There is much that can be read in relation to the subject of the retention of human talent, from the way in which the plans must be conceived for this to happen to the extras that the company must have in situations that merit going a little further.
Yes, this issue has become so serious and important in companies that it is even customary to ask questions of applicants for positions in the areas of human talent to learn how they can help not only to detect, interview and hire the best talent but also also to keep him in the ranks of the company.
Well, here is an important revelation that you should not only know but internalize before this issue of managerial importance: at the precise moment that you begin to worry about creating and implementing plans for the retention of human talent there is no turning back, you have left to be an attractive, profitable and competitive option in the labor market and if you do not do something to change that into what it has become, there will be no plan that is worth your people to continue making your company possible. Yes, as you have read: Human talent retention plans are, in short, the official statement that your company lacks attractiveness, benefits and ideal conditions for people to want to belong to it.
I know that such statements must seem radical and, in the best of cases, relative, however, allow yourself to make these considerations so that later you can reach the pertinent conclusions regarding the subject:
Why did human talent decide to leave?
Obviously there are many and varied factors for this to happen, but the main reasons argued by the common people who make this decision are associated with discrepancies with the management style, the little or insufficient socioeconomic benefits, and aspects associated with the flexibility in terms of schedules, work style and implementation of ideas and processes and, in some cases, exaggeration of work pressure (almost always unnecessary), heavy work environment and little or no possibility of development within the workplace.
However, the above occurs in any type of company, and increases proportionally and in the opposite direction to its size, for example, if the firm is very small, it will be much more difficult to grow in it and, as management is so close from the base the pressure will be present almost at all times. If the company is very large, it will be very unlikely to stand out due to departmentalizationand the excess of positions and bureaucracy and the pressure, exerted in a cascade, ends up asphyxiating the most operational positions. Even so, regardless of the above, human talent always hopes to find in another scenario what it is impossible to visualize in which it is located and, in the absence of inspiring elements, it ends up deciding to try in other spaces. And it is precisely there when the talent drain begins: when the human resource that is possessed discovers that there is no coincidence between what it aspires and what the company has or offers.
Of course, there are organizations that do not wait for their staff to begin to disperse to start devising retention plans and this makes them feel proactive and concerned about their people, however, they forget that by doing so they are declaring themselves unattractive and that, additionally, what could once unite them has been or will break. It is simple, you only try to retain what you can let go, go or move away, otherwise, it is not necessary to do so.
Please do the following two mental exercises to illustrate my point:
1. Imagine, for example, making a plan to retain for your partner (be it husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend), would that make sense to you? Think, if you have to worry about keeping her it is because there is a possibility that she, at some point, may think about leaving you, this could happen for several reasons: a) if the love she feels for you stops satisfying you and begins to decrease (obviously in ideal scenarios) b) if the situation between you becomes untenable, or c) if she realizes that with you she will not be able to fulfill her dreams and goals. Whatever the reason, just because you think about making a plan for her not to leave will unequivocally state that something in you has failed to meet her expectations and that she may be exploring the market to get her. someone who does, well,If you had maintained the behavior, attitude and conditions that made it possible for her to fall in love with you, or increased them, you would hardly be thinking now about how to retain her and prevent her from leaving.
Okay, you could say that it is a very particular example and that it is different when it comes to work, and, although this statement is not true, let's try the second exercise to see if those arguments still persist:
2. Suppose for a moment that your company represents a prosperous, free and promising country, choose any one you know, can you imagine people buying tickets or looking for any possible means to escape from it?… No! Well, no one, in their right mind, would want to go out never to return from paradise and try their luck in other settings, unless it represents living in better conditions than those they already have. Now, do you know of any prosperous, free and promising country that has campaigns for its inhabitants to stay in it?… No! In any case, these countries have advertisements to show how excellent life is in them and by doing so they try to attract people who want to work to make that country even more prosperous; there is no room for doubt,it is precisely in countries where the future looks very bleak, where living conditions are not ideal and where opportunities are scarce that emigration is constant, whether legal or not.
Well, from what you can see, what happens to the industrialized, rich and safe countries is a perfect fit for business, doesn't it?
Therefore, we must redefine our vision of organizations and open our minds to what we really need to understand. Let's see.
It is said that the best companies are those that value their staff and, in truth, it is the opposite: the best companies are those where the staff value the organization a lot, and he does it precisely because he achieves in it what he hopes, wishes and dreams, which is nothing other than a place to grow and settle, develop and achieve his goals. And it is that valuing the staff should not be an isolated characteristic and worthy of being shown as a comparative advantage, since in doing so it seems that it is an addendum that they have decided to possess and that is not the case. Valuing human talent must be a sine qua non condition that must exist in all companies, which must be part of their foundational bases. We must be clear, the logical and natural thing is for the company to value its people, as doing so is not optional.
The lesson is simple: if your company has the right conditions in terms of socio-economic benefits, personal and professional growth, a good organizational climate, adequate and comfortable facilities, a correct leadership and management style, flexibility and interest in making work a pleasant experience and satisfactory… do you think you would have to spend time devising plans for your people to stay in it?… No! On the contrary, you will have more than enough applications to join your company.
The true plan for the retention of human talent must be tacit in the vision, mission and objectives of the company, in the policies and norms that exist in it, in the way of managing talent and making it a participant in the achievement and success of the company; It must be in the way the work is conceived and the processes that comprise it and the way in which those who make it possible feel comfortable, feel respected, listened to and identified with their duties and rights.
Otherwise people will leave; It does not matter how much you do, how much you plan, because all that individual effort that little or nothing makes will add to the real expectation of those who want to see in the company a means to achieve their individual and personal objectives without detracting from those that the organization has.
Yes, that's right, precisely when the plans for the retention of human talent begin to be a point on the company's agenda, it has been diagnosed as "unattractive and competitive" and in that case the specialists and experience recommend "a brief stay in their ranks ”.
When the above occurs, do not examine what the human talent retention plan you have is lacking or do not begin to wonder what the plan you imagine to implement should have, that will not help you, what you should do is examine the working conditions, the style of its management, the flexibility and relevance of its rules and policies, its socioeconomic benefits, the remuneration-value-added relationship and the real opportunities it offers to the individual expectations of its people and everything that makes it unattractive; Only by changing that for the better, in a genuine and non-temporary way, is that you will be able to continue enjoying the best people, the best talent, and by doing so, your company will get better and better.
Additionally, it is important to highlight that it is completely utopian to think that a plan for the retention of human talent can reverse, avoid or control the flight of suitable personnel; Once the company-employee bond has been broken, it is very difficult to achieve it with promises and proposals, in the first place because they usually arrive post-mortem and whoever receives them wonders why they listen to them now and not before making the decision to depart; Secondly, they reveal little if not no appreciation and knowledge of the personnel who are hired, since knowing and evaluating them would have revealed a range of challenging, promising and so attractive possibilities that the idea of abandoning them would be, in any case, the last to be considered.
Of course, it can not be ruled out that the company has a line to create opportunities and increase the interest of its human talent in it and in what it does, but such a line could be poorly oriented to "retain" it, since they will be the elements of coincidence, satisfaction and identification that will make it possible for the ties between the organization and its people to become stronger and stronger, if so, staying will be the most logical decision, not one of the options to choose.
