Top Talent employees or Top Performer groups are highly capable employees who drive and create results for the company. But how do you make them want to stay with the organization? This is a challenge that many organizations are facing because these groups of people nowadays also resign easily.
Nowadays, almost every company is not looking for employees or personnel with a great GPA or applying with honors. Each company is looking for someone who stands out with a special ability that is more special than others, whether it is communication, leadership, or presentation, etc.
In addition to the company having to spend a lot of time finding the best people, when the company gets those special people, when they join the company, they will receive some special programs to develop them into rising stars, into a group of high achievers, called Top Talent employees or Top Performers, who can continuously create good results for the company’s business.
“40% of job transfers to high-potential people result in failure.”
A frustrating endeavor for organizations is that when they find an employee who is so talented that he or she stands out from the rest, they target that person, whether by nominating, transferring, or offering leadership opportunities, without first asking about that person’s opinions, aptitudes, or needs. Research has shown that this is the reason why transferring high potential people to the wrong places ends up failing.
“Most traditional management teams make mistakes when trying to develop the next generation of leaders.”
Most organizations end up short on talent. They try to groom their stars for promotion success, but end up driving them away. A study by the Corporate Leadership Council surveyed more than 20,000 “top talent” at more than 100 organizations around the world over the past six years about how they feel about their employers, how their organizations are being managed, and how they are responding to economic changes.
This research reveals that across industries and countries, both boom and bust, executives are making mistakes when it comes to nurturing talent. They make the wrong assumptions about people development, and those mistakes waste their investments in people. In this article, we’ll look at six of the most common mistakes.
6 Most Common Mistakes in Developing Top Talent Employees
1. I think that talented people have high participation.
When this study brought together top talent from organizations around the world, the room was filled with sparkle, which might lead you to think that these were talented people who were passionate about their organizations. But the results of the study were not.
- 1 in 4 intend to leave their jobs within this year
- 1 in 3 admit they don’t put all their effort into their work
- 1 in 5 believe their personal aspirations are quite different from what the organization has planned for them.
- 4 in 10 have little confidence in their colleagues, and even less confidence when it comes to senior teams in their organization.
“High expectations and lots of choices”
The study tells us that there are two main reasons why high performers tend to leave rather than join: they expect too much and because they are good, they have many options. Workplace stars are held to incredibly high standards. Because they are hard workers, they expect their organizations to treat them well, including recognition, a career path and commensurate compensation. So when an organization fails, they are the ones who are most disappointed. Their high performance also gives some people the confidence to find a new job because they have many options. So when an organization fails and asks them to work harder, these high performers are the ones who will leave immediately.
2. Compare current high-potential employees with their potential in the future.
Identifying the stars or potential above others should be used as a reward for employees’ contributions in various roles that contribute to the success of the work. However, organizations often like to identify a group of stars and give them a larger contribution than they deserve, in a way that is called “anointing the talent.” This is completely wrong.
“The three things that make us the best stars in the workplace are competence, engagement, and ambition.”
It is true that many junior to mid-level employees have high potential, but when organizations set up talent development programs, the first people they send out are often senior employees who sometimes do not have the potential to match their positions. The characteristics that best define a star are competence, engagement and ambition. But to succeed in increasingly important roles, you also need the intellectual, technical and emotional skills to handle increasingly complex challenges.
“Ambition is not greed, but the desire for recognition, advancement and future rewards.”
Of the 3 characteristics we used to observe the stars, ambition is a risk in employees. We must try to adjust the level of employee ambition to be consistent with the organization. It may be too difficult to measure, but it would be best if there is a direct discussion, such as asking about the growth expectations within the organization, where do you want to go, how fast, and in what period of time, etc. If there is no direct discussion and there is a deficiency in even one of these 3 points, it can reduce the chances of success and cause even those with high abilities to fail.
3. Delegate management to capable people.
It is a common occurrence in most organizations. Most managers know their employees best and have a clear view of their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, bringing in top talent in each function to become managers can also be beneficial in reducing the organization’s budget for external recruitment.
“They will choose to develop the necessary skills first.”
Although we can say that every employee is an organization’s resource and it is not wrong to assign high-potential management to the stars of the organization, but when they are given additional management responsibilities, it means that they have to give up some of the duties or abilities that made them stars to fill in their management skills instead. From research, it was found that giving importance to a group of stars in the organization as a right-hand man in management will greatly increase their abilities and intentions.
4. Preventing talented people from going down the wrong path early on
In many ways, a major concern in developing talent in an organization is that the talent is either too low or that the talent is too low. Most often, development executives and line managers try their best to ensure that the employees they select for development are of the right quality and are less likely to fail than their peers. Therefore, development programs are often paired with the most successful or promising employees that year.
“Being too cautious can prevent the new abilities from being truly developed.”
There is nothing wrong with HR or managers being extra careful and cautious in selecting an employee as an outstanding and trying to find a program to develop that employee’s potential. However, being too careful can lead to the new abilities never being truly developed and tested. Furthermore, most in-demand skills are developed under conditions of stress, experience, and dealing with real-world situations, which allow employees to develop and acquire new abilities and discover what they are really capable of.
5. The hope that talented people will share their pain.
It is often said that the higher you go, the lonelier you are. Great leaders choose to suffer while standing at the top. It seems that the star employees in every organization will have to accept the same honor and duty sooner or later, especially in a tough business environment.
“Equality is a good idea, but it can be a big mistake.”
A senior executive’s decision to reduce salary or compensation to reflect overall performance may seem fair, but it undermines the engagement of talented, hard-working employees. Remember, one of the most important factors in determining high-potential employee engagement is how they feel recognized, and that’s primarily through pay. So leaders should identify individual employee performance and compensate them based on that performance.
“Even employees who are not considered high-potential employees work harder in a place that suits them.”
Under normal circumstances, high-potential employees put in up to 20% more effort than other employees in the same role. Changing employee compensation plans so that high-potential employees can reap more of what they sow, even a small lunch can help high-potential employees feel appreciated. And it doesn’t just help high-potential employees feel recognized, it also helps average-potential employees produce good results from their hard work.
6. Failure to connect your talent to corporate strategy
High-potential employees see the company’s potential acutely and are deeply interested in the strategies of the senior management team. Their confidence in their managers’ ability to strategize is the strongest factor in employee engagement.
“When talented people are misplaced, they become a drag rather than a driver.”
Some organizations offer high-potential individuals a chance to attend closed briefings on key strategic issues, where they work as a team to solve problems and discuss final recommendations with senior leadership. They can make a meaningful impact on the company’s growth if you put them in the right place. But if you put them in the wrong position or role—they’re not given the challenge, the job description doesn’t match their needs, and they don’t receive any rewards or recognition—they quickly become a drag on overall performance. Worse yet, ultimately, firing them can damage the commitment of other employees across the organization.
“Emphasizing current potential rather than praising past success.”
Conclusion
There can be more than one star or high potential employee in an organization, or any employee can become a star in the organization if the organization provides the right motivation and the right people, and that motivation is in line with the abilities and needs that the employee wants to develop.
Don’t think that being a good employee means that they are good at everything. You can assign them to any job that the organization needs to fill or that the organization still lacks. Instead, look at what their talents are and in what direction they can be developed. Focusing on the employees will help in planning strategies and plans to drive the organization forward more effectively. Because in any case, the future of the organization does not only lie in the hands of the owner or senior executives. Every employee is one of the cogs that help drive the organization forward as well.
“A good strategy without capable people to drive it is a waste.”
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