In December 2011 a long time Yahoo! employee published the article ’Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail To Keep Their Best Talent’ in the online edition of Forbes magazine (http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2011/12/14/top-ten-reasons-why-large-companies-fail-to-keep-their-best-talent/ (http://www NULL.forbes NULL.com/sites/ericjackson/2011/12/14/top-ten-reasons-why-large-companies-fail-to-keep-their-best-talent/)). It has made me think on how social business infused work culture and the respective elements can support (or even boost) a talent management initiative.
First of all everyone involved in such an endeavor have to understand: talent is in charge of actually executing a lot of the parts that such a program consists of. Leaders and managers can lay the foundation and create the right environment. However, if talent is considered to be characterized as
- creative
- self driven
- motivated beyond salary
- skilled above average
then it’s just a logical consequence that they have to carry the torch and light their way in a very active role.
Eric Jackson is referring to multiple flaws that make it hard for corporations to manage talent the right way. One essential factor is the need to spark passion within high performers and talent for what they do… My take on it: Passion needs an audience.
Even though corporate top talent is not driven by money or organizational, power acknowledgement of their achievements is a significant driver. However, the power of that acknowledgement is much stronger if it doesn’t come from a line manager. Being able to get feedback from peers and the organization in general is much more rewarding for real performers. Their driver is influence and the chance to leave a footprint. Only if they are able to connect to a larger community and collect their feedback (or even inspiration) they can achieve that goal.
Exposing talent to that kind of audience will have multiple effects in the context of talent management:
1 – Sustainability
A one-off presentation has literally no effect. Continuous presence through blogs, communities or other social media inspired channels will create a much stronger impact. Feedback and discussion help to evolve and sharpen ideas & messages. New networks will form and (in the best case) current talent will be able to identify and expose others that are able to contribute beyond their defined role but haven’t found the right moment to speak up yet.
2 – Quality assurance through social pressure
Being exposed to a wide audience forces people to sharpen their message and formulate opinions well. However, if one hasn’t much to say a community will identify that quickly and respond accordingly – or simply start to ignore the broadcaster (since the whole thing is rather about dialogue than broadcasting anyway). Identified high performers have to be the ones that can affect others and transfer their spark further into the organization – multiplying their magnitude. If they are not able to do so then they aren’t the right ones.
3 – Visibility of future leaders
Contribution of value should be visible and accessible to any employee as much as to managers. Where employees can seek for inspiration companies can seek for future leaders. If an individual is able to form a considerable audience around him or her there could be potential to utilize that ability from a corporate perspective. In the future management/leadship will no longer be defined by the ability to control and steer teams by order. Future leadership personnel will be guides and coaches to more and more networked organizations. Being able to create awareness and followership without a formal mandate is definitely a good characteristic of a potential leader.
Jackson furthermore elaborates on the theory that “top talent likes other top talent”. The use of social media infused communication channels can train thought leaders in expressing and spreading their message through modern channels. If they reach the required maturity level the endeavor can be extended to the outside world – turning existing top talent into testimonials and promoters of the company. Is there any better way to advertise a company as an employer of choice?
On a side note the effect of attracting talent internally should be taken into account as well. Units or division would be able to identify internal capacities that might help them in developing further. This as well might create new opportunities for employees and increase the chance of retaining them over a long period.
