A Rising Tide of Talent
Opportunities for advancement are important, especially to top talent. They’re driven to achieve and desire recognition for their contributions. One of the ways they receive recognition is through advancement. Promotions provide proof that they’re valued by your organization, and give them an opportunity to take on new challenges.
Without clear advancement opportunities, your best employees could believe they’ll be forever stuck in their current roles. Seeing no way to climb up your org chart, they’ll leap into other jobs outside your company. That’s why a lack of advancement opportunities is a frequent cause of employee turnover.
Designing a career path is but one part of advancing employees’ careers. Another important part is often completely avoided because of its perceived risk. I learned about this “risk” early in my career.
Every year our company had an annual meeting. At the end of our two days together, it was tradition to have a Q&A session. Our CEO and his executive team sat at the front of room, answering our questions. Any topic was fair game.
I’d been thinking about my question for a while. I was a rising star, and was hoping to rise even faster. My question for the CEO: “How can I get on the fast track for promotion?” In his usual succinct fashion, he said, “That’s easy. Make yourself expendable.”
A deep silence descended over the room. As I looked around, I saw looks of horror on many faces. A few of my colleagues shot dirty looks my way, seeming to imply that I’d somehow caused harm in posing my question.
The CEO could see our discomfort. “I get it,” he said. “That’s an unsettling thing to hear. I was given the same answer when I was starting out in my own career. It made me squirm. However, that’s the reality. We can’t promote anyone who we still need in their current role.”
Many people remain stuck in their current jobs because they’re the only ones who can do that job. They can’t advance, even when there’s a career path for them. They can’t step up because there’s no one to take their place.
High Velocity Hiring fixes this problem by creating a rising tide of talent. Instead of succession plans that fail for lack of qualified successors, the continuous influx of top talent expedites advancement and elevates careers.
Your Talent Accelerator Process can propel your best employees up the org chart. This starts with your Hire-Right Profile. As you create Hire-Right Profiles, remain mindful about succession planning. Include traits, either as Dealmakers or Boosts, that will make new hires promotable. Using these profiles in each subsequent step of TAP ensures your organization can promote more often from within.
Will some employees still fail to make themselves expendable? Yes, but less often. Especially when you communicate your organization’s commitment to creating a rising tide of talent; and then, backing that up with a steady flow of quality employees that keep seats filled.
Many of the organizations that use the Talent Accelerator Process say it closes the loop. Instead of having to constantly look outside the organization for candidates, they look more often within. Their employees become an inventory of promotable people, giving them the ultimate stream of top talent—their own employees.
A rising tide of talent is but one of many ongoing benefits you’ll experience in using the Talent Accelerator Process. TAP will help you create your own ecosystem of powerful people who do quality work. Participating in the new way of hiring will give your organization an edge over competitors who remain stuck in the slow lane of hiring. Continued use of TAP will allow you to maintain a diverse Talent Inventory of exceptional employees who propel you into the future. A future filled with expanded opportunities. All because you’ve committed to being able to hire in an instant.