The Employee Path: Talent Attraction & Talent Management
The Ongoing Conversations
I’ve been having more and more conversations about employee growth and development. This extends beyond the tired and overused phrase Employee Engagement. I think it’s fascinating that so many write, and talk, and present of the importance of retention but little is really done to ensure that their company shines when it comes to these efforts.
Talent Attraction vs. Talent Management
Is there really a difference between talent attraction and talent management? Shouldn’t there be a concerted and continued effort to attract the talent you have already acquired? I am often dumbfounded by the crazy amount of effort that goes into talent attraction, recruitment marketing, employer branding, and hiring when compared to the lack of efforts put into retention, employee development, and succession planning. Is there no real understanding of what it takes to replace a good, loyal employee? It is so much more than the estimated costs around time to fill. It is so much more than the costs attributed to that position being empty. Has it been forgotten the insane previous effort put into that hire, the training said hire, the amount of time to build and sustain loyalty and developing a brand ambassador for your organization? The creation of the ultimate quality employee is not achieved when an offer letter is signed. That employee is often years and effort in the making.
Who are your Brand Ambassadors?
Every employee is a marketer for your organization. Every. Single. One. If you lose that marketer, what else do you lose? Besides the work duties performed by said loyal, quality employee? You lose a voice that promoted and represented your company well. You lose the time put into developing that loyal voice. Yes, it is far more than a loss of the function of duties for any one position or job, department or region. And what is the cost to the employees who stay, who feel the loss of that brand ambassador and quality employee, perhaps even a superior?
And what kind of marketing or branding is being done by employees who are not happy, not engaged, whose experience has been poor or worse – miserable. You know…, the ones who stay.
What are you doing to keep your Quality Employees?
Human Resources is inundated with work, whether it’s the constant request and cry for supervisors to conduct and complete performance reviews or responding to individual questions that come from inquiring employees regarding payroll, benefits, bonuses, promotions, transfer requests, complaints or claims, time off or illness… The HR cases are many. How do you keep up and then ALSO, on top of everything else, help employees feel valued on a consistent basis?
The charge for HR is a real battle cry. We get it. Many of us at Dovetail have worked HR, have been practitioners, recruiters, hiring and retention managers. The pain – your pain – is real.
What is the solution?
The discussions around Millennials and the realities of the Next Gen Workforce are as old and tiring as the ones around Employee Engagement. Start talking to your employees who do well as much as you do to the ones who are struggling or who have tendered resignations. What drives your workforce? What makes them do well, what makes them loyal, what makes them stay, what makes them leave…
Then listen to the answers received and develop an Employee Path – a roadway to stay on so that your organization arrives at the destination known as Success.
The Most Important Customer?
So many CEOs say that their employees are their most important customer. Do they put their money where their mouth is? We’d love to hear about those who do.
