Last month I attended a conference where you spoke on the topic of employee retention and engagement. You emphasized the need to identify key employees (talent) and to treat them differently from other employees, making sure to recognize their superior contributions, to award them higher performance ratings, and to back that up with larger than average rewards. I went to my human resources people with some of your ideas, but I was told that I have to treat everybody the same. Now what do I do?

Thank you for attending my session. As I travel the continent speaking about retention and engagement issues, people often struggle with the very concept of differentiating the workforce and treating superior performers differently. This is because during the long buyer’s job market (more job seekers than jobs) that is now ending, there has developed the practice of equating fairness with sameness; that is, treating people fairly means treating them all pretty much the same. Your HR people are stuck in this assumption.

An outcome of putting this assumption into practice is that 75% of performance ratings are “satisfactory.” “Satisfactory” is the norm and all other ratings are exceptions. Exceptions attract attention, while norms tend not to. Attention means extra work, difficult conversations, trying to access rewards for superior performers, etc. It’s just easier to rate everybody the same.

But the fact is, there is nothing less fair than taking an average performance and a superior one and rating them the same.

Differentiating your workforce

Now that we’re in a seller’s job market (fewer job seekers than job vacancies) it’s becoming harder to find talent. That means it’s never been more important than now to keep the talent you’ve got. I know we’re in a recession, but it will end. And in any case, there are always opportunities for talent, recession or not. To do this you need to identify who your talent is; you need to differentiate the workforce.

Have you ever worked alongside someone whose performance was below standard? Everyone knew that this person wasn’t pulling his/her weight, but management did nothing about it. Do you recall what people whispered about management? In a buyer’s job market, you can get away with this because there are always resumes pouring in to HR, and plenty of choice when someone who leaves needs to be replaced.

However, in a seller’s market, talent will not work with underperformers if they conclude that management is indifferent. Talent will walk; talent is who the headhunters are calling because talent is a product they can move quickly.

Who is talent?

I use this rough and ready definition: talent is any employee you’re not prepared to face the future without. Talent is your high potential/high performer. Employees may be both high potential and high performers, or they may be high performers only, having already realized their potential. Your key employees are those who are growing your business or who have the potential to grow your business. Although you may not want to lose any of your employees, these are the ones that you can least afford to lose. They’re in short supply, and other agencies would love to have them.

The labour movement has helped over the years to cement the idea that treating people fairly means treating them the same. This underpins the seniority principle; you treat people differently based only on their years of service. However, enlightened union leaders are coming to understand that failing to deal with performance issues, for example, contributes to a disengaging workplace and a disengaged workforce.

Recognize superior talent

An associate of mine recently said that in an earlier role she had been singled out for her superior performance and given a special performance award and bonus. People disparaged this accomplishment with whispers of, “Who does she think she is? She’s nothing special.” They failed to realize that the award wasn’t for being a special person, but rather for a superior performance.

The buyer’s market culture says treat everybody the same, and disparages efforts to differentiate performances. In a seller’s market culture, people wouldn’t belittle performance awards; they’d say instead: “What do I have to do to get one of those?” When people react in that way, you know the culture is changing.

So if your HR people are resisting change, you may need to take matters into your own hands. As a start, I’ll send you the slides from the presentation that our reader refers to. Just send me an email: tim@gettingengaged.ca.

Good luck with it!

To submit a question for a future column, or to comment on a previous one, please contact editor@charityvillage.com. No identifying information will appear in this column. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Tim directly.

Tim Rutledge, Ph.D., is a veteran human resources consultant and publisher of Mattanie Press. You can contact him at tim_rutledge@sympatico.ca or visit www.gettingengaged.ca.

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