“Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
Labour Politics Kill Organizational Growth
Organizations play politics; not government politics but politics with the people who work in their organization. Many organizations lose “The War on Talent” either because they lack vital skills and competencies in their recruitment and selection process or they do not address the needs of their current workforce in a timely and efficient manner.
A person’s CV only says to an extent the skills and competencies they possess, but getting to know the individual through training and performance tests eventually unveils their true nature. This is why most successful organizations prefer a pre-employment training to put to the test the people they have recruited to identify their actual traits. These traits are not written on their CVs but are expressed through the quality of the individual’s work. Of course, this training may be expensive but it sure does save the organization from the risk of employing an average employee or a less competent individual for the particular role.
Obviously, not all positions or vacancies necessarily need this approach. However, if the role is a strategic or technical one which is vital to the success of the organization’s core mission, then this is very necessary. Other organizations also save themselves the trouble by head-hunting people with a proven track record in these technical or strategic roles and poach them from other organizations. This also works though it is described in some circles as unethical.
Talent retention is a difficult process. Why? Because employees are human. We have ever changing needs and wants that may not be satisfied immediately by the organizations we work for. This makes us want to leave for seemingly better pasture. Our work motivation gradually gets dampened. Our frustration leads us to expose our current problems to outsiders. We tell our friends how much we hate our jobs, and become like oysters who decide to take a break when the moon is full. We open up to stretch out and look for other opportunities. When a competitor company sees the quality we possess and becomes aware of our constant complains, they swoop in like crabs with offers that prevent us from closing our shells and eventually become meat to them. Sadly not every employee who gets head-hunted is happy in their new role.
Like sheep, we follow the money instead of the quality of work and work opportunities that can help us build life-long fantastic careers. Obviously the money will come later, but we can’t wait because we have bills to pay. Once we get lured into a different organization, we enjoy the money and the pleasures. However, the work load is so massive and the expectation is so great because the employees and management of our new organization expect us to deliver on the results to which we were brought to achieve. That huge expectation causes the careers of most employees to take a downward toll. Most are unable to fulfill their new mandates because they weren’t fully trained in their previous work roles and thus do not have the requisite experience needed at the time to deliver upon these new results.
Money is a good work motivation. However, most employees put themselves out there as possessing the ability to work extra hard or successfully in a new role. Eventually they break down because their internal psychological motivation for taking up the job in the first place was the money and not career development. Understand this: a poached employee is one who is expected to deliver results. These organizations have no time to train you. An employee with an entry level career experience is advised to choose to work in an organization that has proper succession planning and management techniques designed to provide opportunities to help build a long-term successful career path. An organization that is focused only on hitting targets and scaling in revenues, without focusing on the career development of their younger generation is a no go area. Most of their leadership have already developed skills and traits to take such organizations to a higher level. These organizations are meant for individuals who have high level competencies to transform such an organization to become an industry leader or prepare it to enter a new market.
