Like it happened with GE in the US, many Indian companies face the brunt of building a long line of talented leadership across the organisation. They become low-hanging fruits for their competitors and other players in the industry, to poach. The beneficiaries of GE’s leadership programme were so prized that when they were hired, the stock price of the hirers would shoot up. There have been many such instances in India as well, making people wonder if leadership mentoring is a good idea.
HR experts are of the opinion that large organisations must and should invest in preparing leaders. But the approach should be more scientific, intuitive and offer a wholesome experience to the candidates. “Retention is an important part of successor mentoring. The organisation must place faith in the leader and his decision-making abilities. There must also be concrete monetary benefits like stock options and other perks that one associates with a position,” says Zarin Bhathena, head of HR at Worldline (SA and the Middle East).
Mentoring future leaders should not be vanilla programmes and should be designed to leave a long-lasting impact on the employee’s career and life. According to Salome Peters, head-HR at Sai Estate Consultants, most mentoring programmes conducted by companies end up becoming a tick in the box and are not conducted in the right earnest. He suggests that a leadership intervention programme, with carefully devised milestones backed by research, might have more successful results.
Due to the changing environment, organisations are now carefully evaluating succession plans, to make sure that there is a robust candidate pool. “The mentoring programmes should have a functional representation of candidate’s strengths that span across interpersonal skills and management skills. It is better than going with historical trends or assumptions about the ‘right’ functions; as pathways to senior leadership roles,” said Amogh Deshmukh, managing director, DDI India, a talent management company.
Tailoring the leadership process to candidate skills can enhance stickiness to the organisation. DDI’s research says that when organisations pair right assessments with leadership development programme, the ROI can go up by 400%.
Apart from macro-level steps, organisations must also closely monitor micro-level team dynamics, that often leave senior managers vulnerable to poaching. “If there are two candidates in the leadership pipeline, it is easy to take one to the top and lose the other to competition. The real challenge is to retain both and ensure that they work together as a team to take the company to the next level,” says Riya Padhye, is head of HR at My Financial Advisor.
In spite of most efforts, HR experts say that certain sectors have a leadership deficit, where poaching will continue to happen. The IT sector is the easiest victim because not only does the sector have enough companies within it, that need leaders, but the rise of digital market compounded the problem. Hybridized companies and companies across sectors that are going digital, want top-level technology experts at their helm. For example, e-commerce hires experts from IT as well as retail sector. Retail with its changing face of growth, also regularly hires bright leaders across companies, apart from the usual suspects like banking and FMCG. Some sectors like manufacturing have underinvested in developing key talent in leadership, according to DDI’s research; leaving the few good people open to poaching.
Large companies which want to make sure that their leaders stay within, also sign no-poaching agreements with select competitors. However, they are only partly successful. Few organisations take action against employees who break the clause, and most employees view these indiscretions lightly. “Sometimes the no-poaching clause is put into effect so that existing employees take it seriously, especially if considering a job change,” says Bathena.
However, organisations should not remain content with clauses, they should invest and keep investing in various ways to motivate employees and chalk a career path for their leaders so that they grow along with the company.
...& ANALYSIS
- Vanilla programmes leave future leaders as mere low-hanging fruits to be poached upon
- Due to the changing environment, firms make sure that there is robust pool of candidates
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 "Mentoring")
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