This morning’s Harvard Business Review Management Tip went straight to the heart of talent development. But the tip, “To Attract the Best Talent, Offer Meaningful Work,” only tells part of the story.
The challenge isn’t simply to “attract the best talent.” It’s to attract them, retain them, and help them develop. And it’s not just about “meaningful” work. It’s about work that’s interesting and meaningful.
Attracting top talent is great, but if your organization is just an elaborate revolving door, you’ll never get the benefit of that talent. Retention and development are the ways you turn potential into performance.
People want to be a contributing part of something that is bigger than they are. The current fashion is to describe “meaningful” work as contributing to greater social good in some non-business way. I suggest you broaden that idea.
Think of meaningful in terms of contribution. They may contribute to a cause, such as eradicating hunger or building smart homes for disabled veterans. But the leaders I talked with over the years also talk about contributing to their company or to their customers in much more mundane ways.
You can help people understand the meaningful impact of their work all you want, but it’s not enough. If people are bored out of their skulls, they’ll disengage and take the first opportunity to head for the door.
Work has to be interesting, too. Interesting means challenging, but not overwhelming. It’s work where people can learn and grow and make progress.
Don’t limit your definition of meaningful work. Provide interesting and meaningful work and you won’t just recruit the best, you’ll keep them and develop them, too.
