The Talent Series X: Personnel Best

Talent location, acquisition, and retention is a big problem for many companies across the board. It’s not just restricted to the Spend Management Talent Game. Given my inclination to blog about the talent deficit, and my recent proclamation that You Will Lose Your Top Talent, it’s no surprise that the recent Supply Management article Personnel best caught my eye.

In the article, the author discusses some steps that you can take to insure you retain the talent you are lucky enough to attract. The steps start on day one, upon the induction of a new recruit into your corporate culture. According to the article, you should:

  • ensure a new recruit clearly understands what you expect from them
  • listen to your new recruit’s expectations
  • establish the skill sets necessary for the role
  • based on a mutual ranking understanding of their competency in each skill set, develop a career development plan and help them identify the appropriate training, experience, and knowledge they will need

Furthermore, once the induction process is over, its critical that you continue to make sure that they feel valued and empowered and that you remain involved in their career development. The article recommends that you:

  • review their progress regularly, encourage them frequently, and ensure your rewards and remuneration package keeps pace with their increasing value to your organization
  • provide leadership
  • insure any managers or supervisors that report to you share the mutual goal of advancing the careers of your underlings
  • project a positive image of the company and their role in it
  • insure workloads are fair and that your team members can maintain an appropriate work/life balance
  • give something back to the community

This is sound advice, especially considering the statistics quoted by the article:

  • 43% of top employers reported a shortfall in the graduate market last year (Association of Graduate Recruiters)
  • 86% of young people want progressive management to inspire them (Institute of Leadership and Management)
  • 52% think their manager is not helping them to develop (ILM)
  • 40% do not get along well with their manager (ILM)
  • 27% would leave an organization as a result of poor management (ILM)

We may be in a Talent Crunch, but not everyone has to lose the Talent War.