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Engaging Your Best Performers - NOW!

by Eric Daugherty

The other shoe is about to drop. Your best wholesaler is starting to get calls from headhunters. Your National Accounts Manager is wondering about her next career move. Your up-and-comer just isn't feeling the same zest for coming to work. So, what are you going to do about it?

According to this article by the Conference Board, U.S. job satisfaction is at the lowest level in two decades. Most of the people I talk to can "feel" this inside their organizations - two years of market volatility, minimal hiring, raises, and promotions, contracted budgets, governmental haggling, and a tough economy have taken a toll on the collective psyche of American workers.

Yet, asset managers are back on firm financial footing. Our preliminary estimate of industry margins shows that firms are creeping back towards a very healthy financial state.

Source: kasina - quarterly financial reports of 11 of 14 publicly traded asset managers (those reporting before 2/9/10)

Now that firms are back on solid ground, expect lots of employee movement, with firms looking to upgrade talent, and stagnant workers looking for new opportunities. The game of musical chairs was temporarily suspended, as firms stopped adding more chairs, and workers held onto their current chair for dear life.

Firms recognize this, as shown in this recent Ignites poll. 82% of firms expect "some" or "a lot" of people to leave as the economy improves - wow!

Source: Ignites 1/25/2010

For most firms, losing people is less the issue than the prospect of losing their best people - in other words, those 20% who do 80% of the work (we all know who they are), and the ones apt to have the most opportunities to switch roles or companies. So, what to do?

Simple - develop an engagement plan for each of your top performers. This is pretty easy, and doesn't take much time. Follow this five-step process to insure that your best will stay yours and stay best over the long haul.

1. Identify your top performers - force rank your team and figure out who the top 20% are.

2. Let each of those folks know that they are among your best - no, you shouldn't share the rankings, and yes, you may be giving them leverage in career discussions. So what?

3. Find out what motivates each of them - in most great performers, there are a lot of qualities that seem intrinsic, but we all have external motivators too. Are their motivators work/family balance, prestige, title, compensation, advancement, cool work, recognition from peers, exposure to senior leadership? Ask. They'll tell you.

4. Jointly develop a plan that will serve the firm's and the individual's needs- include milestones, timelines, and specifics.

5. Pull this plan out periodically (quarterly, at a minimum) and review progress- is the person doing what they need to? Is the company meeting its obligations to the high performer?

This process requires candor, listening, and some time. But, if done right, your best people will get the message loud and clear: "You are one of our best performers, and highly valued. We want you with this company long-term, and contributing at a high level. Let's work together to figure out how we insure that." Do this, and while you may lose some other employees as the economy picks up, you will not lose your best people.