Retaining Talent

Leadership
Visionary companies were six times more likely to promote insiders to chief executive positions than the comparison companies
- from Built to Last by James Collins and Jerry Porras who studied 36 visionary companies in USA over a 100 year period

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Business Context

Competition Shorter business cycles vs. Longer ones Customer has choices Innovation Leadership building

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Business Context

Globalization Technology Leverage

Cross cultural and cross border

Scale and Size Speed and momentum Talent shortage

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Implications for Talent

Cost of attrition can be as high as 4% of sales and 15% of profit Cost of Attrition (12 to 18 months compensation for senior management and 3 to 6 months for others reported by Hay group Research) Abundance of opportunities (cross sect oral movements). 1/3rd of the employees want to leave in next 2 years. Compensation levels shooting up (cheaper to higher expat managers for some sectors and higher level jobs) Average Employee tenure expected to be around 2 to 4 years. Expectation Management

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Major causes for attrition

Employer brand and sense of competition Careers moving forward Opportunity to use skills and Abilities Incompetent managers

Lack of mentoring and handholding

Quality of top management Sense of direction of the organization Overwork and Burnout Compensation at Market is assumed

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Impact Of Supervisor

The immediate boss defines your work environment.

If the boss sets clear goals, knows you, trusts you and invests in you, you may forgive the company. If the boss is insecure, people insensitive, lacks competence & confidence would an employee stay?

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High Retention Supervisor

Honesty and Integrity Teamwork Ability to motivate and engage Clarity of thought and Action Feedback and listening skills Open and Available Likes to be surrounded by Talent Speaks candidly and directly
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The Thin Line

The line between firmness and harshness, between strong leadership and bullying and between discipline and vindictiveness is very fine but has to be drawn.
Dr. Abdul Kalam

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Managing Performance

Keep things simple. Do not get trapped in the complexity of the system. Frequent interactions, 30 minutes a month. Focused on the future. Encourage employee to keep track of his performance and learning. Career discussions and guidance at least once in a year.
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Need for Psychological lock-in

Money/Rewards <> Bonding and ownership Over promising <> Realistic expectation setting

Self Development<> Leading and handholding

Strategy/ finance focus <> people development focus

Physical Attrition <> Mental attrition

Treating Employees as employees <> treating employees as customers
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Home Grown Management

From now on, choosing my successor is the most important decision I will make. It occupies considerable amount of thought almost every day.
Jack Welch in 1991

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Retention strategies

Creating diversity at work place rather than clones and uniformity Exposure to competitive landscape and creating burning platforms Self and subordinate development goals to be made an key component of Appraisal process. Think tank programs for future talent pipeline Elevator pitches and competitions on business issues Conduct Stay Interviews to predict attrition rather than a post mortem
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Retention strategies

Rerecruit star employees back into company Job stretch for high achievers Make sure that critical business impact positions are staffed with high quality talent Compensation should be market linked and not internally focused. Dont misrepresent your company while hiring Pay to learn new skills not linked to the current job
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Talent

Take away our top 30 people and we are left with a mediocre company.
Bill Gates

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