Have you been stuck in the same position for some time? Most employees find themselves in this situation. Since the structure of any organisation is a pyramid, it follows that the higher you go, the fewer the positions available. Therefore some employees remain where they are.

But what if you believe you are more than an average employee? What can you do to get yourself promoted fast?

The first thing you have to do is to analyse your situation and why you do not get promoted. Quite a number of employees get stuck not because they are not qualified for a promotion, but simply because there is no room for them to move up. If your boss has already reached the highest level, then you can’t move up while he’s still there. If he is retirable or “piratable,” you might like to wait until he retires or gets pirated elsewhere. But if you are impatient and cannot wait, it may be worth examining other options outside the company, a route many have taken.

On the other hand, if there is still room at the top, yet others are getting promoted ahead of you, what can you do? Here are a few tips that may help.

Know the needs of your unit. You may be the most capable person in your line of work, but if your competencies do not fit the needs of your unit and the organisation, then you can’t expect to get ahead. As such, it is important for you to study your unit and determine its needs. Know the weak areas of your unit as these present opportunities for you to fill the gap. If you can find high-impact areas that you can fill, so much the better.

Learn the competencies required to fill the need. Once you have identified the needs of your unit, prepare yourself to handle them. Sometimes, this entails only a little training and orientation. If the need is more complicated, then you may have to undergo extensive training and experience.

Take the initiative to fill the need. Once you believe you are capable of addressing the need, volunteer to do it. If your superior doubts your capability, convince him that he has nothing to lose and all to gain by giving you the assignment.

Get yourself noticed. In whatever you do, pour your best effort. Do not be contented with ordinary accomplishments. Give the task everything you’ve got. To make sure that your boss notices what you are doing, give him periodic reports and updates. If you can show him savings in cost, effort and time as a result of your actions, so much the better.

Now, let’s see some concrete examples of how these ideas were put to work.

Early in my career, I was hired as a management trainee by a multinational consumer company. My main responsibility was policy formulation, communications, and employee relations. In addition, I was also expected to help out in the other functional areas.

I joined up in May of that year and sometime in September, we began preparing the salary increase budget for the following year. This involved studying the salary structure, preparing a tentative salary increase matrix, then projecting the possible performance ratings of the employees. Based on these assumptions, we would calculate the individual salary increases. Finally, we would have to total these increases on a departmental and divisional basis to come out with the total budget.

Since HR was not yet computerised during those times, four of us worked on this assignment and we had to do a lot of number crunching-often late into the night and sometimes even on weekends. And if the results did not please the company, we had to manually recalculate everything all over again. Here was where I saw an opportunity.

I told my boss that we could save a lot of time and effort if we computerised the salary administration function. My boss had some reservations about this, having no experience with computers, which were then only in use at the Accounting Department. I told my boss that I would work on my own to do the program and once I was finished, we would take it from there. He willingly agreed to this arrangement. After all, he had nothing to lose.

And that was precisely what I did. I took some special courses in computers and studied the salary administration system. Then, after regular office hours, I would go to the Accounting Department and use their computers to prepare the program. After six months, I presented the program to my boss, showing him how, with just a few keystrokes, we could change assumptions and the computer would automatically recalculate everything. Because of the program, one man could do what it would take four men to complete.

The boss was so impressed that he bought me a computer-the first in HR. Come budgeting time, we were able to calculate the salary budget so fast that other departments took notice. But we did not stop there; we proceeded to computerise the other areas in HR.

What did this get me? Barely 18 months after being hired, I was promoted to the position of compensation and systems manager. And because my boss got promoted to concurrent head of HR for the Asia-Pacific region, I also got assigned as the compensation officer for the whole region. I got to travel to the subsidiaries in other countries to implement the systems we created.

Of course, the kind of opportunity that I found does not come to all us. However, even small things can offer big opportunities if these have a high impact on the organisation.

I once joined a company whose HR systems were being neglected. Almost everything was done manually. Payroll was often delayed and inaccurate. While timekeeping was being done by HR, the actual payroll function was with Accounting.

I had two timekeepers, one of whom had been in the position for over 10 years. Noticing his good potentials and wanting to give him a break, I asked him why he had not been promoted to handle bigger responsibilities. He told me that no opportunities presented themselves to him and no one else wanted to handle his tasks, so he was stuck with the job. I told him that I planned to computerise the timekeeping and payroll systems and if he wanted to, he could grab the opportunity to be promoted. He agreed to do so.

So at nighttime, I had him study some computer and basic accounting courses (if we were to handle payroll, he had to learn how to make ledger entries). I also got casual help for timekeeping so that I could send the timekeeper to other companies to observe and learn their timekeeping and payroll systems. After a few months, we sat down and reviewed what he had learned. I was amazed at the knowledge he had gathered and his genuine excitement.

We then prepared a detailed proposal to computerise the timekeeping system, outlining all the savings that we could generate and the mistakes we could minimise, if not totally eliminate. Top management agreed to implement the project with the timekeeper as a project leader.

In a matter of months, we were able to computerise the whole system, from timekeeping all the way to payroll calculations. And it only took two people to do everything. The payroll function was taken out of Accounting and became part of HR. Everyone appreciated the improvements we made. So when I recommended the timekeeper for promotion to paymaster, there were no obstacles. Everyone knew he deserved it.

What was nice about this guy was that he did not become complacent. Having tasted success, he was eager for more. He trained the other timekeeper to handle the whole payroll function and set his eyes on computerising the other HR systems. Having gone through the same route, I gave him my full support.

When I left the company after two-and-a-half years, that lowly timekeeper was already the personnel administration manager. He accomplished in two years what he had not in 10.