Retention Management - A key role for HR

HR and the Time Dimension

Most of us would agree that today’s environment is considerably more complex than that which pertained in the '80s and '90s. Legislation, technology, scarce skills, competition and discontinuity mean that the job of the HR Manager is at best a tricky one!

Moreover, most HR functions have been downsized and are left with little or no administrative support. Centralised services have taken away admin assistants and with the plethora of things to be done, some things have just got to go. We can’t carry on trying to provide the same level of service to all employees.

It is not just HR that is in this situation. Line Managers have been delayered and downsized, and have a considerably greater workload than before. Most organisations are installing one new system or another, and with the day job to do as well, it means that many Line Managers simply don't have time for new or existing HR initiatives (however well conceived). If we could save them some time by eliminating some of the existing HR bureaucracy we’d be heroes.

In times of rapid change, things that take a long time to introduce, sometimes finish up solving yesterday’s problem. Many organisational issues and problems need a rapid response and by the time you have implemented some HR solutions, the solution is out of date.

It is in this context that HR has to recognise the difference between the important and the urgent. This is not often as straightforward as it sounds as HR’s work is conditioned by history and previous expectations.

If we can't provide a first class service to everybody (and with time constraints we can't) do we spend our energy and efforts on the good people, the average people or the less good? In my opinion, the best business return comes from spending time with the best. It is easier to make someone who is good even better, rather than improve someone who is less good.

Thus, in establishing HR's agenda and its priorities, one of the critical roles for HR in today's environment must be to help keep, develop and motivate the good people with scarce skills. This, of course, means knowing who they are and making sure that sufficient time and attention is spent with them.

HR Tools

Many of these were invented when time was much more available than it is today. Competency frameworks only work well if they are fit for purpose and sufficiently precise to determine the difference between good and bad performers. Yet how many HR functions have the resources of both time and money to actively identify the correct competencies required today and tomorrow, the differences between functions and departments, and then train busy managers how to measure 'people against them'.

Similarly, is it feasible for a busy Line Manager to conduct 15 two hour appraisals when he's got SAP to implement and also service his customers.

Development centres sometimes take 3 days to tell us what we already know.

Hay job evaluation was a good product for the '60s and '70s when it was a good example of a tool designed for the rigid organisations that then existed, but is not appropriate for the flexible environment of the 21st century.

And so on and so on!

The question really is not whether these products are any good but whether the output is worth the time and effort spent. Moreover should we be spending less time on these "one size fits all" techniques, or should we be making sure that we get as close as we can to the key people in our organisation, and get to understand their needs and wants.

So having attacked most of HR's sacred cows …what do we need to do?

A key component of HR's role is to manage the talent! To do this you have to define knowledge and skill sets for each major functions, key performance criteria, rate people against both dimensions and ensure that effective management processes are in place for different categories of employee. They will not be the same solutions.

This is probably a process done in conjunction with management teams, and used to define the annual people planning process. It need not be surrounded by HR jargon but HR has a key role in driving and facilitating the meetings.

At Risk List

The "at risk list", is simply a device for ensuring that each organisation knows those employees who are at risk i.e. if the organisation lost them it would be significantly disadvantaged; and then does eveything possible to keep them. Social science (Finegold and Mohrman) indicate that the key retention variables are to do with:

• A clear and compelling strategy;
• An innovative environment low in bureaucracy;
• Challenging work assignments that allow employees to grow their capabilities;
• Rewards based at least in part on how the organisation performs.

Whatever dimensions you include should be relevant and particular to the group under discussion.

HR has a role to ensure that each of those individuals on the list gets an annual employment check-up just in the way that they would receive an annual health check or financial advice.  

Succession Planning

Time does not permit us to conduct succession planning for all employees, so we have to ensure that we plan for succession for the critical few. Succession planning in today’s context must be different from that which took place in previous years. We now have to make sure that we have got plans in place to replace critical employees.

Summary

We need a methodology for identifying those individuals we want to keep, we have to think of the ways of keeping them and we have to develop succession plans, as belt and braces.