Don't waste your money hiring high performers. That's right. So says Mike Figliudo at the thoughtLEADER LLC blog. And he makes some sound points about the strategy of hiring "stars"; mainly that we often hire them for all the wrong reasons, without thinking beyond our immediate needs.
From Mike's post ...
Why do we want to hire high performers in the first place? There's the belief that their amazing skill set can either save us from the dire situation we're in or can create that massive new growth idea we've been desperately seeking. We believe their stellar track record will rub off on our teams and make us all better at what we do. Sure those things might happen.
He speaks of the flight risk created when a high performer is hired to address a near-term problem without sufficient thought about mid- or even longer-term engagement and challenges. And he asks the particularly important question: Why not take a chance on a current employee? Support someone on the inside taking a shot at the problem? Use it as an opportunity to grow the talent you already have on hand?
These choices invariably have pay implications as well. I've seen the turmoil caused within organizations when one particular manager or executive insists in filling every open position with people way over-qualified for the roles that has been defined, creating pay equity and compression issues as well as - eventually - a turnover problem when the employee bolts in frustration 9 to 18 months later.
Sometimes this problem is a symptom of weak management; leaders who would rather buy and throw "star power" at a problem that do the difficult coaching and development work needed to help the current team take it on. It can also be an issue of misalignment, where the staffing, development and compensation strategies are out of whack with one another - i.e., you can't bring in and expect to keep exceptionally high performers unless you have the ability to appropriately challenge, advance and reward them.
What's your experience?
Ann Bares is the Editor of Compensation Café, Author of Compensation Force and Managing Partner of Altura Consulting Group LLC, where she provides compensation consulting services to a wide range of client organizations. She earned her M.B.A. at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School and enjoys reading in her spare time. Follow her on Twitter at @annbares.
Image: Creative Commons Photo "Shooting Stars" by GanMed64
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