Pivotal Employees

We do a lot of thinking about the employees that we consider "Rising Stars" within the organization, and I've often wondered if we were missing something. I don't necessarily mean here at The Motley Fool, but at every organization I've ever been. The tendency seems to be to see people doing a great job and then reward them by giving them a promotion. The sad part of the story is that not everyone works out so well in the position that they were promoted to. They would have been better off if they were left to stay and excel in their old positions and most of the time, there's no way to go back.

In the current issue of Human Resources Executive, author Julie Cook Ramirez, talks about a group of employees that are "Pivotal" to the organization. Unlike the so called "Rising Stars" they don't want hefty promotions, they just want to be recognized for their contributions. Two of the organizations highlighted in the article are PricewaterhouseCoopers and Trinity Health who have both recognized this group of people as extremely valuable to the company. They are defined as people that are in positions where having a bad employee in the role could be devastating to the organization.

The article states that at Trinity Health, employees can give their promotions back if they find that they aren't suited for their new positions and, "opportunities to apply their skills in different settings." At PricewaterhouseCoopers, they created a role below the Partner level for individuals who were ready for promotions but, "did not have the inclination or the qualifications for partnership."

Has your organization recognized this group of employees? Are you doing anything special to retain and/or recognize them?