Why HR & Talent Management Functions are More Important than Ever

When it comes to executive search, firms across the country have at least one catalyst for staying busy: organizations do not protect all of their stars. Most often, the candidates we find to fill new client positions are passive. These professionals are reasonably happy at their current employer, but their Highest Career Goals & Aspirations (HCGA) reach above and beyond their current position. Executive leaders are willing to take our calls and listen to our client value proposition when they hear that our client’s role fits their ambitions.

Protecting Your Stars

This passive candidate scenario tends to ensue because HR and talent management leadership is lacking, a theme that has been exacerbated by the remote office. High potential candidates and emerging leaders rarely know where they stand because no one takes the time to ask them whether they can reach their HCGA at their current organization. Practically speaking, these exchanges should be had twice per year with your best and brightest.

Let’s be honest; these untraditional conversations are not easy, but if an organization is candid with their leaders, they can brainstorm a solution that suits them both. For those candidates who cannot achieve their HCGA within the current organization, you can help them map out a plan to obtain a role externally while they groom a successor prior to their departure.

Conversely, for the candidate who has upward mobility with runway and upside left in their career and who can achieve it in your organization, you must take one or more of the following actions to retain these emerging leaders:

1. If the candidate is below the C-suite or executive team level, they should be proactively paired with a champion or sponsor in the C-suite.
2. Organizations should utilize an assessment tool such as Hogan, Calipers or Strength Finder to identify gaps or blind spots in a candidate’s career experience or competency profile. Those blind spots can then be shored up within the organization, so it does not suffer. Remember a good leader does not have to have it all. They must have a preponderance of it all and they need to be able to lead it all, and any gaps they have must be ably filled by one of their direct reports.
3. Candidates need to be given a challenge or stretch assignment to gain the experience needed for their next role. This can include a promotion, strategic lateral move or a large group management assignment.

Regardless of the outcome of these twice-yearly conversations, the HR/Talent Management function is taking a proactive role. They are managing and engaging their best talent as opposed to reactively responding to a candidate’s notification that they have accepted another offer. By employing these preemptive talent strategies, organizations ultimately reduce their regretted losses and save themselves 2-3x salary in a new hiring process.

A Crucial Equation: IQ + PE < EQ + RC

In the United States, executives often want to convert subject matter expert (SME) and strong individual contributor (SIC) employees into something they are not. For instance, some SMEs/SICs are just that and they are content in that role. They do not have the relationship capital (RC), or emotional intelligence (EQ) to take on a leadership role. Nurturing the best and brightest is as much a focus on EQ as IQ. We like to think of emerging leaders in terms of this equation: IQ + PE < EQ + RC.

In other words, in terms of advancing one’s career in pursuit of your HCGA, EQ and Relationship Capital (RC) are more important than IQ and Personal Experience (PE). Companies needs to be shoring up the emotional intelligence, relationship and interpersonal capabilities of their leaders. Not all emerging leaders have these skills, but they are key to maintaining board, customer and community relationships. More importantly, if a candidate is forced into a leadership position that does not truly match his or her HCGA, they will be inclined to move to a company that better suits their needs or otherwise be vulnerable and receptive to taking calls from executive search professionals.

Navigating the Remote Office

The new remote office reality weighs heavily on establishing and maintaining efficient leadership roles. After 18 months of high productivity in a home office, many employees will leave an organization if they are forced to return to an office full time. Therefore, you must be open and honest about what will make a post-pandemic leader inclined to stay at your organization. A flexible remote schedule allows leaders to be productive while maintaining better work/life balance than before the pandemic. However, the flexibility must go both ways. Emerging leaders must maintain some presence in an office with and among peer executives and leaders to boost the ever-important RC component described above.

In particular, working remotely may over time negatively impact minority and women executives most if these individuals are unwilling to be present to nurture and cultivate RC by leveraging those key relationships and decision-makers as they pursue their HCGA. The nature of what they must do to be seen beyond their IQ cannot happen with a fully remote situation. By being present and investing in RC, these and all individuals can develop and cultivate relationships with multiple influencers who can champion and sponsor for them in terms of achieving their HCGA.

The proliferation and increased popularity of remote working brings new dimensions, dynamics and challenges to emerging leader career growth. Thus, a client’s HR/Talent Management functions are more critical than ever before. CEOs and Executive Directors should partner with HR to impose a fresh focus on emerging leaders. Be proactive and make regular conversations about HCGA part of a semi-annual and annual review processes and cease keeping secret the identities of ALL high potential and succession planning eligible leaders in your organization.

Emerging leaders who are consistently unsure of where they stand and how they are positioned (or not) for promotions are more susceptible to external recruitment. While not everyone is cut out to be an executive leader, for those who do have the chops, you should do whatever you can to protect and preserve these assets and investments going forward. Best practice organizations that leverage these unique and compelling strategies will improve emerging leader retention, maximize talent ROI and drive greater profitability.