In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Subject

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY:

SENIORITY PROMOTION IN AN ORGANIZATION

SUBMITTED TO:

DR. MARGIE D.G. DELA CRUZ

SUBMITTED BY:

CURIOSO, CRISTLE T.
GARRIDO, TRISHA LEEN S.
SANTAGO, AYA INAH MARI C.
RIVERA, ROEL
RUADERA, JHON ARLAN

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I. INTRODUCTION - roel

Many employees are eager to get promoted for a variety of reasons ranging from more
money to increased responsibilities. Companies usually use one of two methods for
determining who deserves a promotion, which are seniority-based or performance-based
promotions. You may know what method your employer uses or you may not, but
understanding the differences between the two can be helpful in finding out how to get
promoted in your workplace.

A seniority-based promotion is where management promotes an employee because of

their seniority within the company compared to other candidates. Employees who are
promoted due to seniority have been at the company longer than any other candidates,
and may or may not have any other qualifications for the promotion. There are benefits to
using this method, including that employees will feel their loyalty to the company has
been rewarded, but there are also challenges. In companies that promote employees based
on seniority only, employees begin to expect promotions at a certain point.

This comes down to what your organization values. If your organization lives out its
culture through its mission, vision, and values, in ways more than just a poster on the
wall, then the culture of your organization will influence who is promoted.

If they value performance, such as hitting profit targets, then it is likely they will have
less of a bias towards promoting employees with a longer tenure over ones who truly
drive results.

With the flattening of organizational structures, there are fewer opportunities for
promotions today as the hieratical layers that once existed have all but disappeared. This
has led to fewer opportunities for promotions. In fact, one study found that on average

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just nine percent of employees in a company receive a promotion on an annual basis. The
result of this is increased competition and scrutiny of who is promoted.

In these scenarios, the easy decision may be to put more emphasis on seniority.
Performance is always a factor, but when there are fewer opportunities, a committed and
loyal employee may be the one who is selected for the promotion to reduce the likelihood
of the promotion being challenged.

Seniority-based promotions usually reward employees' loyalty for staying with the
company over a set amount of time, and may even be required by unions within your
company.

There are many factors that determine who will be promoted. Although there are
elements that are out of your control, such as seniority, there are others that your actions
directly impact. From your attitude towards your accountabilities, colleagues, and
organization, to your willingness to step up and take initiative, to seeking opportunities to
learn and grow your skills, these are things that will always benefit your career
progression.

II. SWOT ANALYSIS

A. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT - aya

1. STRENGTH
 Reduces appearance of favoritism by rewarding employees for seniority.
 Reduces turnover as employees will want to stay in order to get promoted.
 Lowers chances of backstabbing among employees since performance and
favoritism play no role.
 Having a clearly communicated metric for promotions that everyone can meet is
helpful to employees and managers.
 Senior employees often have the training and skills needed for promotions.
 Rewards loyal employees.

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2. WEAKNESS
 Less motivation among employees to excel, as it doesn't factor into promotions.
 Increases resentment among motivated or talented employees if mediocre
employees are promoted over them.
 Can cause challenges with recruiting, as new employees will be promoted last.
 Hard work isn't being rewarded.

B. EXTERNAL ANALYSIS - TRISH

1. OPPORTUNITIES
 Senior staff are valuable employees who become knowledge-leaders in the
organization. They're essentially a free training resource, passing their knowledge
and experience on the next generation. The seniority system rewards these efforts.
 Job security. The seniority rule protects those who have achieved seniority from
being laid off. This protects older, more experienced workers who tend to have
the toughest time finding a job in the labor market.
 People recognize that if they remain with the company, they gain access to better
paychecks and promotion opportunities. For the company, this should result in
lower staff turnover and all its associated replacement costs.
 Some workers want to know where the next pay rise and promotion is coming
from and, for them, the seniority system can be a godsend. Knowing that your
salary and benefits will rise with every year of tenure is reassuring for many who
budget around this relative predictability.

2. THREATS
 This is the main criticism of seniority – that it values longevity over merit. If an
under-performing employee is promoted solely on the basis of seniority, then
that company could end up paying more for an employee who is not achieving
as much as a less-senior colleague.
 It Hinders Recruitment, as it can even signal career disaster for ambitious junior
employees who want to advance their careers as quickly as possible. These
employees may see little point in over-delivering at their jobs when it's loyalty,

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 not talent that gets rewarded. As a result, they may choose to avoid jobs with
seniority systems that might stifle their ambition.

III. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM - arlan

The seniority-based promotion rule will fuel resentment between senior and junior
employees.

IV. ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION

ACA: 1. Execute competent/merit-based promotion. Since efficiency and talents are

rewarded, it encourages employees to increase their knowledge in maintaining a high

level of productivity.

ACA 2: Address the potential conflict between Senior and Junior employees. This way it

helps in building a better work relationship of all the employees and improve overall

productivity. Furthermore, it will quickly resolve any miscommunication and prevent the

situation from getting worse.

ACA 3: Implement a merit pay system. Merit pay makes the employer to recognize

individual performance on a one-time basis. This can provide motivation leading to

increase productivity. Rewards those who may have the most to offer the organization in

the long run.

V. CHOSEN ACTION - cristle

In this study, company promotes based only on seniority, not talent and efforts,

eventually they will likely lose excellent employees as a result, skilled and talented

employees will have no motivating factor for improving their performance. Promotion

eligibility for better jobs depends just upon their length of service. This leads to greater
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 labor turnover. As a result, overall production resources in a corporation will be very

much affected. Although seniority provides a way to reward long-serving employees, it is

necessary on the part of every organization to have a well formulated promotion policy so

that it can be executed properly whenever any vacancy arises. That's because it rewards

employees based on longevity, and not according to merit. Under the seniority system,

the length of time that someone has served in an organization confers a higher rank,

salary or status, regardless of merit. Seniority system can be a hindrance to those junior

employees who want to advance his career as quickly as possible and it will fuel his

resentment and conflict.

It is recommended to execute the ACA 1 because it will encourage all employees

regardless of length of service in maintaining a high level of productivity because the

efficiency is recognized and rewarded and it will lead to the better utilization of skills of

the employees, and also to the fuller utilization of the human resources in the

organization.

VI. PLAN OF ACTION

AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES TIMELINE POINT

PERSON
Setting performance expectations for the Implementing Performance Monthly - week 1 HR
employee. Management that evaluate and review
each employee’s performance as basis
of promotion.
Monitoring the continuous measuring of Monthly coaching and performance Monthly – week 3 HR Manager and
performance and providing feedback on review can correct in case of suboptimal Heads
progress towards the goals. performance, rather than finding this out
at the end of the year when it is too late.
Training and Development Create training and development Quarterly – 1st month of the Heads and HR
activities to improve employee’s quarter
performance through challenging
assignments and other opportunities for
personal and professional growth.
Rating & rewarding: Rating performance is an inevitability to Quarterly – week 1 of last HR to Oversee and
determine the added value of employees month of the quarter and All leaders to
to the organization. This is usually done Annual – year end implement
during the employee’s quarterly or

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annual performance appraisal
performance.