Check out my article at workforce.com (Money Won't Buy You Love) that went up this week if you have time... The theory? Your managers will tell you that cash is king when it comes to retaining top talent. The truth is, you’ll never deliver enough money to keep the stars from moving across the street if they want to. It takes more than money.
My top reasons why money alone won't save your best talent:
1. You are hopelessly constrained by your compensation guidelines.
2. You like to treat everyone the same.
3. You don’t make jobs for stars sexy enough.
4. The competition can buy your talent outright with a juicy promotion.
But that doesn’t mean we have to lose our stars. Click through to see my take on four ways we can fight to retain our stars, and add to my list in the comments... I need the help!!!
PS - To see this theory in motion, check out the MLB playoffs starting this week. If A-Rod bats .100 in the series against the Indians, and the Yankees lose, he's outta there. Even if the Yankees can offer him 10M (that's million) more than any other team...
You are right on the money Kris. Most HR practices are designed for the middle of the performance curve. Stars by definition, are not average and therefore can't be treated as if they were.
HR - and how it is practiced in an organization - is a true competitive differentiator now and therefore requires new thinking.
Recognizing that your employee population is not homogeneous is step one. Your thoughts on what keeps stars around is spot on. The tough part is finding the appropriate triggers in each of those areas that will engage those stars.
If I was to add one thing to your list it would be that "Stars like to work with other Stars."
Continually raising the bar on performance keeps stars on their toes and engaged with the company. Winners like to be with winners.
Many companies worry about keeping stars but they don't do anything about the lower end of the performance curve. If you don't remove the "non-stars" the stars start to look for places where other stars are gathering.
I'd love to hear your opinion on that side of the equation - removing the "non-stars."
Posted by: Paul Hebert | October 03, 2007 at 07:23 AM
If they came for the money, they'll leave for the money. If you really want to keep top talent in any field you need to find out what matters to them besides money, that you can deliver and that other's can't duplicate. Most often that comes down to personal growth, doing interesting and challenging work, and working with people you like and who stimulate you.
Posted by: Wally Bock | October 03, 2007 at 12:26 PM
Paul/Wally -
Agree with your comments. Paul, really like your thoughts that sum up the culture that winners are looking for - "Winners like to be with Winners".
That sums up a lot of detail in a very consise way....
I'm a big proponent of dealing with non-stars in a couple of different ways. For those that are toxic and chronic underperformers, I think orgs need to be very proactive. However, we all have ditchdiggers in our org - the folks that meet expecations but are solid performers. I think you have to ensure that the rewards, treatment and recognition for stars is truely differentiated from the average performer.
Easy to say, hard to do in orgs that place a premium on equity and treating everyone the same to a large degree...
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
KD
Posted by: Kris | October 06, 2007 at 02:50 PM