The Talent Trap

Avoid it at Your Peril! By Danny Morris and Jonathan Frank

With a rapidly changing demography and major shifts in work preferences, finding, retaining and maximising talent is becoming an organisational - if not the organisational - challenge. This is true across all levels, but only a few far-sighted organisations seem aware of this talent shortage and have developed innovative strategies to set an effective talent trap.

Over half the growth in Britain 's working-age population from 2001 to 2011 is expected to be contributed by minority ethnic groups, and by 2011, only 20% of the UK workforce will be white, able-bodied men aged under 40. Meanwhile the number of over 60s will increase by 17% by 2010, and 34% by 2015. Add to this the UN estimate of a 125 million shortfall in workers in Western Europe by 2025.

Quarter-life crisis

Alongside this demographic shift, consider the attitudes of those in the early stages of their careers. Whether or not the fashionable "quarter-life crisis" is real, there does seem to be an increasing trend of career disillusionment amongst those in their late 20s. "I'm seeing an increasing number of colleagues deciding to change tack," said Sarah Gee, Deputy Chair of Birmingham Future, the organisation representing Birmingham 's young professionals. "More and more people come to the end of their post-qualification period and decide that they want to 'put something back' into society - witness the large numbers of people turning to teaching, for instance."

The challenge for employers of attracting, retaining and motivating their people reaches a new level. The biggest risk will be losing exactly those who are most valuable - the most self-aware, the sharpest thinkers, and no amount of traditional perks and compensation will give you a sure winning hand.

Boiling the frog

These shifts in demography and values suggest that the western world, the UK in particular, finds itself at a cultural strategic inflection point - a term coined by Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel. This occurs when the old norms of an organisation, economy, philosophy or culture are ousted, but the massive impact this change provokes is not recognised at the time - similar to the frog in the pan of water, blissfully unaware of the rising temperature!

The radical change in our demographics and work preferences will seriously reshape the organisational landscape over the next twenty years. The challenge is to recognise this, and respond, before it is too late. Yet, Caret's research into Talent Management (2005) reveals that few organisations have developed strategies to plan for the dramatic changes ahead.

Building Talent Traps

The great imperative is for organisations to become Talent Traps - developing innovative ways to catch and retain sufficient talent for organisational and business success.

Try these questions to test your Trap:

• In your organisation are there people whose talents and values really fit their job role and the organisation? How could you measure this? Does this vary by manager group or team?
  
• Is your organisation a place that attracts and stimulates talented individuals, whatever their ethnic or cultural background, age or gender? How would you know if there were certain people-groups that would be less inclined to join and stay in your organisation?
  
• Jim Collins, author of Good to Great , talks about lasting excellence in organisations stemming less from decisions about strategy and more from choosing the right people. Have you got the right people in place, both in key leadership positions and also throughout the organisation?

Is your organisation tasty enough as bait for the talent you want to attract? Perhaps now is the time to build a better Talent Trap , and the world might just beat a path to your door.

Caret Snapshot

Caret surveyed organisations about their approach to making strategic best use of talent. We asked respondents whether they had a clear 2010 employee attraction and retention plan:

When split by organisation size, we discovered that those with fewer than 50 employees were four times more likely to have such a plan than larger organisations.
In addition, we found:

• Over 50% of respondents said that it was more difficult to attract talented employees than to retain them.
  
• In organisations with over 250 employees this notion of attraction being more difficult than retention was less marked.
  
• The most significant loss from workers retiring by 2015 would be the crucial organisational and business experience that they've gained.
  
• Over two-thirds of organisations do not calculate the total cost incurred by the resignation of a manager at any level.

Danny Morris and Jonathan Frank, consultants at Caret, carried out some research into managing talent, the results of which can be accessed on the Caret website 'Caret Snapshot Survey - Talent Management, August 2005.

For any enquiry please send us an email at enquires@caret.co.uk

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