WORKSHIFTER - Dispatches from the New Executive Frontier

I want to challenge the current trendy thinking about retention. You might not agree, but then again you just might.

Retention
Efforts
Alone are
Ridiculous!

It's not your fault. Perhaps you're being told to develop complex and comprehensive retention programs because the labor market is changing (we've all seen the numbers) and you need to "lock the doors!" That was the actual name of a retention effort at one of the companies I've worked with. But focusing on retention alone is ridiculous.

First of all, that whole philosophy is predicated on the fact that you hired the right people in the first place. It completely ignores a basic principle of Economics 101 - the law of supply and demand. Over the next few years, when the demand for talent far exceeds the supply, there's just no way you'll be able to keep all your highly skilled people and you could waste millions of dollars trying. When people are skilled and highly valued in the marketplace, they will become free agents ... willing to go to the teams that will give them the most play time for the most money. ACCEPT IT - it's going to be a fact. Corporate loyalty is gone. There are no more generations of people who are going to be willing to just suit up, show up, sit up and shut up. Those days are gone!

But it's not all gloom and doom. There are important ways to manage this and distinguish yourself as a company. Your objective should be to hire the best and brightest, give them the best training you can afford and then focus on talent deployment and utilization. So start using your HEAD ...

Hire
Educate
Advance and
Deploy talent effectively

Hire the best and brightest. Begin thinking of employment as an extension of education. People are going to be attracted to the companies and organizations that they believe will give them the very best training and the best skills. Just as Harvard, MIT, Stanford (and lots of other fine institutions) have far more applicants than they can accommodate, and have to turn talent away, you should begin using all the new tools available in the marketplace today to ensure you hire the best people you can for your organization. There are some very fine testing and assessment tools out there. Take advantage of these tools, and once you've found the best people, then educate them. Give them the best training they can get in the marketplace today so they can contribute at the highest level to your organization. Just as in academia, people in the commercial and non-profit worlds also are attracted to the places where they believe they will get the best training.

After you've given them the training, the next step is to advance them quickly, so you get the maximum value for the investment you've made in them. Then, when it's time ... let them go! I don't mean terminate them, but let them become free agents in the marketplace. You should keep the top 10% (and pay them accordingly) and your exiting talent will extend your corporate brand into the larger marketplace. Then, last but not least, deploy that top 10% and augment them with other skilled free agents in the marketplace that will help your organization achieve its goals in the most effective, efficient and agile ways possible.

So forget about retention ... get off your REAR and start using you HEAD!