By Jenny Dedrick Krengel, Founder and CEO of Dream Jobs Inc. , in collaboration with advisory board members, Linda Glass and Kathleen Lucente

Although organizations talk a lot about strategic retention and re-sourcing, such banter does not always translate into meaningful abilities and action.  How can you make sure it does at your organization? 

You should begin by asking yourself: 

1. Can I track/support my best people who are in the midst of a career detour, and report metrics?
2. Can I keep my highest quality talent engaged when they are in the midst of this career detour, proving a true financial return to my organization?

We speak with organizations of all sizes to help them answer these tough questions.  By doing so, they can better understand and analyze what they are really doing to retain and track top-performing talent before a resignation letter is submitted and, if they do get that dreaded resignation letter, what steps they have in place to sustain a meaningful relationship with those high-value employees who might be taking the scenic route in their career. (We call these QDPs…Quality Detour Professionals.)

Most companies looking to retain talent have already instituted flexible work programs, cool benefits, engagement surveys and the like.  We must stress that, while some of these programs may be best-in-class, most fall short of actually accommodating the superstars and their non-linear careers.

And, the reality is…

• if you aren’t accommodating your superstars, another organization is.
• if you aren’t feeling the pain today, you will soon.

Although there has been a lot of “myth-busting” around the impending workforce gap, there is still a large anticipated workforce in the next several years deemed the “untapped” workforce. This workforce will include boomers who don’t want to/ can’t retire, the millennial generation who are challenging the traditionalist structures of work arrangements, and the never-ending workforce who is caring for our children and elders (predominately female). Those companies who are able to tap into this workforce will have the competitive edge; the other companies will suffer.

Your company should start to address this by narrowing in on the relevant questions around your modified work policy/internal mobility, as well as a re-sourcing strategy for “off-rampers” (QDPs who leave in good standing).
 
In our experience, although many employers across industries talk a good game of “flexible work”, way too often the loose “policy” serves merely as an intranet brochure with an arbitrary implementation procedure.  The internal social stigma that comes with “flexible work” is a challenge to overcome as well.  However, we have seen flexible work policies succeed when the companies formalize the process across the board and ingrain the metrics in reporting and marketing (i.e. recruiting differentiator, increased employee satisfaction as a result of modified work options, proactively identifying trends, etc).

To support the “talk” of these initiatives, your organization must make the grade in “walking the walk” to give your QDPs a systematized, scalable process for accommodating their personal circumstances, life changes, and re-engagement.

As a strategic manager who can make a difference, you must pose the following questions:

1. When job-appropriate, are you making it easy, acceptable, and fair for a top-performer (QDP) to apply for a modified work schedule, or transfer within the company?
2. Are you embedding successful examples into the culture? For example, a top executive, manager, or exemplary team player who has a proven track record and is practicing a modified work schedule. (Niall FitzGerald – Deputy Chairman at Reuters – makes it known that he telecommutes Fridays, and has a standing morning breakfast appointment with his 5-year old daughter).
3. Do you have a respected QDP who can testify (for marketing purposes) that they STAYED with their job because of the ability to work in a modified arrangement?
4. Do you know how many people apply and/or are accepted to applicable modified work schedules, and do you have the ability to report such metrics?
5. If a QDP is not happy in their current job/department, do you have a formalized system to accommodate a transfer (confidentially), and without recourse?
6. Can you identify dissatisfaction in a department quickly due to mismanagement or cultural mismatch, based on numbers of transfer requests?
7. If a QDP departs your company for personal reasons (not to go to work somewhere else full-time), does the organization really know why?
8. If a QDP wants to take some time-off (resign and leave their current position) are they asked to join an invitation-only alumni program, or complete a profile that designs their “dream job”?
9. Do you know how many former top-performing employees are re-called to fill open positions (full-time, part-time, contract, etc.), rather than you resorting to public job postings, external contractors, or staffing agencies?
10. If you have a “re-organization” that unfortunately includes valuable performers, are they simply referred to the outplacement service, or are they able to opt-in to a “right-of-first-job-refusal” portal once the hiring freeze/acquisition/merger is over, and come back to work without using traditional recruiting channels?

If your answer to one or more of these provocative questions is “No…by design…” then you will continue to lose valuable, expensive, and experienced professionals who are in the midst of a career detour.

We don’t need voluminous statistics to know that the landscape of the working world is changing dramatically and that the traditional model of fixed-work schedules/locations is a dying breed. The equation is simple: the more innovative companies and industries will continue to attract and keep the valuable talent, while the 8-to-5-work-for-life-for-me-only-companies will be left behind to churn the mediocre.

Dream Jobs Inc. delivers eDETOURS™: a talent management software-as-a-service for employers who want to sustain meaningful relationships and leverage skilled professionals in the midst of a career detour. www.edetours.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Talent Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.