Taking Stock of, and Retaining Your A-Grade Talent
These days the war on talent is at unprecedented levels. Our resourcing strategies and resolve are being tested like never before.
Recently, the Australian Government and the National Skills Commission released the ‘2022 Skill Priority List Key Findings Report'. Some key findings include that 31% of the occupations assessed were in shortage compared to 19% in 2021. The report also showed that around 25% of unfilled professional vacancies remained unfilled despite employers finding suitable applicants due to the fact the applicant found alternative work in the same occupation elsewhere, which provides further evidence that there is intense competition for experienced and qualified workers.
So how do you not only win the war on talent but also find the right talent who can embody your business's core values to help you grow your company and, most importantly… keep them?
As a business growth advisor, part of my role is to provide our clients with the support and tools they need to scale their business. Our clients are accustomed to assessing their 'talent' on a minimum quarterly basis, using our aptly named "Talent Assessment" tool.
When it comes to their executive team and team members, this tool helps them assess their team members on two key dimensions:
The ability to do the job they are employed for, and
How they live and breathe the core values of your business
This assessment produces four categories of team members that exist in each organisation:
A Players: these are your star performers with great fabric that you must strive to retain, and you can build your business with
B Players: people who live your business's core values and who, with the proper training and support, will evolve into A Players
C Players: those who don't always excel at their job and seem to compromise your business core values too often
TOXIC A's: they are great performers in their current role but too often compromise your business's core values
Our 'Talent Assessment' Tool is a great tool to use when you want to take stock of your talent and generate valuable attraction, management and retention strategies in your staffing. It also highlights the need for the following actions:
Design and implementation of training and development requirements and opportunities for your B players to level up to A Players
Development and implementation of retention strategies for your A Players. What process, rewards, and challenges do you have planned to keep these A Players and ensure they keep your business thriving?
Recruitment requirements and strategies to replace C Players and any Toxic A players
Ongoing recruitment strategies - consider the effectiveness of bringing in only A and B players, i.e., Recruiting new staff as much for their alignment with your business core values as well as their capability
Leadership opportunities, what actions need to be taken to either convert or remove your Toxic A Players?
It's also an excellent tool to help you assess what percentage of your team are A Players. This is a super strategic, powerful, yet simple lead measure for your organisation’s effectiveness and ability to scale!