On
March 23 2000, Saba and Fast Company sponsored the first in a series of three
forums focused on learning. The inaugural event, Talent and Learning,
produced some fresh opinions and perspectives. Most of the conversations
focused on getting, retaining, or returning talent. LiNE Zine thought
you’d enjoy hearing a little of what was said.
Learning
New Strategies in the Talent War
“The war for talent is
over. The talent won. Get over it,” declares John
Sullivan.
Sullivan,
Chief Talent Officer at Agilent Technologies, says it’s no wonder companies
are losing. Most completely miss a critical set of information—what really
motivates and drives top talent. What do people want in a job? Why do
they stay in a job? What does development really mean to them?
How
can companies learn about talent? Simple—they should be doing continual
and extensive market research, internally and externally—“to the point
that it’s painful,” says Sullivan. They have to talk, and listen, to people
inside the company, outside the company, on college campuses, on the street.
To everyone and anyone.
The
key, of course, is the next step—to take that information and use it.
Get rid of the old methods and mindsets around recruiting—traditional
recruiting tools are designed to attract unemployed people. Top talent
is not unemployed! Where is that top talent? They are not sending
resumes around. They are working at your competitors, already trained,
already top performers. Perfect sitting targets. Companies have to identify
the best talent constantly, and hire continuously.
“The
hard part,” says Sullivan, “is convincing talent, once identified, to
leave a pretty good job, or a great job, for another job. You have to
take somebody with a great job and make them a great offer—which becomes
a Dream Job.” You can create Dream Jobs by finding out what people really
want. And giving it to them. No questions, no delays. Dream Jobs are absolutely
essential to recruiting and retaining top talent.
It
all comes down to recognizing the value of a top performer versus an average
performer. The difference translates into real bottom-line profits for
the organization. It’s estimated that Michael Jordan made the NBA around
$10 billion. In comparison, his astronomical salary was mere chump change.
Boomerang
Employees—A Great Asset
You
invest a lot of time and energy in hiring and retaining talent. You create
great jobs, lots of flexibility, and a learning environment. Yet you’re
losing a valued employee. It’s an inevitable occurrence in today’s free
agent world.
Many
executives at the Forum said that it pays to be nice in this frustrating
situation. Leave the door open. Make the departure positive. The employee
just might come back some day!
Return,
or “Boomerang,” employees are some of your company’s best sources for
talent, and they come with an already flattened learning curve. Jeff Taylor,
founder and CEO of Monster.com,
gives his boomerang employees a very public forum—he puts them in front
of the company and lets them explain in their own words why they came
back. Inevitably, the “grass is browner” stories they share are invaluable.
Boomer
Exit
While
most of us are caught up in the New Economy swirl, we’re missing a phenomenon
that will soon reach dire proportions. Jeff Taylor thinks we’re reaching
a crisis point. Why? Because we’re not paying attention to who is retiring
from our companies.
By
2003, Taylor says, Baby Boomers will be retiring in larger numbers than
there are people to replace them, creating a generational labor shortage.
To add to the bad news, Boomers are not retiring from sexy jobs, either—they’re
leaving the “boring” jobs that no one today wants to do. This brings a
double dose of bad news for large corporations already decimated by the
mass dot.com exodus.
Taylor
thinks we’ll have to retool organizations to make “boring” jobs less so,
through methods like job sharing, cross training, and creating opportunities
for employees to move through the organization more freely.
—Beth
Scofield, reporting for LiNE Zine.
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