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Why Good Talent Will Stay Put–3 easy pieces

I recently read an article from HR Magazine entitled “What is driving your staff to leave?” The main reason, according to the writers: Under-compensation..

Yesterday I had coffee with a friend in banking trying to finalise a senior hire in China. The candidate told him he wanted to move to Singapore, but the job had to be in China. I told my friend he’d better watch it, as it sounded off kilter to me.. “No,” he said, “I’m not worried. He’s a banker, and it’s all about his compensation, taxation rate in China. He can fly back and forth a lot, and we’ll make it worth his while.”

I told him he knew best and wished him well. He sent me a note a few hours later, saying the candidate pulled himself out of the running. “You were right,” he wrote. “Wasn’t about compensation.”

Here is my $0.02.

Good talent does NOT leave because of under-compensation. Unless you’re either a barrista or a hedge fund/VC/derivatives rainmaker, under-compensation is not what will likely whisk you out of your company. Nor will over-compensation drive good talent out of where they are and into the arms of the competition.

Here are 3 no-brainer reasons why good talent stays.

  1. They learn, and hence they grow. Strong employees want to be exposed to more than they are, be challenged and stretched–and if they are pithecanthropus erectus, they lumber away, muttering how awful the company was and that no one recognised their genius. But those who want to do actually contribute and slake their thirst will often stay to learn more.

    2. Which leads to #2, the essence of work

  2. Opportunities–and more opportunities. I know an SME that hires mostly younger people (mid/late 20′s), many of whom get mistaken for being interns rather than directors. The company has grown steadily, and many of the young directors and young staff have stayed. Although regularly approached by other firms, they have no intention of leaving. (I’ve asked..) The secret sauce? Easy.

    They have a much bigger palate to paint on than being a worker bee in a large hive.. In the thick of the action, exposed to issues and people they would not easily have otherwise, it is a golden opportunity to learn at the start of one’s career.

    3. And opportunity is in large made possible by..

  3. Working for a boss and/or company who allows their talent to flourish and stumble. A good boss/company will be accessible and visible, formal yet casual in their guidance and communicative style, able to balance professional with personal, distinguish empathy from paternalism, encourage opinions, recognise quality and drive their people hard. Not like oxen, but steadily and firmly (and we know the difference between hard work and servitude, so let’s not split hairs on that point..)

The tyros who have this inchoate sense that keeping talent is about higher wages are wrong, but it is an oft parroted sentiment that will remain omnipresent. Of course, compensation has to be competitive-or better than competitive-but that is not why talent leaves. I can only say, “T’aint necessarily so”, and turn the page. And so should you.

 
Written by Neal Horwitz, President of Henry Hale Maguire