The Wall Street Journal headline declares "Yahoo Battles Brain Drain Amid Uncertain Times" even as "the company is continuing to hire aggressively to fill its ranks..."
It's actually a fairly common scenario in any industry -- particularly technology, energy and certain healthcare segments at the moment. Unfortunately, the typical response is fairly common, too. Flavor-of-the-month retention efforts start springing up everywhere. The CEO broadcasts a company-wide video aimed at calming fears. An FAQ (frequently-asked-questions) document is distributed to line management in hopes that they'll toe the company line in communicating with their direct reports. In some cases, an expensive bidding war breaks among competitors for top talent.
But senior managers often lose sight of a simple fact: not all work is created equal.
The right strategic approach in managing a brain drain situation is to apply the principles of segmentation and portfolio management. That's a proven way to assess the relative value each role in a company plays in executing a company's strategy. Before running off to the HR department and the internal communications team for a list of tactical recommendations, managers should get answers to a few fundamental questions:
- Where does the highest value work really reside in the organizational chart? (It might well not reside in one of the boxes at the top.)
- What the most critical capabilities needed to execute our strategy?
- How many people with those critical capabilities do we need? Where are they?
- Which talent gaps pose the greatest risk to our ability to execute our business strategy?
We think the leader who can answer those questions is in a much stronger position to put forward a strategic workforce plan and recommend investments in retaining and attracting people that are most important to the needs of the business.
But what do you think? What's worked for your company in keeping the true "value creators" and putting a stopper on the brain drain?
Add new comment