remains that the senior person has put in more years of his life to the job and has the benefit of better experience and judgement that will come handy while leading others, so ignoring such a person and promoting others is simply not fair.

Exactly ! Another fact is that these days percentage wise many of the youngsters are foot loose , changing jobs and looking for better opportunities all the time rather than stick to one job and become thorough! In such a scenario, how wise is it for companies to overlook senior workers who have stuck on and contributed all through their career . Unless a balance is stuck it may become counter productive for an organisation to take on a younger worker and give him more responsibilities.Everything should happen step by step. 

Exactly, younger candidates are concerned more about their own growth than the company's growth. I have seen with my own eyes, how younger candidates decisions have been seen as more beneficial to the company which in reality, were damaging in the long run, but they went ahead with it anyway and then had to pay the cost by losing a valuable client. In this case, it was my close friend, a senior manager whose experience and wisdom had been thwarted in favour of a younger, more dynamic guy. But by the time the company realised her true worth, she had left the company for another who favoured experience and wisdom more than younger candidates' so-called dynamism and charisma! So like you said, balance in striking all these factors together is necessary. Younger people also have really questionable loyalty as they keep hopping jobs every two years for better package!

Kalyani, there are some organisations that take on even retired personnel who are very senior but with a lot of experience. Recently one of my relatives , an engineer retired from a state government concern was appointed by MRPL as a consultant executive because they saw that he was capable and was as good or better than the younger lot. I guess it also has to do with the  mindset in some cases where employers tend to think that older people have a stick in the mud attitude which may not be the case. So also not all youngsters are dynamic in their approach.

well now a day many organisation wants the younger to be their head because they think that the new shoulder can lift the heavy weight of work and can be able to take the organisation to the new level.

The energy of the young and experience of the old can be positively and gainfully manipulated by managements to attain corporate goals. As a rule in Indian conditions retired persons should not be employed because of unemployment and less job generations. However there can be exceptions.

In India we have unemployment as well as under employment because of lack of job opportunities. However, some retired senior officials known to me have landed better paying jobs after their retirement. It is probably due too  the fact that they have a lot to contribute. There is one more avenue for retired professors and lecturers , which I find quite ridiculous. Some private colleges wanting to cut down on staff expenditure , just to keep to the standard student/teacher ratio enroll some retired and well known professors as honorary lecturers. They are paid a smaller sum compared to what a regular professor gets and get to do nothing except go for invigilation and guest lectures once or twice a month. Everyone is happy in this situation but it also shows how our education system works..

There are capable seniors in many organisations but some of them seems to lack professional degrees but such degrees have become a norm in most of the companies now. In some cases the service record of the seniors are not that good, while young ones lack experience. The juniors have professional degree as well as zeal but are not very willing to continue in the same office for quite long so in that case the supreme boss needs to be very tactful. They must retain and promote the truly deserving one. See, experienced people will one day attain retirement so the organisation has to be run by the younger lot so they need to be prepared for the senior post. In that case if juniors are not promoted then they will not take interest in working very hardly for the company. I feel, the situation is tricky and so everything must come into consideration and strike a balance while promoting a staff

When someone is in a position to deliver what an Organization wants and the person's contribution boosts the productivity of the Organization, I do not see anything wrong in recruiting a retired person. What I feel is, everything depends on the organization's policies. It is also possible, if the Organization is confident and is convinced about a person's contribution, the Organization may go all the way to relax the rules and policies as an exception.

I can understand the necessity for educational qualifications because they need to have some bench mark  or criteria for selection. Nowadays interviews are given a lot more importance once the basic essentials like qualification and years of minimum experience etc are met with. The attitude and the competence of a person can only be judged during an interview. Many very promising and with brilliant degrees fail to reach the grade set by the  employers during the interview..No doubt it is not easy for youngsters to ge int an organisation and only the very smart ones are able to get the best paying jobs. It would be the same with senior workers as well, not all of them become better with experience , some may remain the same all through their career.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

That is so ad, but this kind of thing happens in almost organisations. Truth is, nowadays, seniority and experience hardly counts for much. The younger people might be good workers and may have talent and knowledge of latest technology required than the senior person may have. But the fact still remains that the senior person has put in more years of his life to the job and has the benefit of better experience and judgement that will come handy while leading others, so ignoring such a person and promoting others is simply not fair.

I am agreed with you that senior person must not be ignored. But most of private organization have not rule and regulation for promotion. it is depends on will of management and owner. In 1993 I joined cement factory as accountant. There one accountant is already working, he is elder in age than me  but because of higher education I was his senior.

 

usha manohar wrote:

In India we have unemployment as well as under employment because of lack of job opportunities. However, some retired senior officials known to me have landed better paying jobs after their retirement. It is probably due too  the fact that they have a lot to contribute. There is one more avenue for retired professors and lecturers , which I find quite ridiculous. Some private colleges wanting to cut down on staff expenditure , just to keep to the standard student/teacher ratio enroll some retired and well known professors as honorary lecturers. They are paid a smaller sum compared to what a regular professor gets and get to do nothing except go for invigilation and guest lectures once or twice a month. Everyone is happy in this situation but it also shows how our education system works..

Agree, honorary lectures have become very common in today's educational system. It's win win situation for both the side, retired people can make some money only for tutoring twice or thrice a month and schools and colleges can save money on full time teacher or professor. Here only one who suffers are students, they don't know whom to contact in case if they have any query with respect to particular topic.