Every week, I review blogs that cover talent development to find the very best talent development posts. This week, you’ll find pointers to pieces about mass exodus, a pay raise as retention tool, telling the truth, 360 appraisals, and lessons from the Army.
From TLNT: Sound the Alarm: More People Are Quitting Than Being Laid Off
“We’ve heard warnings about how our workforce is disengaged and being artificially kept in jobs due to fear of changing employers. And, we’ve heard that there is a hidden crisis of employee engagement that won’t reveal itself until it is too late to do anything about it.”
Wally’s Comment: Lance Haun reviews some of the data about people leaving jobs and searching for jobs in the current economy. He covers a range of opinions and interpretations. With so many predicting mass exoduses in an improving economy, you’ll want to read this.
From DDI: Would a Pay Raise Keep You Around?
“Last week Google announced it would increase its employees’ pay by 10% to help ensure it can attract and retain the best and the brightest talent. The company has had some notable talent defections to competitors such as Facebook.”
Wally’s Comment: Mike Hoban does a superb job of wending through various points of view before drawing his own conclusion about pay raises as a retention tool. I have one question about this. Does it really make sense that a 10 percent raise spread around the workforce will really keep the people you value most?
From Compensation Force: Work Reality May Bite, But Honesty Rules
“There’s no greater disservice to employees than trying to sell them a piece of fiction about the nature of their relationship with their employer. Fact is, success at most organizations requires hard work done to demanding standards.”
Wally’s Comment: Ann Bares warns HR not to fudge things. Tell the truth about everything including working conditions and what’s really valued in your organization.
From Great Leadership: Do’s and Don’ts for Having a 360 Degree Assessment Development Discussion
“A 360 degree assessment is a great way for a manager to get feedback on their strengths and development needs. As a follow-up, the recipient of this great feedback should review the data with their manager as a springboard to a development discussion. While this sounds like a good idea in theory, I’ve seen way too many managers screw it up. Here are some lessons learned, from both the perspective of the 360 participant, and their own manager (the “coachâ€).”
Wally’s Comment: Everyone is a fan of 360-degree assessments it seems. But there’s precious little available on how to do them well. Dan McCarthy’s post goes a long way toward fixing that lack.
From HBR: Bleeding Talent: The U.S. Military’s Leadership Breakdown
“The Army’s double loss of this one officer symbolizes a publicly invisible crisis: a military personnel system that bleeds talent. To be fair, Rice doesn’t think of his choices as the Army’s failure, and has nothing but admiration for the men and women in uniform. I’m less forgiving because my focus is on organizational design. And on that score, the Army is stuck in a management mindset half a century out of date.”
Wally’s Comment: This is your “chew this slowly” post for the week. Read the post carefully. Follow the links. Then analyze how your company might be like the Army.
