Retaining top talent is a hefty task for any employer. Recruiting the best candidates can be costly and tenacious.”A+” players are the employees who contribute more to the organization’s success; be that in innovation, profitability, customer service, sale or technical expertise.Today almost every company has strategies and plans to nurture top talent. These top talents have a tremendous impact on business results.

A recent research study conducted  by Harvard Business Review on leadership transitions, demonstrates that nearly 40% of internal job moves, made by people identified by their companies as “high potentials”, end in failure. In below points we will take a closer look at most common mistakes companies do and what you can do to correct them:-

Unable to tag your A+ Players to your corporate strategy – The A+ players or the top talent employees are always aware of the firm’s health. Working “radio silently” might not be a great strategy. A company who does not tag their A players to their future strategies runs the risk of disengaging its rising stars. 

How to Fix This – Let your top talent know what future you are planning for your company, have a round table meeting, discuss the ideas. Some companies send mail updates to their top talents detailing the performance of the firm and future plans. You can have an internal online portal where you can discuss the plans. Keep your top people in the loop as much as possible and ask for their feedback.

Expecting them to perform better every time – The most frequent consideration among many firms is that top talent will be asked to deliver future results in much bigger jobs; which is not always possible. This usually happens in sales division, when sales targets increases each quarter.

How to Fix This – Managers should not make assumptions about potential candidates. Managers must consider the ability, engagement, and aspiration attributes before loading the load on the employee. Invest your time to know the A+ player who jumps ship just as you are looking for them to take the lead on a project or problem.

Ignorance of the Culture Fit – Job satisfaction is crucial for retaining your A+ players. The employee you hired two months ago might be a top talent but it’s not requisite that he/she has job satisfaction. A recent report of Achievers states that, “The greatness gap: American workforce survey depicts 56% of employees say they’re not happy at work because of lack of culture fit.

How to Fix This – Employers can use better tools for hiring through culture-fit. instaTalent is an exceptional tool that helps you to make a cognitive decision about candidates, This recruitment software recommend the best-fit candidates instantly. It uses the cognitive computing to source the best fit candidates from different sources such as social sites, job boards and your private database(If you want). Also, consider adding a pre-assessment hiring tool to your recruiting mix to help identify the right fit. You’d also be wise in adjusting your job descriptions to accurately reflect the culture and what new employees should expect when they come onboard.

If you still think culture fit is just a buzzword? read this article to know its importance and influence in recruitment.

Neglecting the stars- Often, A+ players know how good they are and can be safely left to bolt. However, they also have need to get the attention and recognition just as anyone in the company.If you decide to ignore that then you might have a big problem.

How to Fix This- Award them, awarding your A+ players will result in high levels of business performance. Pay attention to their activity, give a share of your busy time to them, credit them for the work they have done.   

Defending them from early derailment- During the early days of  employment managers try to protect the employees that’s understandable; they want to avoid disrupting the business. The addition of “Oh! that’s ok my boss is understanding” does not generate great talent. True leadership takes place under condition of real stress.

How to Fix This- A unique approach could be testing the high potential employees by a situation. For example, several years ago Procter & Gamble offered a high impactful position that required quick learning & development; candidates had to pass through three screens to be eligible: They had to have adequate qualifications to perform well in the crucial role, stellar leadership skills, and a clear developmental gap the crucial role could help fill. Through this program, P&G has measurably increased the percentage of employees qualified for promotion.

Assigning high potentials the non productive tasks- Commonly A+ players tolerate B Players, they accept that not every employee does as much of work as them. They know B Players are loyal, dependable and reliable substratum of any company. A+ players prefer to do productive tasks as they think they drives the most productivity. When you assign a non productive task to a top talent they tend to get bored.

How to Fix This- Having HR analytics in place. assigning the tasks to the right person.In a  recent report, the greatness gap shows that 53% of employees don’t feel recognized for their achievements at work and that’s  why they are more likely to leave their current company. Managers who engage their employees can be a secret weapon.

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