One of the primary preoccupations that management has in any enterprise is having quality employees to drive the business forward. At times of economic uncertainty, one would expect that this preoccupation would go down the priority list, as other issues such as level of demand and availability of financial resources may take over. Moreover, when there is a slowdown in the labour market, it might be argued that quality employees may not be such a scarce resource.
I tend to differ on both points. I believe that more so in times of economic uncertainty, the quest for quality employees becomes critical, as those enterprises that have such employees will be best placed to exploit opportunities to the full when the economy picks up again. This is why the recruitment, management and retention of talented employees (as high-calibre employees are referred to) remain a critical issue, irrespective of the performance of the economy.
When discussing the issue of talent at the workplace, two questions emerge. Does talent grow on trees? Can talent be nurtured and grown? The answer to the first question is a definite no, while the answer to the second question is a definite yes.
Talent does not grow on tree. If it were to grow on trees, then we could buy it at a price dictated by the market in response to the rules of supply and demand. The best payers would have the most talented employees. We know this is not the case, as the crisis in the international financial markets has amply shown. The executives with the highest incomes were not necessarily the most talented executives.
However, talent can be nurtured and grown. A very good analogy is the parable in the Gospel about talents. The employees in that parable were expected "to reap where they did not sow". The same applies to talent at the workplace. Although talent does not grow on trees, it still needs to be nurtured and grown. The ability of an enterprise to nurture and grow talent depends on its corporate strategy to develop and retain talented employees.
What makes an employee a talented one? Imagine having to draw an identikit of a talented employee; what would it look like? In my opinion a talented employee would have a number of characteristics, and if just one of those characteristics were to go missing, the "talent" label would need to be removed.
He would be a person who is excellent at what he does and is confident of his work; a person who has the potential to grow more and is eager to learn more and develop his skills; a person who understands the business and has the right acumen. In addition, he would be a person who does his work with a sense of purpose and urgency and embraces innovation, change and risk and is always seeking to surpass himself.
If this were not enough, he would be a person whose heart and mind are committed to the enterprise; a person who has excellent working relationships and is capable of building and developing networks; a person who has a vision for himself, his job and his company. To cap it all, he would be a person who acts according to the highest ethical standards and who can make full use of his potential.
One would think that such a person simply does not exist, or at best there are just a handful of them around. This is not true. We all know of individuals that were written off by someone, but emerged to be talented people once they were nurtured and helped to grow. It goes back to the issue of reaping where one does not sow.
All employees have the potential to be considered talented employees.
The snag is that we are not used to thinking in this way. Because the word talent has a connotation of excellence, we think of talented employees in an exclusive manner. That is really the traditional approach to the issue. Traditionally managing talent has meant identifying a minority of people to fill important organisational roles and to invest disproportionately attention and development to get them there. This approach is based on the premise that there are a finite number of people with the potential for high office and organisations fight with each other to attract and retain members of this elite group for themselves.
This approach is flawed in principle. No matter how talented a chief executive officer may be, his talent will only deliver the required results if he leads successfully a talented team. Talent must include everyone because all employees, at all levels, are valuable to an organisation.
It should be an inclusive label and not an exclusive one. Just think of the time when a customer ends up being very satisfied because the person who dealt with him on the phone exceeded his expectations.
There will always be scepticism about all this importance to the recruitment, management and retention of talented employees. Let us face it, retaining talent is not mandatory for any enterprise; however, it should also be stated that neither is survival!