Organisations around the world invest a whole lot of resources, money and time in Talent Management to retain High Potentials (HIPOTs). These are generally highly capable, intelligent, and quick learning resources that we're speaking of. Would a hike in salary package, grade, or designation keep them motivated for very long?
Imagine a goldfish in a tank with lots of fighter fish. A formula1 car on any heavy traffic road. Shoe polish at the side of fruit racks in a retail outlet. How repulsive are these images? This is simply how hipots will feel they were to work in an environment that does not suit their culture, aspirations, and capabilities. They may feel suffocated and what follows next is the hipot going in search of fresh air.
CAPABILITY MISMATCH:
Take into consideration a situation where your hipot has to report to a supervisor who's low on general intelligence. The manager would most probably take more time concluding a brainstorming session. The hipot may see this additional time as waste and incapability of their manager. The hipot might not find enough motivation to sit through the future meetings with the manager or not really look forward to learning from the manager.
CULTURE MISMATCH:
Everyone knows that adults usually wouldn't want to be told. A hipot would hate being directed constantly, and they love to be challenged cognitively. They would prefer guidance only after trying out things on their own. An environment where the organisation or perhaps the managers are less tolerant towards learning through experiments and failures do not support nurturing a talent pool. ‘Telling approach' is considered one indicator of an organisation that lacks a high-performance culture.
ASPIRATION MISMATCH:
Tenure-based promotion is a popular enough reason to repel the talent pool farther from organisation. What is needed in such an environment is to manage somehow and stay put for the promotions to happen. A hipot can find employed in such an environment insulting. Hipots anticipate to grow based on performance, effort and demonstrated capability.
Organisations can't expect hipots to wait patiently for their turn of promotion. The irony is that the organisations don't try to find their patience while recruiting them. The talent management strategy must be in line with the intent to nurture and retain the talent pool.
“At companies with very effective talent management, respondents are six times more likely than those with very ineffective talent management to report higher 'Total Returns to Shareholders' than competitors.”
“Only 5 per cent of respondents say their organizations' talent management has been very effective at improving company performance”.
Source - https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/winning-with-your-talent-management-strategy
ATTRACTING VS BUYING TALENT:
Does your organisation attracts talent or get it from the market? These are two different things. But if your organisation is attracting talent, you will always have a talent surplus situation, no matter what the market condition is. In case you are buying talent from the market, you may consider the following thoughts:
• Increased wages are not going to keep the hipot motivated lastingly
• A Deputy Assistant VP grade cannot mean much for a longer duration
• If there is a mismatch between expectations and reality, the hipot may regress in performance after joining your organisation
• Recruiting hipots may lead to interpersonal challenges and an increased employee churn
Some pointers which can help in making informed decisions about attracting, recruiting, and retaining the talent pool:
• Define the DNA of hipots for the organisation
• Define the strategy to recruit hipots. You might have to make certain that they work with managers who can provide the the right environment
• Conduct surveys to ascertain if your organisation's culture is conducive for nurturing the talent pool. If there are shortcomings, including organisational culture and practices, address them through a robust learning architecture
• Make leaders answerable for talent management and review them regularly
• Define a career path for all roles within the organisation. Employees should enter, get promoted, and exit the organisation at the right time
• Make people development a default competency for managers and leaders. Organisations should give talent management competency enough weightage for making their promotions decisions
• Provide equal opportunity for all employees to learn and grow
• Make the promotion criteria objective and transparent
• It is definitely ok not to recruit hipots for your organisation, but this decision must be based on talent pool bench-marking
