Some organisations who have achieved their growth targets have done it with the same people they started the journey with, but many more have not, changing people at every level throughout the journey. Whatever the case, growth is achieved by having the right people in the right place at the right time, achieved through a combination of attracting, developing and then retaining those people.
Brand is a big factor in attracting talent, and some are more attractive than others. Volkswagen is currently probably less attractive than it was, whereas Apple is certainly as attractive as ever. LinkedIn has made it easier for potential recruits to evaluate the attractiveness of an organisation, and a specific job, with bad news travelling faster than good news.
Once talent is attracted, developing them is the key to retaining them, so rather than expecting new recruits ‘just’ to do the job, offer them a clearly articulated path to progressing. Another key to retaining talent is ensuring they have a clear understanding of where the organisation is going, how they are going to get there, and their role in that journey. Salary and benefit are also a major factor of course.
Great leadership at every level is the final factor; remember, people join organisations but leave leaders. Great leaders and managers inspire exceptional levels of loyalty, and exceptional levels of discretionary effort. One of our best performing customers has a great leader, a great leadership team, and way above average talent retention. They also have a well communicated three year growth strategy.
In summary, be sure to include a talent work stream in your growth strategy.
The next blog in this series looks at the fifth dimension of a successful growth strategy – Developing new and existing value propositions