Introduction
The article titled ‘Non Profits Can’t Keep Ignoring Talent Development’ is about the increasing turnover, which is a concern experienced by several organizations during the various phases. Rust et al. (1996) suggested that retaining employees is a major challenge for all organization because when organizations fail to make the employees satisfied, motivated and fell like a valuable part of the organization, they hunt for better opportunities where they can grow professionally and build on their skill set. Hiring the right kind of employees is equally important as retaining them. Organizations usually ignore this aspect of employee retention due to which the turnover rate increases and ultimately, the reputation gets affected (Sheridan, 1992). The two main HR issues which came up after the analysis of the given article are a lack of mentorship and opportunities for development or career growth. In the absence of proper guidance from seniors and presence of no career development opportunities for employees, rate of dissatisfaction increases and switching for better employers takes place.
The Two Main Issues of HR
We identified the two main issues of human resource management after carrying out the analysis of the mentioned article which are related to employee retention and talent management. These issues are (a) lack of leadership or mentorship, and (b) lack of growth and development opportunities in the organization. We will consider these issues one by one.
Lack of Mentorship
Employees feel motivated to fulfill their job responsibility when they have a direction and when they know that they can always look up to someone for guidance. When there is no leader in an organization, there exists no inspiration for employees to perform in a better manner. The absence of proper mentoring and coaching makes the employees dull and they are unable to do their tasks in an effective and efficient manner (Greene and Puetzer, 2002). Various examples have been mentioned in the article which reveals that whenever the culture of leadership is encouraged in an organization, employees exhibit readiness to fulfill their jobs. A leader is someone who inspires other not by force, but through his personality traits and charisma. The role of leadership can be played by anyone in the organization belonging to senior management. Proper and timely guidance from senior helps the employee hone his behavior and skills in a balanced manner.
Some organizations fear that if they polish the confidence and skills of individuals by offering them the opportunity to seek help from mentors, they might feel empowered and seek better opportunities for growth and development. This, however, cannot be the case. If the employees are familiar with the fact the organization where they work will take care of their leadership needs and engage senior management in providing timely, accurate and constructive feedback, they would have a clear idea that in future, they would have better and strong grip on their skills and job knowledge. Moreover, they will be able to groom their personalities in a better and professional manner which would make them stand out from other employees. So, leadership is basically an investment which would bear fruits for the success of the organization in the form of talent retention, dedication, loyalty and hard work from the employees’ end.
Opportunities for Career Growth and Development
Noe (2010) proposed that every employee belonging to an organization wishes to step up the career ladder as he acquires more skills and knowledge during the course of his job. Many organizations have very little or no growth opportunities for employees because they fear that once the employees acquire more skills and develop a professional approach towards their job, they might as well search for employers who offer a better working environment and compensation. What they fail to understand is that when the organization offers its employees promotions and raise in compensation, the employee turnover will decrease and more loyalty would be exhibited.
It must be understood that when an employee is promoted to a higher rank, he feels motivated to perform better. He gets the message that the organization's values and trusts his capabilities and skills to fulfill a higher job responsibility.
Employees lie at the core of any organization’s success which means that if an organization wishes to lead the competition, it must focus on retaining its talent (Lewis, Heckman, 2006). Polishing of human talent is mandatory for ensuring that the organization gets maximum output from its employees and reach its short term and long term objectives in an effective manner. Every employee possesses some kind of talent and skills which can be strengthened by offering chances for growth and career development. When good organizations hire employees, they discuss the career development pattern openly with them which motivates them in one way or the other to reach the top of the success ladder.
On the other hand, if the employee sees that even years after working with the same organization, he will have no opportunities for enhancing his skills and performing the job at advanced levels, he would feel hopeless, dissatisfied and he might seek other jobs which promise promotion every now and then. Turnover increases when employees see zero growth opportunities. Talent retention is therefore, a significant issue in the area of HR (Cappelli, 2008).
Summary and Conclusion
After conducting an in-depth analysis of the given article, we have seen that there are two main challenges faced by HR. These challenges or issues are related to the offering of mentorship and providing opportunities for growth and development for all employees. These two issues are linked to retention of talented employees. Retaining the employee is essential for ensuring the success of all organizations. The issue of employee turnover is on the rise at present which can be minimized by offering proper guidance and counseling opportunities as well as bright chances for moving up the career ladder.
References
Cappelli, P., 2008. Talent management for the twenty-first century. Harvard business review, 86(3), p.74.
Greene, M.T., and Puetzer, M., 2002. The value of mentoring: A strategic approach to retention and recruitment. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 17(1), pp.63-70.
Lewis, R.E., and Heckman, R.J., 2006. Talent management: A critical review. Human resource management review, 16(2), pp.139-154.
Noe, R.A., 2010. Employee training and development. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Rust, R.T., Stewart, G.L., Miller, H. and Pielack, D., 1996. The satisfaction and retention of frontline employees: A customer satisfaction measurement approach. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 7(5), pp.62-80.
Sheridan, J.E., 1992. Organizational culture and employee retention. Academy of management Journal, 35(5), pp.1036-1056.
