by Every Ad Agency (@EveryAdAgency) When it comes to evaluating and deciding whether creative employees are ready to make the jump up to the next level, there is always some difficulty involved. You look at productivity, enthusiasm, performance under pressure, and all sorts of measurables set out at the start of their employment.
But, at Every Ad Agency, we throw these traditional measurements out the window and really look at a few key indicators that show if someone deserves a promotion.
1. Commitment
Commitment comes first. How many times has the employee gone home? More than twice this week? No promotion.
Commitment is shown by tired faces, and puffy eyes that indicate the person in question has indeed only had a few winks on the boardroom table. A fresh change of clothes is normally a dead giveaway in showing no commitment.
Have you ever seen this person leave the office at 5pm? If the answer is yes, then the answer is no.
2. Timesheets
Another key indicator is timesheets. When somebody has filled out a full 45-hour week, warning lights should start flashing.
Promotion only becomes a possibility once six 11-hour days have been completed for five weeks in a row. Not only does this show great productivity, but immense profit for an agency’s bottom line.
3. Duration in position
Has the person in question spent enough time in their current position to validate a promotion? This is a very vital question to ask and industry norms are something to stick to.
Juniors simply cannot progress to a middleweight position if they haven’t spent time earning it as a junior for at least a period of six years.
The same applies to positions such as creative director. A person under the age of 40 simply does not have the life wisdom to sufficiently give guidance on work.
4. Aspirational
When in doubt, wait it out. The fewer promotions you give, the more sought after they will become.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sticking somebody in a position for close to a decade with an annual increase of inflation minus three. It reinforces the ethos that only hard work gets rewarded and it staves off laziness in an agency environment.
Primed for promotion? Probably not.
We are Every Ad Agency (@EveryAdAgency). You’ve either worked for us, with us or against us. What’s more, we make every advertising and marketing cliché work. Headquartered in Johannesburg; branches everywhere.
All these satirical “Bad ADvice” columns, which are exclusive to MarkLives, are written by the Chief Operating Creative Director in Charge of Ideas (COCDCI).
— MarkLives’ round-up of top ad and media industry news and opinion in your mailbox every Monday and Thursday. Sign up here!