What if you stopped wasting your talents in companies? – by Bruno Chaintron

Organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to assign the right resources to the right positions. A waste of talent – therefore of money – that could be avoided.
The turnover of companies has more than doubled in the space of 25 years, across all sectors, according to Dares[1]. Although these figures cover different realities depending on the companies, they demonstrate that organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to assign the right resources to the right positions. A waste of talent – therefore of money – that could nevertheless be avoided.

The difficulties of recruiting, integrating, and then retaining employees are more than ever the reality of many companies. Already in 2015, as Dares[2] pointed out, more than one third of permanent contracts were terminated before one year. With the emergence of other forms of work (temporary work, freelancing, etc.), this phenomenon is not improving today, all the less so since younger generations no longer hesitate to leave their employer if they do not find meaning in their work. Moreover, in the 3rd quarter of 2021, Dares[3] recorded more than 620,000 resignations and mutually agreed contract terminations, a figure up 20% compared to 2019, an example of the “Great Resignation” phenomenon. And this despite the repeated efforts of companies regarding well-being at work. Yet, the latter should not be assessed solely by the number of vacation days or the presence of a ping-pong table in the break room.

Job descriptions that are too “siloed”
What employees are primarily looking for is to hold a position in line with their level of skills and their professional aspirations. However, too many companies forget this requirement on a daily basis. The reason is that job descriptions are still defined in a “top-down” way, and not with the main stakeholders. Result: employee engagement plummets, trust issues arise, and talents leave the company. And this is not without consequences for companies, which must not only restore their employer brand but also recruit in a hurry to replace departing talents. Yet the direct and indirect costs, hidden or not, of these “bad hires” can represent up to 20% of the payroll for executive populations.

Towards a more learning-oriented company
To curb this problem, it is enough to allocate the right resources to the right positions. Nothing more, nothing less. Simply moving around an organizational chart is not enough. Using assessment to identify the best potential is not enough either. Rather, this requires structuring one’s talent management strategy around a dynamic mapping of skills (and desires!), both current and future. In the midst of transformation, a large group recently offered its employees the opportunity to build their future roles within the new organization and let their managers arbitrate. At the end of this “bottom-up” process, employees’ preferences were almost all respected. The company then invested in training to upgrade the skills of its employees.

Ready to change your mindset?
Because it is indeed the combination of the two – revisiting roles and then training talents – that enables companies to improve their retention rate. And this is very timely: according to a study[4] conducted by OpinionWay, one in two employees would like to ask their manager to give them the means to progress, whether by negotiating their tasks within the company (26%) or the training courses they would like to access (35%). To frame this type of initiative aimed at reshaping positions, it is also possible to turn to job crafting tools. These are a good starting point for organizations that want to clarify or develop each person’s responsibilities, and that are willing to better mobilize their talents, individually and collectively, in their transformation.

Op-ed by Bruno Chaintron, Director Grant Alexander – HR & Organization Transformation, for the Journal du Net.
[1] Source: Dares (Direction de l’Animation de la recherche, des Études et des Statistiques), turnover rose from 10.4% in Q1 1998 to 25.7% in Q4 2017
[2] Source: Dares, analysis no.005, January 2015
[3] Source: Dares, “Workforce movements in Q2 2021”
[4] Source: Study conducted in May and June 2022 by OpinionWay for Grant Alexander, carried out among 1,042 employees of private companies