Let your talents go

As a recruiter, it is not uncommon to manage this type of situation where a competent talent leaves the company less than two years after its integration, once its mission is fulfilled. On the other hand, companies are not always ready to recruit profiles that are not projected in the medium or long term in an organization and that reason in terms of projects. However, this trend is real: joining a company in which career moves are known and anticipate scares some profiles. You have to learn to let go of certain talents and to influence in some cases the way companies manage them. The loss of talent is not inevitable and companies should not be afraid of it: they must accept it and prepare to manage this type of project career.

Change your mindset and accept these new “employee challenges”

The investments of schools and businesses in digital and technology have led to believe that there would be enough trained staff to take care of the jobs of tomorrow. Yet, studies show that companies will face a talent shortage: we estimate this deficit to 85 million people worldwide by 2030, across all sectors. At the same time, new entrants, especially those who have arrived in the labor market over the last decade, are increasingly working in the project mode and are more likely to be looking at an employer for a long time. These are structuring changes that leaders and HRDs can not ignore. So, rather than continuing to model the recipes of the past on a changing environment, why not change your approach and accept that these much-sought-after talents are just passing through? Why not accept to see them evolve elsewhere, sometimes even among competitors, to perhaps better find them in a more or less close future for a new project? There is no doubt that hiring an employee is a cost, but now you have to be prepared to work with talent with several short experiences, provided that they have demonstrated their business or organizational impact.

Setting up integration, training and compensation plans for these “short-term” talents can even make a major contribution to their success in your organization. They can be the engine of the company’s success because they have only one goal in mind: to carry out a large-scale project while developing their skills. In this new equation, both parties are winning.

Build on a lasting relationship rather than a long-term career

Agility is a word that companies have seized in recent years. But it should not be applied solely to project management. On the contrary, agility needs to be extended to management and talent development. You have to understand the drivers, the capacities and the ambitions of everyone to have the right people at the right time on the right mission. It is necessary for that to build a lasting relationship with these collaborators of a new kind. This relationship should be based on listening and respect to allow quality and benevolent exchanges between employees and employers. What is retained of a talent, it is not so much the lines of his CV but his personal history, his competences, the recommendations obtained and especially his results.

For some profiles, it will be necessary to adopt entrepreneurial approaches and reduce the organizational constraints that are often obstacles to their development.