🔍 Due Diligence for Systems vs. People
Organizations routinely invest time and resources into vetting changes to systems, operations, technology, and financials. Yet when it comes to hiring, promoting, or transitioning employees, decisions are often made based on gut instinct, biased assumptions, or incomplete data—leading to costly missteps.
“Hiring the right person for the wrong job equals poor job fit. And no amount of training and development will make them a superstar.” — Jeannette Seibly
💥 The Cost of a Misguided Promotion
A bank promoted a young man deemed a “future leader” by upper management. What did they fail to uncover? He lacked respect from both clients and colleagues. Within six weeks, he was fired. The fallout included lost trust, team disruption, and reputational damage.
This could have been avoided by using a strategic job fit selection system and a validated assessment to objectively measure leadership potential, decision-making style, and interpersonal effectiveness.
🧠 Hire with Eyes Wide Open
Promotion and transition errors are a hidden, costly drain on performance, trust, and compliance. The uncomfortable truth? Leaders often stumble for preventable reasons:
- Gut over data. Nearly 62% of hiring decisions are influenced by managerial bias rather than objective performance indicators (Harvard Business Review, 2023).
- Resumes are increasingly unreliable. With 45% of job seekers using AI tools (ResumeBuilder, 2024), the résumé is often a polished illusion.
- Performance appraisals are broken. 66% of employees say reviews are unfair, and 95% of managers are dissatisfied with the process (Gallup, 2022). People are promoted due to politics, not performance.
- Boomerang hires rely on memory, not metrics. Approximately 35% of new hires are returning employees, yet few organizations analyze the reasons for employee exits or their readiness for current roles (Workforce Institute, 2023).
- Assessments must meet federal standards. The EEOC and DOL require pre-employment tests to be validated, job-related, and non-discriminatory. Many are not.
💸 Fact: 82% of companies promote the wrong person into management, leading to productivity loss, morale damage, and client attrition—costs that ripple far beyond salary figures (Dove Development).
📈 Promotion: Beyond Performance
Promoting someone based solely on past performance—like a top salesperson to a manager role—often backfires. Leadership demands empathy, communication, and delegation, not just technical skill.
Without proper evaluation and coaching, these transitions frequently lead to disengagement, increased turnover, and missed revenue targets. Objective tools give leaders clarity about who’s truly ready to step up.
🔄 Job Transitioning: A Strategic Imperative
When employees relocate, shift roles, or take on new responsibilities, success hinges on job fit. Often overlooked:
- Career pathing offers a structured roadmap aligned with organizational needs and personal aspirations
- Personalized development (mentoring, coaching, tailored skills-building) helps talent thrive
- Onboarding plans bridge early gaps and reinforce role clarity and cultural alignment
Together, these elements form the backbone of a strategic job fit selection system that improves role transitions and strengthens succession planning.
💸 Fact: Poor promotions and misaligned job transitions can cost organizations up to 10x the employee’s annual salary, especially in leadership roles—making clarity and fit essential to long-term success (Lucent Global, HRMorning).
🚀 Call to Action: Elevate Your Leadership with Strategic People Decisions
The alternative isn’t guesswork—it’s strategy. Smart leaders don’t gamble—they build infrastructure that earns trust and delivers results. They implement a strategic job fit selection system that ensures every promotion and talent transition is intentional, data-informed, and compliant.
That includes:
✅ Validated job fit assessments to predict performance, leadership readiness, and interpersonal strengths
✅ Structured, compliant hiring and promotion processes—standardized interviews and role-specific decision criteria
✅ Manager training to reduce bias and support confident decision-making
✅ Intentional promotion and job transition planning to build trust, reduce turnover, and align talent with long-term success
Your systems are only as strong as the people running them. Let’s make sure you’ve got the right ones in the right roles.
© Jeannette Seibly 2025 All Rights Reserved
🔗 Ready to initiate your next chapter—or refine your role as a powerful contributor? Jeannette specializes in coaching leaders who are ready to build legacies, embrace reinvention, and lead with clarity.
Jeannette Seibly, an award-winning Talent Advisor, Leadership Results Coach, and Business Author, has guided thousands of executives and business leaders to achieve remarkable success over the past 32 years. Her specialty is delivering innovative solutions for hiring, coaching, and leadership challenges—with excellence and accountability at the core.
🔗 Contact Jeannette for a confidential conversation about smart hiring, insightful promotions, and intentional transitions.