Answered by Monica, Hiring Expert at Emerson, on Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Hi, and thank you for reaching out regarding your concerns. I’m glad to hear you’re having a conversation with your manager about your career goals, this is critical, since your manager plays an important role as partner and mentor to facilitate the career path to your success. Your relationship with your manager therefore should be built with trust and communication. And with both in place you should be able to ask your manager the questions you are asking here, specifically and directly: For example - How often does our company promote employees? What is the process for internal promotions? And, why have I not seen any increases in the past two years?
An actively engaged manager and mentor should be able to give you direct and action-driven answers, not vague ones, on how exactly both of you could partner up and work with the organizational processes and career opportunities available to help you achieve your goals. For example: when there is a lack of promotion opportunity available, the manager may stir you towards advancing your technical skills (e.g. MS Access) to best match the requirements of a future job opportunity at the level you’d like to grow within the organization. This means that while you’re being patient and waiting for an opportunity to come about, both of you are actively working on a plan to help you attain the necessary skills to prepare you for the requirements of that job you want.
It seems that you’ve already done your homework and researched what your position pays in the local market, and you’ve found there are opportunities for you to promote to the next level of your career by seeking for such opportunity elsewhere. Depending on the level of trust you have with your manager, you could also share such information and ask questions on how exactly your current organization would be able to provide you with such opportunities in the near future.
Certainly, you should request clear information on why you’re not receiving increases. And whether the reasons are directly related to your own work performance, performance of the team or department; or of the organization in general, be prepared to inquire on how you could be involved in helping yourself and/or others improve in any of those areas.
Once you have clear information that is directly related to your position and goals within the organization and an understanding on the possibilities for advancement within it, I believe it will become easier to make a decision - to stay or go.
I do wish you the best.
Monica