Strengthening the talent pipeline
Employee retention and turnover of professional staff is one of the key challenges that many organisations face in today’s competitive labour marketplace. These individuals, with their specialist skills and in-depth expertise, are highly sought after. As Mercer highlighted in a recent article (see page 11, Talent Management Review Vol 1 Issue 3), today’s skilled and qualified professionals have expectations of real career development that is matched by challenging work assignments and increasing role responsibilities. However, the talent management needs of this specific segment of the workforce are often overlooked. Organisations fail to recognise where their business-critical professional talent pools are, who they are, and how they can most effectively be retained and developed.
In order to further understand the specific talent issues facing organisations in 2007, Mercer conducted a Global Employee Attraction and Retention Survey (2007). What emerges from the survey is that, while many organisations focus their retention and succession efforts on senior leaders and near-term potential future leaders (the leadership pipeline), many companies currently fail to identify the critical talent pool for ‘professional level’ employees. This group of employees tend to be young, ambitious and often demonstrate the highest concentration of high potential candidates. It is crucial for an organisation to recognise the needs of these specific employees in order to attract, recruit and retain the organisation’s future senior professional experts and future leaders.
According to Mercer’s survey, which is based on answers from over 100 multinational organisations, professionals, above all other employee levels within an organisation, are the only group for which staff turnover has increased on a year-on-year basis. For this group 70 per cent of all turnover occurs between six months and three years of service, with peaks occurring among professionals working at an organisation for two to three years. Why do these professionals tend to leave a company after such a short period of time, and how can organisations effectively harness this professional talent pipeline?
In the UK we are currently experiencing a buoyant labour market and skilled professionals demonstrating a high potential have the luxury of being able to choose their employer from a selection of top firms.
Competition is fierce and the employer that provides the best development opportunities and recognition factors has a distinct advantage. Can your business afford to lose its professional talent because it does not offer this business-critical employee segment what it is looking for in terms of meaningful work experiences and career advancement opportunities? Competitive pay remains the most important factor in attracting key talent across all employee levels in organisations. However, several other career development factors play an important role in deciding where employees choose to work. At the professional level, training and development programmes take precedence over all other career development opportunities – over half of organisations state that this is a key factor in attracting professionals.
From a retention perspective, almost half of the organisations in the survey report that training programmes and individual career plans are a preferred strategy for tackling retention of professionals. Succession planning, overseas assignments, mentorship and job rotation also have a significant impact on retaining these employees. These elements should all form the basis of a cohesive talent management strategy for high performing professionals.
The contrasting needs between different employee groups often misleads the development of talent strategy. Although senior levels of the organisation are typically motivated by the link between pay and performance, professionals attribute more value to recognition at work and place high value on the opportunity to perform meaningful and challenging work. That professionals value self-development factors as part of their career is a reoccurring theme Mercer sees in the market and from client work. This is a trend that is likely to become increasingly evident over the next few years as more firms move from a ‘buy’ talent philosophy to a ‘built’ talent approach.
Companies need to foster all their primary pools of talent in the best possible way to drive business performance and retain competitive advantage. From Mercer’s experience, in today’s highly competitive labour market, understanding the drivers for talent retention among the businesscritical professional levels and implementing concrete approaches to address specific areas of challenge reaps strong business benefits.
By Anette Strid, analyst at Mercer