SUCCESSFACTORS / WHITEPAPER WInnIng THROUgH TAlEnT In UnCERTAIn TImES 3. Focus on your core talent and invest where it counts. Not all positions are created equal. Some positions are simply more critical to the successful execution of your business strategy. Are you investing accordingly in those positions — whether your strategy is defensive or offensive? Your top talent — loyal in the good times — may get anxious, frustrated and disenchanted in a downturn. Unlike the under-performers, who stay put in a downturn, top performers have more opportunities to leave you. Your competitors are targeting your top people and this will intensify in a down market. How are you going to respond? Underwater stock options have little retention value. To keep employees motivated, energized, and engaged, it is critical that you make them feel secure, and confident that they have a critical role in your plan for the business. Good employees are always valuable, but outstanding performers who can help you grow your business against the broader market trend are like fine diamonds — and should be treasured accordingly. Knowing that high performers make a disproportionate contribution to the success of your business, shouldn’t your organization make a disproportionate investment in identifying them, developing them, and paying them? Now is the time to identify the talent that will be essential for your new strategic direction and invest heavily when others are cutting. That investment should focus not only on retaining top performers, but on addressing gaps in skill sets with training/development — because when your core talent is thriving, you can do more with less. If possible, you should even be looking outward to the market where good talent is likely to be available to hire. In retail banking — an industry facing a severe economic downturn — forward-thinking organizations are looking to invest in key talent today, so that they can be ready to capitalize on the opportunity when the market rebounds. Says Brent Carter, Vice President Talent Management and Workforce Planning at Fifth Third Bank: “ WE WAnT TAlEnT focuS To BE yEAR-RounD. IT SHoulD BE juST PART of A MAnAGER’S joB, A lEADER’S joB, To focuS on TAlEnT: AM I oPTIMIzInG THE TAlEnT THAT I HAvE? AM I DEvEloPInG THEM? AM I vERy clEAR on ExPEcTATIonS? AM I clEAR on WHERE THEIR PERfoRMAncE lEvElS SHoulD BE? AM I PRovIDInG THE fEEDBAck I nEED To? … AnD I THInk A loT of coMPAnIES MAyBE Don’T REAlIzE THAT. THEy’RE focuSED So MucH on THE BoTToM lInE, THEy’RE noT focuSInG on TAlEnT. I THInk WE’RE GoInG To BE MucH BETTER PREPARED WHEn THAT BuBBlE oPEnS uP.” Source: “Fifth Third Bank: Putting People First” Talent Management Magazine, June 2008. Note: Fifth Third is a 22,000 employee retail bank and a SuccessFactors’ customer. 7