Guest Blog by Alan Weiss
➔ I don't believe in "the great resignation." Sorry, I know this is causing syncope among the media. But people don't leave companies, they leave bad bosses. If organizations jettisoned the four lousy leaders that infest them they'd save 50 departures. And all those people in hospitality or retail or travel aren't leaving to become EMTs or aeronautical engineers or chemists. They'll be back, unless the government decides to simply provide stimulus checks for everyone, forever.
Here's the future of attracting and nurturing talent: You don't put people into existing "packages," you design packages around people. Isn't that what we've done as entrepreneurs (although some of us, incredibly, have worse bosses now than when we had corporate jobs)? The organization will ask about needs for child care, income, discretionary time, benefits, agency (autonomy), socialization, self-development, and so forth. No more round pegs in square holes. No more pre-existing "holes."
The space for talent will be customized around the talent's reasonable needs. The more important the talent, the more you customize.
Many years ago, a Fortune 20 client asked me what they could do to attract minority candidates to a position when they were constantly outbid, given their compensation plan, by other organizations since very few minority candidates were in the field. I told them to do two things: First, provide scholarships and support to attract more minorities to the discipline in school. Second, forget the compensation policy and make "heroic efforts" to attract whomever they need for the sake of their customers and their future.
And that's exactly what they did, and why I can spend my time writing this for you today. Value based fees means one pays for value, but that payment isn't merely or only in money. The payment involves creating individualized, positive, productive conditions and environments.
And I hope you're doing that for yourselves, as well. Wealth is discretionary time.
“Reprinted with permission” © Alan Weiss 2021