Attracting and retaining top talent is a crucial endeavor for any organization that wishes to succeed.
Sadly, for most CEOs, the focus is on attracting talent rather than retaining it. Consider, for example, the ubiquity of referral programs, whereas retention programs are almost non-existent.
Far too many companies think that salaries, bonuses, and benefit packages are enough to lock top-tier talent in, only becoming interested in their employees’ individual career trajectories after they have become flight risks.
Today’s business landscape is more competitive than ever, and CEOs need to understand the drivers of disengagement if they intend to keep their best players batting for their team.
Limited Autonomy and Decision-Making Power
Micromanagement and tight procedural controls are potent toxins when it comes to brilliance in organizational settings. Top-tier talent might endure settings where their autonomy is limited, but they will never come to enjoy it.
The smart choice for managing smart people is crafting standards-based environments that empower, instead of constrict. Rules, policies, and regulations should be deployed surgically only where they are necessary, noting that compliance is the number one predator for creativity.
Disconnect From The Big Picture
Employees who are disconnected from the shared vision and narrative of the firm are either automatons filling up their routine quota or ticking time bombs ready to leave or lash out in unpredictable ways. Connecting employees to the firm’s grand tapestry of purpose is particularly important when it comes to top talent, given their penchant for critical thinking and the ease with which they can switch employers.
CEOs and managers can tackle this issue by being transparent and consistent about the company’s mission, vision, and objectives. Even better, top talent at every tier, from custodial duties to the C-suite, should feel heard and understood by management when it comes to setting the common agenda for the future.
Inadequate Recognition and Feedback
Top-tier talent essentially comes in two variants: naturals and those who learned. While naturals are as rare as four-leaf clovers, brilliant employees who climbed their way up through hard work and dedication are renewable resources that CEOs and managers can generate themselves.
Recognizing achievements and performance through bonuses and annual performance reviews is a start, but nothing more. What top-tier talent craves is timely recognition and constructive feedback that addresses areas of growth that are important for the employee.
This is why open and constructive-feedback-oriented organizations tend to outdo others when it comes to employee satisfaction.
Lack Of Meaningful Challenges
The brightest among us thrive on intellectual stimulation. One surefire way of disengaging your top-tier talent is to assign them tasks that do nothing to utilize their unique domain-specific expertise, be it analytical problem-solving, interpersonal, or abstract reasoning skills.
What keeps brilliant employees sticking around is a constant sense of intellectual engagement that is dosed at manageable levels and at a pace that does not burn them out.
Thankfully, fulfilling this need for intellectual stimulation often needs little else than a ‘go figure this out’ from managers to meet.
Absence Of Growth Opportunities
Dovetailing on the need for intellectual stimulation is the deeply-seated desire to craft compelling narratives of professional growth. It’s a common misconception that the brightest employees must have an endless ladder of titles and promotions to keep them motivated.
In fact, many employees would be perfectly fine staying in their lane as long as they are allowed to grow in directions they themselves find personally fulfilling.
As a result, professional development programs should not be purely a matter of becoming better at what you do today.
Instead, they should aim to build broadly competent and genuinely satisfied employees who are encouraged to connect across distant nodes of expertise in search of their best professional self.
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