Workforce Engagement

Intelligent Outcomes for Success

Workforce Engagement Success

Most CEOs consider retaining high-potentials a top priority, but the reality is many organizations are ineffective at managing and keeping this talent.

Organizations invest millions of dollars into identifying and developing high-potentials within their workforce. Although these highly talented individuals are often pegged for leadership roles early on in their careers and are in fact one of the first to participate in innovative leadership development programs, studies reveal that many of them remain unengaged in their work and continue to actively pursue other opportunities.

Photo credit: U.S. Department of Labor Employers often underestimate the importance of performing an employee engagement assessment. Check out The Case for Employee Engagement and EI for more on this.

In 2010, the Corporate Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board surveyed 880 high-potential employees; a staggering number, on the rise with the growth of the economy. More than 25 percent said they planned to change jobs within the next 12 months. That’s a potential attrition 2.5 times greater than just five years earlier. Among the dissatisfied, 64 percent said their current employment experiences are having little impact on their development. Engagement levels, measured by assessing levels of passion and discretionary effort, declined 30 percent from 2009 to 2010.

From the employers’ perspective, the performance of those who are sticking around is similarly troubling. More than half of the executives surveyed said their organizations are ineffective at managing and retaining top talent. They said 40 percent of internal job moves made by high-potentials end in failure and fewer than 15 percent of their direct reports are ready for immediate transition to subsequent roles.

At a time when experts agree that nurturing talent is especially crucial, why are HR professionals having so much difficulty identifying, retaining and preparing the best and the brightest?

1. As researchers we see a huge divide between what employers think motivates high-potentials and what actually motivates them. It often takes more than compensation, stocks and other options to retain people.
2. High-potentials need knowledge and expertise to thrive, but even so, ability and seasoning are still don’t tell the entire story. Our benchmarking studies show that, high-potentials don’t fail because they lack the knowledge, skills, and abilities. In truth, most are set up not to succeed because they are not provided the environment to be engaged either through assignment or otherwise.

At Center for Work Life, supported by a renowned corporate psychologist, we know human behavior. We design the intelligence behind your workforce, so that as an organization, so you can create the outcomes for success.

Our carefully designed project design:

Evaluate your key competencies
Identify your top performers
Measure top performer drivers
Align performer and organization needs
Systematically infuse selection, performance and succession processes
Create leadership support and cycle sustenance