Basic Policy when Positioning an Employee

I wrote the following when I was asked by the CEO to give my suggestion on Technical Team Restructuring. At the end, I think no one give a damn. I remove the proposed organisation chart and responsibilities, which is pretty boring, but focus on the juicy part.

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Below are some basic principals applied when positioning an employee:

1. There must not be a “Years of Experience” attached to a certain position. It is not necessary a 10 years programmer is better than a 5 years programmer. Though experience is important, but it does not translate to capability and productivity. It is a sad scene to turn a way a young and capable person as Project Manager just because he is not old enough. Experience does matter, but it is very subjective as well and the number of years does not reflect the real value of experience itself.
2. Career advancement does not necessary proceed in sequence. It is not necessary for a Developer to become a Lead Developer first before being promoted as a Project Manager. If his peers and supervisor acknowledge an employee’s capability and contribution, why give excuse for not promoting him to his much-deserved position.
3. Salary gap will not be barrier in career advancement. Even though a Developer’s salary is just a mere RM 2000 per month, salary gap shall not be used as an excuse to postponed his promotion to a Project Manager position with a salary of RM 5000 or more. If an employee is reviewed as capable and ready for the position, there shouldn’t be anything to stop him from taking up the new challenge.
4. Certification should be treated as complementary, not mandatory. The best programmer in the world might not hold any certification, or he could get all the certification in the world if he is willing to spend the money taking the exams. There is no guarantee that a MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer) is better than someone who learns programming by his own. But MCSD does promise a minimal standard in the holder’s skill.
5. Besides supervisor appraisal, peer appraisal is equally informative. Those who work together have a better understanding of its team member’s pros and cons, which might be missed by the immediate supervisor. If most of the colleagues agree Person A is a capable person with high programming skill, probably the supervisor should have a second thought. It is reasonable to promote someone who are recognised and appointed by his peers.
6. No new employment for technical position shall be done without a technical test. Everyone can claims that they know Oracle or work on Oracle for 7 years, but we need a test to really evaluate their actual knowledge and skill. If a test is not possible, they would need to demonstrate in technical detail of their past projects in the present of a technically qualified staff with the required domain knowledge. No technical person should be employed just by holding on his words.
7. We don’t recommend creating more position than necessary, if the position does not serve a distinctive purpose. For example, the current responsibility of Developer and Application Specialist seems similar and does not have a distinctive difference. For the purpose to satisfy the needs for career advancement space and differentiation of contribution and experience, each position could be attached with a Senior prefix.
8. Transparency for the result of evaluation and appraisal. Every employee should be informed of their appraisal score (on the scale of 1-10) and analysis of their strong points and weaknesses. This is to ensure the management is professional and fair in the judgement process, as well to let the employee to understand their weaknesses and improve on it.
9. For employee who scored low (less than 3 points perhaps) in the appraisal process, we would need to issue them warning letters and help them to improve themselves, or they would be asked to leave. The appraisal score shall directly affect the reward and bonus. Employee who scored very low might not be eligible for bonus.