Have you ever found out why the talented employees leave your company and leave you puzzled???

 

WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN  TALENT RETENTION ? Have you ever found out why the talented employees you wanted to keep leave your company and leave you puzzled???  Especially today, we are climbing out of a long and prolonged  economic downturn. And any hope of   recovery would mean booming pay packages and accelerated attrition rates! Every CEO and HR chief  is worried… Yet the key to the problem definition is simple. Let me give you a few examples of some challenges working people all deal with. Imagine that you are facing these situations. How would you react? 1.    You’ve been working in as a Brand Marketing Manager and a Regional Sales Managers job opening is in Hyderabad. It would be a perfect career move for you but the company fills the job without even asking if you’re interested. The company does’t bother to ask because they feel a Sales Manager working out of Hyderabad has better knowledge of the local market. What would you do? 2.    Or imagine this. You’re in a meeting. It’s your opportunity to shine in front of upper management. You’ve got an important point to make and you start to talk. Someone cuts you off because he is senior in the organization hierarchy or belongs to the inner circle of the big boss. What would you do? 3.    Or let’s say you make that important point—and no one says a word about it. But five minutes later, a guy at the other end of the table says the same thing you did. This time it’s a brilliant idea, and he gets all the credit. What would you do? In the three cases cited above your would agree that PEOPLE OFTEN QUIT A CORPORATE CULTURE THAN QUIT THE JOB ( because the next employment has the same job!) The people today have high pressures on the job. The give their heart out….. work late nights and weekends. On vacation people spend the entire day taking phone calls when they’re supposed relax. And people generate ideas and create the solutions that your organizations need but lie dead within the coffee chat corner. And, the people who may resign because no one has recognized their abilities they are waiting for growth opportunities or just feel put down by organization structures. It takes more than writing “equal opportunity” into your organization’s mission statement. Talented employees want exciting challenges and great development opportunities. Any  employee feedback survey which asks  people what they look for when deciding which company to join and stay with.  THE ANSWER was not the biggest pay packet but :  A GREAT COMPANY CULTURE AND A GREATER JOB ENGAGEMENT. The goal of the talent management process is to increase overall workforce productivity To succeed, companies need to deploy a smart talent strategy. With three core processes: Understand what your people can do Deploy them better today 3.    Ensure they can do more tomorrow What are the characteristics of a good talent management system? First, there is ownership and involvement across the whole company, not just with the human resource management department. Second, business objectives permeate every aspect of the system from employer branding to appraisal through development. Third, the system is measured in real business terms and results are acted upon. Talent management systems do not leave key factors to chance. The organization carefully develops a distinct 'employer brand' to attract talent, thinks through how work is organized and its impact on issues such as employee satisfaction and retention. A talent management system is part of the fabric of the organization. It produces excellent results because it overcomes the major problem of traditional recruiting, which is in vertical silos. It instead integrates the previously independent functions of recruiting, retention, workforce planning, employment branding, metrics, orientation and redeployment into a seamless process. Whilst Talent Management would imply a long term strategic plan, nonetheless it is a agglomeration of  BEST PRACTICES on a 365 day basis. Here are a few practical guideposts: Determine what motivates your individual employees. For most employees, money is not the key issue; relationships, fulfillment and recognition ,opportunities for learning are.   Notice how much recognition an employee needs. Some employees can go years without praise, whereas others will leave after six months. Have other managers praise an employee's work. This lets him know that you've spread the good word about him to other departments.   Understand that many employees are motivated by their social network at work. Encourage activities that make your employees feel like valued members of a team.   Realize that incentives don't have to be huge. A surprise gift certificate for the local ice cream parlor in the weekly meeting recognition scheme, will generate positive and lasting feelings.   Be sensitive to the balance between work and private life. Employees can work 70-hour weeks for only so long.Consider telecommuting, job sharing and other flexible working arrangements… today in Mumbai 70% of the fatigue is travelling to and from home to place-of-work. "Alignment" is another key element of a successful Talent Strategy.  When selecting or developing people, most organisations focus on the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours required for the role.  However, some organisations are beginning to look at the behaviours required to operate effectively in a particular team or culture. A good talent management system, facilitates the continuous movement of talent to where it can have the most impact within the organization. Talent Management has a meticulous and fast moving induction & orientation process. It ensures that new hires are immediately productive… otherwise as one MNC noticed most people leave on the 35th day of joining ( after collecting their first salary) and sending their resignation by SMS Shifting responsibility to managers. Talent management pushes the accountability and the responsibility for executing people management down to the line management levels.   Measuring success with productivity. Talent management shifts the success measures from the more traditional HR and recruiting functional metrics towards measuring the overall productivity of the workforce.   Create clear career paths at the company… people want quick growth and the one who recognizes his path is chocked by a “squatter” ( someone who won’t leave or can’t move up) will leave early and the crisis is more severe when it is a key position with rare skills sets.   Use special tasks & projects to develop people to their fullest potential. In order to develop your people, provide training opportunities, challenging projects and assignments, feedback, coaching and mentoring.   Aim at creating personal growth & development through mentoring. Time after time, successful people have recorded that one of the most important keys to their success is having a mentor. In one client assignment where  our consulting firm  Synergy Management Associates (www.synergymanager.net)  used a mentoring intervention , half of the participants  said the mentoring experience “CHANGED MY LIFE.” In the new knowledge economy, companies that know how to develop and manage human capital will hold a competitive advantage. The late Jack Welch legendary CEO at General Electric USA, notes ,”… in the best companies, talent is viewed as a key strategic resource for achieving business objectives and is never taken for granted."      With  best  compliments   Dr Wilfred  Monteiro