Nurturing Talent

Based on article Harro, Ted and Miller, L.A. (2009) “Are you a net creator or destroyer of Talent? Seven indicators of organisational health for talent – intensive organisations”, Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol. 3 No. 1 pp62-64

The importance of managing talent has come to the fore in the business climate as being one of the main ways of sustaining and achieving a competitive advantage in the marketplace. This has been emphasised by many a scholar including, Bingham (2008) The talent factor. Public Manager, 37, 80–84 and Staron (2008) Talent management: Practical steps in getting started , whom make reference to this and view the success of the organisation resting on the quality of human talent. This has led to organisations shifting their focus to their people and investing into areas such as talent retention, organisational development to name but a few.

Nonetheless there is still a perception of viewing the people as a tangible asset, a machine within the organisation and viewing them as a cost rather than a benefit as a whole. In some instances it may fair well to view the people as being easily replaceable. However it may prove difficult in a saturated market where finding key people to differentiate the business is an absolute necessity.

Therefore it is imperative that leaders in the organisation take a stance as to whether their actions is resulting them in becoming a net creator or a net destroyer and whether it bodes well for the life of the organisation?
This is especially relevant in service-intensive organisations as “one of the biggest long-term drivers of client satisfaction is an organization’s ability to attract, retain, develop, and promote top-notch people”, (O’Connor & Fiol, 2004 citied in Harro and Miller 2009, p.63). As clients play a big role in terms of selling and the possible return to the service it is therefore vital that leaders revise how their organisation rates in terms of talent creation.
These are as follows:

Recruitment success – What is your win rate in terms of recruitment?
Recruitment Quality - What is the overall quality of recruits added to the firm?
Retention - How is the firms stickiness? Are you keeping the top-notch people satisfied in their current positions?
Employee Satisfaction – Do you undertake any satisfaction surveys? Are leaders personally responsible for improving such results?
Employee Reputation – When employees do leave what are they really telling others in the market place?
Promotion Success - Is there a high success rate of employees advancing to higher positions within the organisation?
Promotion velocity – How quick does it occur for employees to move upwards in the organisation? It has been said that talented people view progression and promotion as major staying cards within an organisation.
(Journal of Leadership Studies, Vol. 3 No. 1 p 63)

By analysing each of the above seven, it may become apparent that although the company may take on a pledge to manage talent successfully it may actually not be fully doing so. It is important to point out that this is never an easy task, getting the right fit of people whom add value to the organisation can be a long process. Nonetheless it must be done in order to maintain a competitive stance within the marketplace. By reviewing such areas not only will it result in satisfied and highly motivated people but also the output of the organisation as they invest in developments which will aid in the long-term health of the firm.

About the authors

Ted Harro is the founder of Noonday Ventures, a performance improvement consultancy. He has an M.A. in Organizational Communication from the University of Illinois at Chicago.Ted may be reached at Ted.Harro@noondayventures.com.

Leslie A. Miller is a senior consultant with Noonday Ventures and the owner of LanneM TM, LLC, a leadership development consulting business. Leslie teaches and mentors doctoral learners in the School of Advanced Studies of University of Phoenix. She has an M.S. in cognitive psychology from Washington State University, and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Maryland. Leslie may be reached at Leslie.Miller@noondayventures.com.