Are You Retaining Your Top Talent? 4 Strategies for Success.

Reach past the resume.

I was facilitating a cross-industry brainstorm on performance management when the conversation took an abrupt turn. "How many of you have heard your people are actively looking for another job?"   

In today's quickly evolving market, attracting and retaining talent is at the top of every company's list, especially when competition is accelerated by a 4% unemployment rate.  When it comes to workforce statistics, Gallup is a great conversation starter. According to Gallup statistics, the reality is that more than half of workers are actively looking for new jobs or watching job opening. Shocking, but understandable. There was one statistic, however, that stopped our conversation:

An overwhelming majority of employees (91%) say that the last time they switched jobs, they left their employer to do so. 

We looked at each other, silently weighing the implications. The loss of legacy knowledge, the inhibition of innovation, the drop in engagement; all factors that lead to high potential employees reaching their highest potential somewhere else. Once we had worked through our initial reactions, we shared strategies and stories on how to better steward human investments. We found four common themes:

1) Identify an individual's transferable skill set -- Often, a resume is a means of screening people out. Success begins with a mindset of screening people IN. One story involved an attorney who had extensive experience in contracts, vendor management and negotiation. Those skills translated perfectly into a role within the sourcing department where his negotiation skills saved the organization millions over the year. The departments were completely different functional groups; the skills crossed over perfectly. It was a perfect example of not falling into the trap of "doing what we've always done," or in this case, "hiring who we've always hired" (i.e. sourcing to sourcing, legal to legal, etc.). After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results.

2) Tap someone on the shoulder -- Good leaders are aware of the strengths of their team, they share their insights, and continue to look outside their circle for potential right fits. The next logical step is to actively reach out. "I wasn't even looking to change positions," says Peter. In his history, he had been a high performing financial analyst. During a chance encounter with the Learning and Development Director, Peter mentioned his hobby of writing technical manuals for gamers (design was his first role out of college). "Well, why aren't you on my team?" the director asked. Peter said he had never considered it until he was approached. Now, Peter leads the instructional design department. Under his leadership, the company has seen a jump in learning engagement based on his new designs, along with a surge in creativity fostered by his fresh outlook on established processes. 

3) Don't be afraid of taking a risk -- For every success, there is also a cautionary tale. In more than one instance, an individual on a team had been looking for growth within their company, but outside of their functional group. In more than one instance, they were met with opposition. Now by opposition, I don't mean active blocking; it's more along the lines of stalling, fear of the unknown, and staying in a comfort zone. One leader said she was hesitant to bring someone across teams, only to lose that person to a competing company. Lessons learned aren't always easy, but worth remembering the next time the situation presents itself.

4) Watch your high potentials -- Individuals at the top of their game are there for a reason. They are not only skilled at what they do, they actively look for further development. Development can be vertical, where the individual's trajectory is upwards within the group, or horizontal, outside of the group. The constant here is the hunger for challenge, for growth, and a desire to impact in a new and different way. I'm mentoring a young woman who is already considered a star in her own field. When she is asked why she would consider leaving her position, her response is,

"Simply because I'm good at something doesn't mean it's the only thing I want to do. After all, how would you feel about eating mashed potatoes for the rest of your life?"  

As leaders, we are armed with great knowledge and tools to help develop our people. Growth is not an individual goal, it is the goal of every company to ensure they are stewarding the talent they have. There is the parable of the coins, where a king gave a coin to each individual in his charge and said, "See what you can earn with this while I am gone." When the king returned, he asked each person what they each had done with their coin. The ones who had invested and expanded the fortune were given even more to invest.

Like the parable of the coins, we can hide talent, but there will be no change. When we truly invest in talent and diversify our talent portfolio, we earn a far greater return for the good of the individual--and the organization as a whole. 

*Originally posted on LinkedIn here.