Data from June of the current year according to a survey carried out by Nicholson International reveal that 25% of high potential professionals have in mind to change companies in less than a year, another 25% are not sure and the rest are satisfied with their current job.
Therefore, companies are concerned with how to attract, retain and conserve human capital.
Regarding how to avoid the flight of human capital, my recommendations are the following (many of them are taken from practices that some companies already carry out):
1. Transmission of the company culture, in the sense that it is important that the workers feel that they are part of a team, that there is an environment in which they feel comfortable and that their work is recognized (emotional remuneration).
2. Empowerment of the commitment, for example by personalizing the remuneration, leaving the employee to freely decide how he wants to receive part of his remuneration, study grants, free time… (Altadis Practice).
3. Enhancement of competences that promote motivation, training, responsibility and development (MAPFRE).
4. The most ambitious plan is the one proposed by the oil company CEPSA. They have designed a Welcome Plan that lasts three years and which aims to emotionally link the employee with the company. After this period, it is expected to have a minimum rotation of 1%, the best of that group, about 30 would enter a second phase, without a time limit, of development of managerial skills.
5. The consulting firm Nicholson International has created a concept called TRM (Talent Relationship Management) that is based on four elements: the creation of an internal brand, "a set of psychological, material and functional components that professionals consider beneficial".
6. Another consultant Soluziona considers that the flight of talent is avoided thanks to: a balance between personal and professional life, an entrepreneurial sense of the company, learning understood as a competitive advantage, compensation linked to the value of business, a job carried out in networks of professional communities, a generation and sharing of knowledge, an internationalization of business and careers, a commitment to the community to which one belongs, creativity and innovation as differentiating elements and finally, a collaboration and alliance between organizations.
7. Finally, Accenture considers that the approach should be based on: personalized strategies for retention of workers, selection by competencies, professional orientation, recognition and reward strategies, empowerment of a culture of participation and open communication.
There are authors like Subir Chowdhury, author of the book Management Siglo XXI, who tell us about measures such as ROT, expressed like this:
Knowledge generated
ROT = Investment in talents
The ROT values the results of the personnel investment. It shows whether top managers are hiring the right people and using them to achieve success. Its results can be qualitative or quantitative, from the point of view of the management variable. Obviously for a quantitative measurement it will be necessary to observe the knowledge results generated in terms of quantity. I recommend reading this book: Managemen Siglo XXI.
Exactly Microsoft's practices have been as follows:
1. It has tried to take to its maximum consequences the practice of growing day by day from the workplace, so they have set as an objective that 70% of learning is carried out from the workplace.
2. Importance of communication between managers and employees
3. Benchmarking vs. Employee Information
4. Remuneration
What have been the consequences and why have the "talents escaped"?
In my opinion, and judging by the practices that have been carried out, such a leak should not have occurred, however, if I believe, according to data made by HayGroup, that we are witnessing a time when employees are increasingly leaving the company because they cannot support their bosses (this syndrome is known as the famous “burnt out”). I suppose that in the case of Microsoft, this would be accentuated by the political crisis to which its president Bill Gates was being subjected. Employees, fearing that Microsoft could not provide them with the professional levels they expected, and in the face of the company's impending economic-political crisis, decide to leave. This on the one hand.
I think the other causes stem from their own policies, as I explained earlier. Normally benchmarking practices are not usually the best way to keep employees informed, on the contrary, they usually have a boomerang effect that makes them turn against the company itself, in some cases employees use them as a competitive advantage of themselves.
Remuneration is in my opinion one of the fundamental aspects within the talent drain. Recently the McKinsey report (annual) established that one of the reasons why the company is abandoned is for remuneration, but not understood as an increase in quantity but as remuneration in kind. Telefonica Moviles, for example, is characterized by being one of the companies that carry out best practices to maintain its employees, but when their younger employees are asked why they like working at Telefónica, they say that due to a variable remuneration system, among others..
Commitment is essential, understood as a culture that fosters commitment, systems such as empowerment have to be implemented in companies increasingly.
In summary, in my opinion, the flight of human capital is caused by:
1. Lack of understanding with your boss.
2. As a direct consequence of the above, lack of horizontal communication, understood as communication between equals.
3. There is an increasing need to move up in the company, normally this need that the company does not cover on its own, means that employees do not communicate with their colleagues for fear of not being able to cover that need.
4. There is tremendous mobility of personnel in companies. No one stays long in the same company working anymore. It is even said that the normal thing is not to settle in a company until you are 30-33 years old. The fight for talent generates more competitive offers between companies.
5. In addition, it must be considered that the technology sector is the one that has most accused this leak, it started with dot coms and it seems like a domino effect.
6. I do not believe that only culture serves to retain the best, I have witnessed capital flight simply due to the fact that the remuneration was higher. For me, the problem is that superiors do not realize the needs of their employees, hence, as previously indicated, the need to establish personalized compensation and development strategies.
Anyway, I do not want to go too long as I could spend hours talking about it, but I recommend reading the study carried out by the consulting firm Watson Wyatt that talks about the best practices of human capital, it is not wasted.
