How to retain your Talented employees? |
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The
new age economy, with its attendant paradigm shifts in relation to the
human capital, in terms of its acquisition, utilization, development and
retention, has placed a heavy demand on today's HR professional. Today HR
is expected to comprehend, conceptualize, innovate, implement and sustain
relevant strategies and contribute effectively towards giving the company
its winning edge. With a dynamically changing and volatile demand-supply
equation, especially against erratic attrition trends and cutthroat
competition no longer restricted to local or regional boundaries, a need
for strategizing and putting in place a robust mechanism for attracting
and retaining top talent becomes vital for the company's very survival and
growth.
The new age workforce comprises mostly of knowledge
workers, who are techno-savvy, aware of market realities, are materially
focused and have higher propensity to switch jobs. They prefer to
experiment and explore new opportunities, are high risk takers with higher
aspirations and expectations and generally have a totally different
mind-set about job and careers. In an organization employees could be
broadly classified into four categories: strugglers and under performers.
This constitutes about 1/5th of total human capital at our
disposal and these people obviously qualify to be the first candidates for
the pink slip.
The other two segments comprise of the 'solid performers'
and the 'stars' who are at the higher end of the performance continuum.
The former may be relatively lower in their potential as compared with the
latter, but contribute immensely to the company's overall performance. We
could call this as the 'talent' segment. This is the segment we do not
want to lose. We've got to protect this group from the pull of all
non-retentive forces and that needs effective retention strategies that
have to be kicked into high gear.
Before we discuss the various retention
strategies/plans that could be used for retaining the talented employee,
lets' quickly look at the factors that have a bearing on talent
acquisition and retention.
Factors impacting Talent Acquisition and Retention
The company's brand image crowns the list of the
priorities for the job seeker, other important considerations being; the
pay package and other pecuniary benefits, the class and quality of people
that work in the company, the challenges of the job and attractive of the
position and designation, the opportunities for career growth and
professional development and the kind of technology, he would be exposed
to.
From the company's perspective, its brand equity,
philosophy, vision, mission, culture, values and ecology have a direct
bearing on talent attraction and retention. Other company-related
attributes that impact employee retention include high demand on
performance, need for competencies, broader, deeper and diverse job
expectations, need for re-skilling and re-deployment, career offerings and
growth prospects, goal and role clarity, policies and processes and
organizational communication.
Why to manage talent
Skills, knowledge and talents are distinct elements of a
person's performance. The distinction among the them is that skills and
knowledge can easily be taught, whereas talents cannot. Further, one must
never confuse talents with skills and knowledge.
Skills are the capabilities that can be transferred
from one person to another. For accountants arithmetic is a skill.
Knowledge is of two types: factual – things you know, and experimental
– understandings you have picked up along the way. Ask a great
accountant when he smiles and he will tell you 'when the books balance'.
A love of precision is not a skill, nor is it
knowledge. It is a talent. If one doesn't possess he
will never excel as an accountant. So if someone doesn't have this talent
as part of his filter, there is very little a manager can do to inject it.
The recipe of success for any knowledge economy
organization hinges on its ability to leverage human capital, so as to
deliver business results. Employee development and retention plays a
pivotal role in their growth. Hence, managing talent in the LPG era, where
cutting edge being provided by HR, has assumed added importance.
It is slowly drawing on the minds of HR professional
that it is easier to get good people but it is very difficult to retain
them. Then the next question arises as to what are the challenges
for HR in this regard.
What are the challenges that HR professionals or top
management face in managing talent. First quite often in their bid to
attract talent HR oversells the organization to the new recruit. It is
easy to recruit good talent but very difficult to retain them
especially if the foundation of the relationship has been based on
misrepresentation of the truth. The new recruitee feels cheated, and thus
sowing the seeds of self-centeredness.
The next challenge for both HR and the employee is to
ensure that there is clarity in the communication of roles and
responsibilities. However, quite often roles are defined but not the
performance parameters. Without proper techniques and clearly defined
parameters, measuring performance will remain subjective, often based on
likes and dislikes of the seniors measuring the performance.
Finally, having ill-structured compensation
packets. For instance, an organization matching the new recruits last
drawn salary in the previous organization which results in two colleagues
in the same grade, performing similar job drawing widly, disproportionate
salaries.
Not withstanding the above listed and other challenges
it's everybody's knowledge that in the knowledge economy an
organizations ability to attract and retain talent is sine-quo-non for
success. We are all aware that while it is easier to get good
people it is very difficult to retain them. So the retention strategies
have to be viewed holistically against the total systemic framework of
"talent" the "company" and the 'environment'.
Attrition and retention should be seen as reciprocal phenomena, which have
an inverse relationship with each other. Recruitment and needs for
downsizing must also be considered in conjunction. An understanding of the
inherent considerations of an individual who wishes to join a company and
continue to stay, and potential compulsions, which push him away, would
help.
Further, retention strategies should be designed such
that the retentive forces are maximized and the debilitating forces
minimized. Retention strategies should not be orchestrated in isolation
but must from part of the overall strategies for strengthening the pull on
the talent, which in fact include sourcing, staffing and development
strategies in addition.
A robust sourcing strategy is crucial to the exercise
since the type of people one selects should not only fit into the job in
terms of skill set but should match the company culture in terms of
attitude, personality and commitment. An effective selection process
ensures the entry of the right kind of people into the organization, with
the desired loyalty and sense of belonging that goes a long way in
restricting attrition in the long run.
What needs to be done
The first step for individual companies is to
develop detailed profiles of the kind of people they are after by
analyzing the job profiles, career paths, background and experience of
their current high performers. Once we know what we are looking for, there
are a number of routes we can take. Some get what they need largely
through acquisitions, which is fine if acquisitions are an intrinsic part
of corporate strategy. Some "outsource" by picking up people
they believe are better trained elsewhere. Those who can attract the best
college graduates and excel at early development, "insource",
instead.
Secondly, aggressive development strategies complement
the retention strategies in a big way. Providing opportunities to the
employee for both professional and career growth and giving the due
priority to this important activity makes the company's position in the
market for talent attractive and compelling. Well –articulated
strategies in the context of sourcing and development augument the
retention strategies in crafting a powerful employee value proposition
that remains central to the problem of attraction and retention of top
talent.
Thirdly, the ability to define, develop and deliver a
winning employee value proposition should be at the core of all retention
strategies particularly for large companies facing challenges from a
multitude of smaller companies as employers. The lure of the latter in
terms of excitement, flexibility, impact (a big fish in a small pond)
reward and even equity ownership has to be countered with a stronger
proposition bolstered by the former's magnitude of impact (big fish in a
big pool), depth (vast resources to take risks and to support big
decisions) and variety (large spectrum of expertise and experience to be
shared).
All retention strategies must be built around a
compelling, distinctive and exiting employee value propostion. Further,
these strategies must cover three distinct yet overlapping domains;
cultural, transformational and transactional. So, let us dwell upon the
cultural aspects as relevant to the issues under construction. In order to be able to orchestrate and implement effective retention
strategies, the first step should be to understand the scope of the
retention problem that is unique to one's organization. The target group,
which is crucial to the company's operations and success, should be
identified and the strategies are directed appropriately. It is a paradox
that the companies which invest heavily in recruitment and development and
make a good job at that, are prone to more risk of poaching. A sound
sensing and tracking system to assess the volume and causes of attrition
by performance level could be useful. The ability to identify good
performers, who are prone to leave for any job or management related
issues and timely intervention to address these issues could be effective.
Conclusion:
Creating and delivering a great employee value proposition
is clearly the best way to retain the people. This would encompass
building and sustaining a compelling brand image with an appealing culture
and inspiring values, tailored to the talent segment that one seeks to
attract and retain, offering great jobs and career opportunities, building
an effective learning framework, investing in work place infrastructure,
moving on poor performers, instituting effective reward and recognition
programs, putting in place innovative compensation schemes. But most
importantly, when the organization is successfully able to convey the
message that it cares for employees, retention works best. |