"In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his (or her) level of incompetence."
Referred to as 'The Peter Principle' this is generally applied to large, multi-layered organisations but is just as relevant to smaller businesses in our health and fitness industry.
Promotions are often seen as a way to recognise employees that demonstrate competence in their current position and capitalise on their existing knowledge of the business. Unfortunately, a competent and dedicated employee may find themselves (willingly) promoted to a position in which he or she turns out to be less interested in and/or under skilled.
For example, let's say you have a Personal Trainer that performs the best in your facility on all fronts. They're on time for all appointments, make a lot of clients happy, they stick to the rules, attend meetings and professional development sessions and earn plenty of money for themselves and the facility.
Is this the perfect candidate to train into your next Personal Training Manager role?
Consider this; Are they aware of the recruitment skills required? Do they understand the management and leadership expectations? Are they prepared for the inevitable confrontation that is a part of managing people and the accountability (and targets) that may be expected of them? Are they going to miss the face to face contact with clients? If you promote this person, will you be losing your best Trainer and greatest role model?
If you choose to employ from within, I recommend the following two rules are observed:
Firstly, reconsider promotion of employees who are dedicated to their current jobs. Other methods of reward/recognition should be explored. Possibly parallel career paths, where good technical people can acquire improved pay/status.
Secondly, employees might be promoted only after being sufficiently trained to the new position. This places the burden of discovering individuals with poor managerial capabilities before (as opposed to after) they are promoted.
Even where there are internal candidates there is value in externally advertising all managment roles. It's a great way to ensure internal candidates are screened with the same rigor as external candidates (and you never know what you'll find).
Elevating employees to positions above their abilities can be detrimental to both your business and your valued employee. While sourcing managers from within is always going to be the first choice, the advice is to ensure due process for the benefit of all concerned. Remember, 'Hire hard, manage easy'.