Nicholas Harrison explains how firms can protect themselves from talent loss and poaching
Talent is critical to long-term sustainable performance – it is nothing short of your ensuring that your organisation remains successful 18 months from now.
In addition to the effort, time and money spent attracting the best people, you will no doubt have invested in training and retaining your future investment. However, unlike tangible and fixed assets, people continue to simply walk out of the door – no matter how much investment has been made.
But the reasons organisations lose their talent are not mystical. There are simple ways in which you can reduce the risk of talent loss by up to 87%.
The assumption that valued employees will stay because you have told them you want to keep them, or have invested time in them is, sadly, false. They know they have market value just as you do – they are talent and hence not naive. The investment you have made is an indicator of good intent from you – it’s not a dealmaker.
It is action they want and by that they mean positive action.
Another retention complication is that once an individual has decided to leave, the evidence is that throwing money at them probably won’t make a difference. Given the loss of expertise and considerable cost to find a replacement, alternative investments need to be integrated within your professional development long before any thought of leaving occurs.
Reasons for leaving
So, why does high-performing talent even consider leaving? First of all, remember that by telling them they are talent they already have an expectation of what your organisation will do for them. After this, these are the classic reasons which build into a driver for departure:
– They have not been enabled to understand their own mindset and align that to the organisation’s vision, values and objectives
– They have not been enabled to understand their own areas of optimal performance and align that to their work. They lack congruence
– They have no clear direction for their career or development so cannot see their potential being realised in the wider organisation
– They may have been run through standard psychometric tests but no one has taken the time to understand them as an individual rather than as a member of a generic test group, and they know the difference
– They have a boss who has neither the skills, motivation, nor time to develop them on the job to realise their potential and they know this
Mitigating risks
The first four of these risks can be mitigated by the leading edge and innovative Transperformance process which helps individuals understand three key and interdependent milestones: Self-awareness, self-presentation and self-direction.
This enables them to understand where they perform best, how to align this to organisational needs and create a plan for further aligned development. This not only has the effect of improving individual performance, aligning their efforts more effectively onto strategic objectives and building a motivating plan, but it also minimises the risk of them wanting to leave. The last risk can be simply resolved with developing the capability of line mangers.
By using Transperformance you have the potential to get 30% more effort from your talent, improve the effort of their colleagues, help develop their bosses and reduce the risk of losing them by 87%.
Transperformance is the best way to protect your talent investment and your organisations future.