Feature

Fast track to success

Identifying the best employees and putting them on the fast track, is effective in retaining talent and enhancing productivity, says Faiz Askari

Organisations today understand the need to identify and develop exceptional employees fast, to build the pipeline of leadership talent. In a dynamic business environment, the career track of good talent should grow in proportion to organisational growth. It is important to monitor the performance levels of individuals.  Employee performance in various roles at different times is a strong indicator of  one’s competence in handling greater responsibilities and contribute to organisational goals.  

Manpower is the most important asset in any organisation. It is necessary to nurture individuals who have the potential and business acumen to be the future leaders or pillars of a company. Emphasising the importance of nurturing talent and encouraging employees to grow rapidly, George Van Der Merwe, COO, Sahara Computers, states, “Most people leave an organisation when they feel that their knowledge and skills are not being utilised to the fullest extent. Every individual wants to be a part of organisational growth and wishes to develop as an individual in the company. It is thus important for leaders to work out the PDP (Personal Development Plan) for each individual to map his/her career. An employer who offers good career prospects is a preferred employer.” 

Rekhi Singh, Chairman and CEO, R Systems, acknowledges the importance of fast track employee growth in an organisation, “High performance breeds self- confidence, motivates emplo-yees and ultimately leads to higher productivity. By keeping an eye on individual performances, HR managers can understand who is competent to handle greater responsibilities and can contribute to organisational goals. This can help the employee as well as the organisation.” 

Consistent performance is the key for formulating career growth plan of individuals. Clarity of career path drives and motivates individuals towards exemplary performance levels, which would mutually benefit an organisation and its employees.

D G Subramaniam, VP-HR, CSM Software, says, “Organi-sations rank employees to ensure that the best talent are retained at premium compensation. On the flip side, it’s also important to track non-performers, to support them in scaling up in a defined time frame. Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) would serve as an important document to track the performance and give a timely feedback.” 

Identifying fast achievers

Generally, organisations have clear-cut policies for conducting performance-level measurements. This can give them more structured results, which is beneficial to them as well as their employees. 

“Most high-performing organisations have well-established performance measurement and management mechanisms in place. This is an essential practice for evaluating their employees’ productivity,” states Singh. 

Van Der Merwe believes that to spot fast achievers, an organisation should focus on the KSA technique—an individual’s knowledge base, desired skills and the right attitude. The KSA technique helps to track fast achievers better. Detailed job profiles increases the chances of identifying the person.

The process of locating best performers and putting them on fast track typically includes: 

• Multi-dimensional feedback
• Formal appraisal system 
• Customer/third party appreciation 

However, it is important to identify fast achievers, and the tools to recognise them on a quarterly basis are:   

• Variable pay structures
• Competence mapping
• Training need identification  

Fast-trackers should be assigned challenging tasks and their consistent ability to do so is an indicator that they will perform well in leadership positions. Subramaniam says, “It is important that top achievers are always assigned challenging tasks which facilitates them to derive a sense of achievement.”  

For an employee, being marked as a fast-tracker can make a great difference to his career. For the company, it could well be a strategy to retain the individual. Highlighting the importance of such a policy, which can identify an employee as an achiever, Singh says, “It is very decisive for the employee.  Quick achievers are strong candidates for accelerated growth and potential leaders in an organisation.” 

Issues before HR managers 

The greatest challenge invariably confronting HR managers is to create an environment that is conducive to unabridged performance management activity in an organisation and to maintain objectivity. Singh states, “Although managing the performance of employees is actually a big challenge, I believe that implementation of all such activities in the organisation is the key to business success.” 

HR managers should have ongoing interaction with the employees and their managers to ensure that the key performers are motivated and do not look around for other job options. 

Subramaniam adds, “It is also important that healthy relationships are fostered between such employees and their managers to avoid employee de-motivation.” 

He also believes that HR managers should proactively come up with career/succession plans to ensure retention of top performers. In most organisations leadership/key positions are filled by progressing the key performers and the latter’s positions are filled up by lateral acquisitions. 

Highlighting the importance of flawless systems and processes, Van Der Merwe says, “If you have the right kind of systems and processes in place, it is not that difficult to dig out the information.”

He however points out a common problem—when an individual from a department is picked up as the best worker, it sometimes demotivates others who have also worked hard to excel. 

Dual benefits

High performers can contribute majorly to the growth and profitability of an organisation. In return, the employee gets recognition and experiences astronomical growth in his career. 

While highlighting some of the organisational benefits of having this practice, Subramaniam states, “Organisations are benefited by retaining their key talents and leveraging their retention strategies. This would also help in demonstrating the intentions of the organisation. Replacement costs are substantial and it helps companies in optimising those expenses.” This apart, employees are benefited monetarily in terms of the stature they enjoy within the organisation.

A clear-cut HR policy will help companies. Van Der Merwe says, “By implementing these kinds of policies, companies can retain their star employees for a longer time and motivate others to do better. They have a good career in the organisation if they perform and stay in a growing company like ours. On the other hand, this kind of initiative will boost the confidence and financial status of individuals. This will advance their performance level to a great extent. With high attrition rates in the corporate sector, today retention is a key challenge for all organisations in all sectors.”

In today’s business environment, the right kind of processes, systems and policies are very important. A lucid policy on highlighting the work of fast achievers will definitely give better results for the organisation.

“Over the last few years, monetary and non-monetary recognitions have proved effective motivators for high performers, which in turn has helped in creating an environment/organisational culture of high performance,” adds Singh.

If organisations continue their constructive and nurturing approach towards new talent, they and their employees will successfully achieve all business and personal goals.