For better, not for worse

What is the average seniority in your company?

Do you know your retention rate?

How do your employees influence your employer brand as ambassadors?

Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at the first three stages of talent management - attraction, negotiation, and onboarding. This week we will cover the last aspect, retention.

And that is not the least. The success of the company depends on the people who are part of it, and who take the vision, carry it on their shoulders and make it a daily reality. And this, beyond the cost of recruiting and training new employees.

So here are some tips to end this series on talent management.

People at the heart of business strategy

Are your human resources part of your strategic planning? Not only as observers and support, but contributors and having their own projects in connection with the global strategy?

It is important to include elements such as workforce planning, the alignment of skills and personalities with the needs of the company, but also the attractiveness strategy, the employer brand, and the employee-experience.

Outside firms with expertise tailored to specific business needs can help achieve a neutral perspective by customizing tools and solutions that will maximize people's engagement with the employer.

Living The Values

Company managers define values which aim to create a feeling of belonging to their organization. These must be endorsed and experienced by management and managers who, in turn, ensure that they are conveyed to members of their teams.

The work environment is therefore essential and closely linked to these values. People spend a large part of their lives at work, and if they do not see themselves in the business, are not happy with it in the long run, they will quit. Not to mention the opinion they will share with those around them which could be detrimental to the recruitment and retention efforts put in place.

Leaders vs bosses

People often leave because of their boss. Is it always the fault of the latter? Of course not. Conversely, the reason that is most often shared with me by a potential candidate for not leaving their employer is ... because they have a good manager!

A few simple things in place can maximize the relationship between employees and their manager. Because yes, there is a difference between a boss and a leader.

First, respect the commitments made with the employees. Not just those agreed upon hiring, but throughout the employment relationship. Whether during individual meetings, performance evaluations, support engagements, etc. Not only will this maintain a bond of trust but will promote healthy and open communication between the manager and the members of his team.

What are the ambitions, personal and professional motivations, frustrations, and concerns of team members?

Active listening, a genuine willingness to help team members for their success, not for the manager's individual gain. Listening is not only to hear, but to be curious in order to better understand people and be focused on their desire for self-actualization, to be on the lookout for signs that they may let slip into a conversation, showing a genuine interest in them.

Unity is strength

The sum of talents and skills within a team raises the level of performance by several notches. A successful team creates a natural tendency for success.

The use of psychometric tests adapted to talent management, and not just to hiring, can help identify the complementarities between everyone on a team, leveling the points of vigilance of some with the strengths of others. Without forgetting the element of communication and strengthening of links between each member.

Activities to strengthen team spirit (team building) make it possible to forge links between team members and create an even greater sense of belonging.

Celebrate and highlight successes! Not just the achievement of goals at the end of the year, but on a regular basis, whether planned or spontaneous. Each small success highlighted sends a positive wave that makes you forget more difficult moments. Reaching an important milestone, winning a new customer, or completing a project, or simply to mark an anniversary. It is not so much the monetary value that is important here, a simple happy hour in person or virtual can be effective!

By creating this feeling of belonging, mutual assistance will subsequently be there, and everyone will feel committed as much to the success of the team as that of their colleagues - intra-team and between the various departments of the business.

One person at a time

Everyone being a full member, all have different ambitions to achieve personal fulfillment - an intrinsic human need.

Do they have skills they would like to develop to be more effective at their job, or to move into other positions, to grow in their careers?

This understanding will align these elements with an individual development plan, demonstrating the company's commitment to this towards employees.

More difficult times arise in people's personal lives. Without necessarily getting directly involved in this more delicate axis - and which people often prefer to keep to themselves - offering an independent psychological support program allows people to be supported confidentially.

We control what we measure ... even in retention!

Different reasons for leaving influence the retention rate. Some are beyond our control (for instance retirements) and others can be corrected or improved.

By retaining and monitoring the reasons for leaving and the circumstances, strategies can be established or modified, generating action plans specific to reality.

The employee's exit interview with a neutral person (ideally from the HR department) will collect information that, once collated, will allow trends to be identified and the approach to be adapted to the short, medium and long term. term.

Another interesting tool for identifying avenues for solutions upstream: confidential surveys on people's engagement. This practical tool not only allows you to have very useful information and to have an overall picture, it also allows you to target unknown elements before it is too late, and to follow up on them on a regular basis afterwards. each survey (annually for example).

In order to make this exercise viable and credible, it is important to follow up with action plans and communicate them to employees, allowing them to perceive the real desire of the company to evolve and that a sincere listening is demonstrated by the feedback they bring in the exercise.

Post-Mortem - for continuous monitoring

A regular and assiduous frequency of reviews and retrospectives must be put in place, just as with a business strategy.

Monthly, quarterly, biannual, and annual follow-ups, for example, allow for close follow-up and constant communication with the various stakeholders. Company leadership, managers and even employees, depending on the type of journal, will keep this communication open and demonstrating the real interest, again, of the company in its main asset: its people.

In summary

To make talent management effective, it must be an endless cycle that must not be broken, as in any other field of activity of a company.

We can conclude this series of articles on talent management with a few points:

• The future and success of a business depend on the people who are part of it
• It all starts with a people-oriented culture, starting from leadership and managers
• All members of the organization have an impact on the 4 steps and must be aware of the importance of their role - not only on the shoulders of human resources professionals

Recruitment goes beyond a process of recruiting people with knowledge and skills. It cannot be successful without being part of a strong, people-centered strategy and corporate culture.