Brexit and Covid-19 have fundamentally changed the world of recruitment. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when confidence returns, we will see the ‘Great Resignation’ when employees, dissatisfied with the way their employers handled Covid or simply sick of their jobs, will leave their present employers
Some commentators have noticed an increase in salaries being used as a way of attracting new people but this is a bit of a blunt instrument – what if you’re not the highest bidder? What if you’re the highest bidder, onboard a new member of staff and then someone outbids you?
Employers who want to ‘win’ the talent war need to be more creative because whether these changes have a long-term impact – or only a short one – employers need to act NOW or risk having to operate sub-optimally (if at all) for some time to come.
It’s time to consider other options.
When you look at your workforce, it will probably look like this:
Studies have shown that:
- Poor performers deliver 48% less than average performers
- Top performers deliver over 100% more than poor performers
- Top performers deliver over 100% more than poor performers
Most organisations know who their top performers are – but relatively few know why they are so good and why the majority of employees, recruited as future top performers, turn out to be average or even poor performers.
We ask in-house recruiters 3 questions:
- ‘Have you ever recruited someone who turned out to be better than expected?’
- ‘Have you ever recruited someone who turned out to be worse than expected?’
- ‘What was the difference between the two processes?’
More often than not the answer, to question 3., is none. It’s the same process but sometimes recruiters, particularly inexperienced ones, get lucky and other times they don’t.
But what is an average performer?
It’s the person who does a good enough job to stay in it – but, for reasons no one can identify, doesn’t perform at the same level as top performers. In most organisations, this accounts for 65 – 70% of their workforce. And they could be a frozen asset for the organisation – capable of becoming top performers if they’re given the right individual development to help bridge the gaps.
What does a top performer look like? Why are they able to:
- Quickly identify opportunities?
- Impress and support their colleagues and superiors?
- Achieve tasks effortlessly when others seem to struggle?
… and most importantly: why can’t everyone else do it?
Often, we ask another question ‘How many of your average performers have what it takes to become top performers?’
Very few people know – but it’s important that organisations take steps to find out if they want to unfreeze the assets they have, rather than join the race/war for talent like everyone else.
You should have 3 key objectives:
- Identify what makes your top performers so great
- Understand why your average performers are less effective
- Plan how to improve your less successful performers
Once you understand where the gaps are, between your best people and the rest, bridging those gaps, at least partially, becomes much more doable and tailored development programmes will take care of the rest.
Of course, you could simply be training them so that they can join the mass exodus that’s being predicted but it’s worth remembering the meme that most of you will have seen:
CFO: ‘What if we train them and they leave?’
CEO: ‘What if we don’t – and they stay?!!’
How to get there?
A good behavioural assessment, geared to your specific requirements, will provide you with the data you need to bridge those gaps and make your existing assets more productive.
Identifying your top performers – and developing everyone else – is down to you. Put simply, that’s called management.
