The Fight to Recruit & Retain Top Talent
The numbers of younger workers entering the workforce is not enough to fill the looming labour shortages, so employers are going to have to be strategic in identifying and capturing the attention of the best and brightest. How does an employer compete for the top talent?
Compensation, benefits and perks - I always find it funny to read these lists that put this lower than other things. People work to get paid and they will leave your organization if they aren’t getting adequate compensation and benefits for an organization that will provide them. They will feel taken advantage of and maybe even embarrassed to not get paid what they are worth.
Work-life balance – Today’s generation of workers are much different than older ones. They work to live and play. They want a better, healthier balance. More men want to spend time parenting their children and being part of their lives. Women are still primarily caring for children and their parents too. The demands are real and people want employers who offer flexible options to balance work and life. Some of these include part-time work, job sharing, telecommuting, work from home, and flexible work hours.
Workplace culture – Respect, dignity, recognition, acknowledgment, healthy work environments. Many of today’s younger employees have grown up having their opinions and ideas canvassed on everything. Everyone got a ribbon at sports day and a gold star for the most inane “achievements.” There were no “winners” and “losers.” Workers want to be employed in healthy organizations that provide them with respect, that treat them with dignity, that recognize and acknowledge their work and efforts. Those that do not create workplace cultures like this are not perceived as “employers of choice.” They are looked at as temporary stops on the path to the next better employer.
I want to also say a little something about those “Top 100 Employer” lists. When Gen X and Y go to work with these organizations that proudly proclaim their top of the employer heap and find quite the opposite, feelings of anger, betrayal and cynicism that set in. Not only does this impact organizations internally with respect to staff morale, it also leads these younger social media connectors calling B.S. and letting everyone they know that things are not so golden in these “Top” organizations. This inevitably leads to other workers passing on applying to work for you.
Once your organization loses its’ credibility and reputation good luck attracting and retaining the crucial demographics that will be necessary for succession planning because if there are two things young generations of people can’t stand it’s a phony and someone trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
Career and professional development - Since training budgets are often the first thing to be slashed under budget constraints, career and professional development opportunities often become inaccessible to employees and employers become more reluctant to approve work time to be spent in training. This means that beyond on-the-job learning, many employees will not receive opportunities to build and grow in their work, competency and develop their career potential. This is the death knell to a career in the 21st century.
This isn’t 1955 where most employees joined an employer and expected to work until retirement for that same employer. It’s been my observation that younger employees who are even quite satisfied in their current roles spend some time scrolling through the help wanted ads. The thought behind this is that there is always something better out there than where they are now.
Most of today’s employees are simply not built to stay in one job year after year. They will hold many, sometimes dozens, over the course of their lives. The other side of this, is that many workers have seen their parents, co-workers and peers pushed out the door in previous rounds of “downsizing,” layoffs, “outsourcing” overseas and cuts. One major implication of this is that there really is no such thing as company loyalty anymore. Everyone knows anyone can be grist for the mill and is dispensable when times get tough.
This is why it has never been more important for employers to identify and position their high potential employees well. Listen to them when they share their observations, thoughts and ideas. Provide ways for them to contribute to the organization. Provide them with opportunities to develop their skills, talents and abilities and careers. If you do none of these things, these top performers will leave and your organization will be worse off because of that.
When a series of employees leaves, ask why. Do exit surveys to find out why they are leaving. Their answers might bring a new understanding. High potential employees will not usually stay in organizations where they cannot develop their personal competencies, their careers and talents. They will also leave if the organization has an unhealthy and/or toxic work culture. They don’t have to stay, because other organizations will identify and recognize their potential and bring them on board and give them what they want. Smart, forward thinking employers know they will get an excellent return on the investment they make in top performers. Part of that investment is making them happy and treating them with respect.
Mediocre employees are a dime a dozen and fill many organizations. True high potential employees are rare and their talents and abilities should be nurtured because they are the future leaders of organizations that prioritize developing them. They will be the very future of the organization, because without vision, leadership and everything that high potential employees bring to the table, things will grind to a halt and the organization will become stale and lack innovation.
With the pending loss of current employees, the key organizational activity of identifying, developing and planning for the retention of high potential employees cannot be over-stated. Success in this area will be the difference between organizations that thrive and survive and those that accomplish neither of those goals.
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