Very wishy-washy when it comes to promotion - Associate R&D Engineer Smith+Nephew Employee Review

I've witnessed nearly 10 people from my department and other departments who have worked hard and fought fairly for their promotions. However, the company has either: 1. Promised to promote the employee but then made excuses related to HR, dragging out the process for as long as six months—the longest I've seen—causing many employees to assume the responsibilities of the promotion without receiving any additional compensation. 2. Hired someone externally, requiring the internal employee in the lower position to train the external hire, instead of simply promoting the internal employee first. Another red flag is that several directors have quit, yet upper management is replacing them with associate-level employees. This suggests that the responsibilities will likely be shifted to lower-level staff without a raise. With so many directors having left, I would expect that the company could allocate some of that budget toward raises for the remaining employees.