My experience with 7 'C's of talent retention...

Retention of High Performing employees or HIPERs (high Performance and Engagement level) is crucial. Even more crucial is the retention of High Potential employees or HIPOs (High performance, engagement and aspiration levels). HIPERs are great at their work and are engaged with the business but they do not have a future growth potential. A typical example can be a Payroll manager who is great at his/her work. The guy is happy in the current role and is very much needed by the organization. However, future growth to the role of a business analyst or Management accounting professional is neither aimed by the employee nor he/she is suited for it. HIPOs are even more badly needed to fill up the future leadership pipeline in the organization as it gets set for growth. The only difference between the HIPERs and HIPOs is – Later have the aspiration to learn and grow to the next level. That makes a huge impact as HIPOs, as the research shows, add 50% more value than the regular employees. The bad news is, they are hardly 5% of the total employee base. Even worse is, 39% of employers are concerned that they’ll lose top talent in 2017 as per a survey done by CareerBuilder.

Any attrition of resources from either of these two groups hurts the organization and dampens its growth and success plans. I am sure, you can pen down a list of such employees in your team or organization within minutes. They are willing to take over additional responsibilities and never say no to extra work coming their way. They are great in their current role and are highly valued by the Company. So, the question is how to retain them? Based on my experience for close to two decades in corporate world, I have the following suggestions which I call the 7 ‘C’s of talent retention:

1.   COMMUNICATE: This is the most critical ‘C’ to retain employees. Keep them posted on organizational goals and current performance status. Meet them after an important staff meeting to brief them on what transpired there. Have informal as well as formal review forums. Give them a chance to communicate with you on regular basis. It keeps the energy flowing and team members connected to you as the manager and to the organization. Maintain an open and honest work environment. Chance meetings are good but a formal one -to-one meeting to listen to their concerns and do something about these without unnecessary delay is what makes a solid impact.

2.   CONNECT: Be interested in their well-being and know about their family, personality, hobbies, motivation and aspirations. It’s good to have a personal connect. Aftercall, we are dealing with human beings and not robots. Even a warm good morning (I mean a really warm one) said daily with a smile matters a lot. Write a thank you note. Gift a memento to appreciate their work. And if you are a Jack Welch fan, what about sending a hand-written note at the year-end describing their good work and setting the goal ahead?

3.   CHALLENGE: Give them challenging assignments based on their strengths. Let them work on challenging projects which are crucial for organizational success. They want to learn new subjects and want to grow by working on challenging projects. Challenge the, provoke them, train them and keep them on the edge. And yes, do celebrate the success as and when they come true to challenges. It’s very crucial to show them their career path on the way. Create challenging projects which are win-win in nature. Set before them Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) as propounded by Collins and Porras in their path defining book “Built to last-successful habits of visionary companies”. Good for the company and good for their learning and growth. Reward and recognize them suitably. You must make them feel respected, appreciated and worthwhile

4.   COLLABORATE: Do not ask them to do what you dictate/decide. Ask for their suggestions and ideas even if you think you know the solution. You never know, they may surprise you with their innovative and value adding suggestions. You also gain their ownership and commitment as they run for the projects on their own.

5.   CLARITY OF PURPOSE: This is probably the single most crucial task of you as the leader. Show them a bigger purpose behind their daily work. Do not let them ever get a feeling of working on a regular mundane task. Make the goals of the company clear and link their work with the bigger goals. Even a workman on the shop floor can be shown the linkage between preventing oil leakage and profitability of the Company. The same task carries more pride and value. On a working level, keep their JDs updated, role matrix well explained and progress reviewed regularly.

6.   COMPENSATE: True, compensation comes later in the hierarchy as a motivator but for God’s sake, do not undermine its significance in retaining talent. Pay differentially. HIPOs and HIPERs deserve to be paid differentially/higher as they anyway add significantly more value than other employees. It’s not a socialist work environment. Pay them at par with the best with the market and keep a tab on how their salary grows both in sync with the market as well as the internal parity.

7.   CREATE: Get them the satisfaction of creating new projects, changes and new systems which did not exist earlier. Inspire them to change processes and systems and see the gleam in their eyes when they see something new being created. They are not happy doing run of the mill work. Create, rather, co-create.

I am sure these 7 ‘C’s will get your team inspired to deliver their best and seek pride in working with you. Try these out, if not all, most of these. You will do a great service to your organization.