Talent. People.
It’s what every manager desperately wants, but often struggles to find, let alone retain.Why is this so difficult?Well, it’s largely due to the competing interests of the employer and the employee.
On one side, talented employees want to grow which means leaving behind their current role, while on the other, employers want talent to stay put, which requires their career sacrifice.Ultimately, finding the balance between retaining good staff and developing them so that they can fulfil larger aspirations is extremely difficult.
Managers who want to retain talent in their team may subconsciously restrict their development in the process.
But at the same time, most managers care about the career aspirations of their staff and want to do everything they can to support them.
And so arises a common challenge which we call the Manager’s Dilemma:
Should I focus on retaining staff and risk hindering their development, or should I develop my staff and risk losing them?
We all know that a mature response is the latter… but what if you could have both?In this article, we’re here to show you that you can.
We’ll unpack the fork in the road of development vs retainment and show you that managers can have their cake and eat it too when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent – let’s take a look.
Introducing the “Halo Effect”: the proof of concept
It seems logical that managers who invest heavily in the developmental growth of their team members will ultimately witness higher levels of attrition as these employees advance beyond their current roles.
However, it has long been theorised that nurturing an individual’s career development and aspirations creates an increased sense of support and loyalty on the part of that staff member, prompting them to remain with the organisation for an extended period.
Otherwise known as the “Halo Effect”, this phenomenon stems from the reciprocal nature of the employer-employee relationship, where genuine investment into an employee’s future leads them to adopt a sense of favour, dedication and loyalty in return.
Even when these team members do eventually part, they recount their positive experiences, contributing to an elevated reputation for both the manager and the organisation, improving talent acquisition.
In other words, a manager’s commitment to employee development can quickly become a magnet that attracts and retains the brightest individuals within the professional landscape.
Until recently, this effect had merely been a theory…
but now, after a recent study published in the Academy of Management Journal, Advance ’Em to Attract ’Em: How Promotions Influence Applications in Internal Talent Markets, we have direct evidence of its existence.
Why the “Advance ’Em to Attract ’Em” mantra works.
The "Advance 'Em to Attract 'Em" study is the first major study that provides evidence in favour of the long-theorised “Halo Effect”, at least as it relates to the Manager’s Dilemma.
The study focused on the internal talent marketplace of HealthCo, a large U.S.-based health services organisation, and explored how managers' promotion activities influence job applications within the organisation.
The study hypothesised that managers who secured more “out-group promotions”(meaning promotions to positions under different managers) for their employees created a strong signal within the organisation and attracted more talent.After analysing 96,712 internal applications at HealthCo, they were proven right.
The study found that managers with higher out-group promotion rates in the previous year did send a signal. In fact, these managers received:
- more internal applications,
- more applications from high-performing employees, and
- more cross-functional applications for open positions,
and hence the study’s conclusion that managers need to “Advance ’Em to Attract ’Em”.
An important caveat: is the employee information gap.
This approach to talent development (as opposed to talent restriction) is selfless and noble, which is why most decent managers aspire to attain it. However, while managers may aim at this ideal in theory, it’s often difficult to carry out in practice.
This is because most managers cannot truly know what their employees’ aspirations are internally, especially if those aspirations involve different roles, departments and career paths that they are unfamiliar or inexperienced with.
As a result, an information gap between an employee’s true goals, and a manager’s perception of what their goals might be arises and this makes it hard to productively manage and develop the aspirations of an employee.Traditional approaches to developing and coordinating internal talent, such as:
- job ads,
- newsletters,
- word of mouth, and
- message board posts,
are a start. However, they are generally ineffective in prompting true talent development and internal mobility over the long term.
To overcome these challenges, managers and their organisations must find ways to encourage transparency (whilst upholding confidentiality), to gain more accurate insights into their employee’s future aspirations and less tangible skills – the type that isn’t present on a resume.
This means that they need an internal talent marketplace that acts as a bridge, connecting the knowledge and incentives of employees and decision-makers across departments to promote increased internal mobility.
So, how can you successfully embrace internal mobility within your organisation?
Well, with GoFIGR, it’s easy.
As an Internal Talent Marketplace platform, GoFIGR is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform designed to collect and intuitively analyse employee skill data so you can supercharge your Internal Mobility and truly embrace the power of the “Advance ’Em to Attract ’Em” phenomenon.
With valuable insights collected from your team, GoFIGR allows you to:
- identify your employees’ current skills
- align them with your business needs
- realise your team’s full potential
- reduce the cost of recruitment by upskilling from within
This way, you can capitalise on the Halo Effect and go and FIGR (Find, Inspire, Grow and Retain) talent with data-driven strategies
Your future team is already working for you.
Don’t let that talent go to waste – allow them to grow their career AND drive your business into its tomorrow.
It’s the ultimate way to build internal mobility, foster a progressive workplace culture and attract top talent to minimise your reliance on the hiring cycle.
Contact GoFIGR today to discover how we can help you foster a future-focused workforce using our internal talent marketplace platform.
Helena Turpin spent 20 years in talent and HR innovation where she solved people-related problems using data and technology. She left corporate life to create GoFIGR where she helps mid-sized organizations to develop and retain their people by connecting employee skills and aspirations to internal opportunities like projects, mentorship and learning.
