101: Managing top talent
Gone are the days of employees setting a goal to stay at their company for 30 years or more. The workforce is more agile, and it's common for top talent to put in just a few years before moving on. With more Millennials in the field, the culture is changing; employees are looking at other opportunities all the time. Here are some good ways to get good people to stick around longer.
Tighten up your onboarding. According to Harry West in an article at Entrepreneur.com, 70 percent of workers say they are more likely to stay at a company if the initial application process went smoothly. Getting them up and running as soon as possible is key. “If typical worker tenures are getting shorter and shorter, it's not acceptable to require one to two years for people to get acclimated to their work environment anymore,” West writes.
Treat top talent as individuals. “Top-end talent doesn't want to be treated as a member of a class – even if it is an exalted class,” writes Roger L. Martin at Harvard Business Review. If a top performer comes to ask you for time off, for example – even if it is within company policy for their pay grade – let them know you are giving it to them because you respect them and their work ethic, and if they feel they need it, you support it. “Each member of the top-end talent class spends their life striving to be unique. It is discordant with them at a very deep level if you treat them any other way,” says Martin.
Let them risk failure. The temptation is to protect top employees. But the opposite should be standard practice. “To keep your business strong and keep your top talent on the top, let employees take risks,” writes Emily Weller at SmallBusiness.Chron.com, whether it's a promotion or more complex project.
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