We’re very excited to introduce some great new content to our readers today. Over the coming year we’ll be sharing some fascinating video interviews from HR and management experts on key topics we often get asked about.

We’ve called these segments our HR’s Bold Thinkers series! First up is Lizz Pellet (@lizzpellet), popular SHRM author of The Cultural Fit Factor, Fellow at Johns Hopkins University, and Vice President at Felix Global.

Lizz is a renowned expert in organizational culture, and  recently sat down with Halogen to share some important thoughts on what it means to attract, retain, and – yes – even repel talent, so that your organization can be successful over the long term.

One of the key messages that Lizz drives home is that as an organization, knowing “who you are, and who you are not” from a cultural perspective can help increase the ROI of your recruitment, performance and retention programs.

Research of global executives demonstrates that one of their top priorities is their organization’s ability to acquire and retain outstanding performers. As a result, the question of the best way to attract top talent is utmost in the mind of HR leaders and executives.

Attract the Right Employees

In her first video chapter Lizz shares factors that impact “attracting” the right employees like leveraging your corporate vision to actively market your culture and avoiding pitfalls of the recruitment “bait and switch”.

Be authentic and congruent about your organization, your messaging and your brand.

Research also abounds that makes the link between robust talent management programs, and higher levels of retention among top performers. And as with attracting top talent, organizational congruence is vital to retaining top talent.

Retain the Best Talent

In her second video chapter, Lizz explores how to avoid cultural inconsistencies in order to create an employment brand that supports retention; and why talent management programs like year round performance management, ongoing development and succession planning are critical.

Research on the cost of a poor hire or bad fit shows how important both attracting and repelling candidates based on cultural fit can be. So repelling candidates or employees who don’t fit your culture is the very important flip side of attracting those who do.

Repel Those Who Aren’t the Right Fit

In her last video chapter Lizz shares specific examples of organizations that have crystal clear messages about who they are and who they are not, and how their cultural specificity helps preselect employees. She also has some great advice on how to discover your organization’s “esprit de corps” and what happens if you’re not repelling employees fast enough.

We hope you enjoy our HR Bold Thinkers video series, and Lizz’s insight as much as we do! Let us know in the comments section below what you think and what other topics you’d like to see covered!

The announcement that the Blackberry maker’s co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis  and Jim Balsillie were stepping down from their shared top post was not only interesting because of what it did to the stock volume and value, or the buzz it generated, but also from the perspective of a strong, internally groomed successor being named.

While we advocate broad-based talent pool succession planning across many groups and positions within a company, not just for executive, the naming of Thorsten Heins as the new RIM president and CEO is an excellent case in point for strong succession planning programs.

Given Heins’ previous post as COO for the mobile device manufacturer, it’s fairly obvious that he had been developed for this top position as part of a concerted and deliberate succession process.

The company’s press release states he “joined RIM from Siemens Communications Group in December 2007, and started  as Senior Vice President for Hardware Engineering. He was appointed Chief Operating Officer for Product and Sales in August 2011.”

That’s some broadbased cross-functional internal experience and development  – engineering, operations, product and sales –  and an obvious, intentional grooming of RIM’s future leader from most any perspective.  Which is a great thing! Succession isn’t meant to be a reactive approach to a change in key positions.

And it’s not meant to simply be a replacement plan on an org chart either.  Ideally it is a well thought program that has focused on the development of the organization’s highest potentials to succeed in a variety of roles as they are required based on strong internal bench strength.

Now take this tech giant’s example and scale it to thinking about your own organization. Are your organization’s high potentials identified and plotted in a 9 box? Do you know based on a talent assessment who is ready for their next assignment and when? Do you have some pretty important or pivotal roles that you believe need a strong talent pipeline in order for your company to maintain its competitive edge? And do you have development programs identified mapped to key competencies required to succeed in each of these roles?

Sounds like a lot of questions, which might seem to add up to a daunting task.  But that’s not the case at all. Succession planning can be effectively implemented in three simple phases.

Phase 1: Understand Your Workforce Potential and Areas of Retention Risk

In this phase you’d recognize and classify those high-potential employees, the ones who might be flight risks, and departments or positions that don’t have solid bench-strength, so that you can have your managers and leaders make recommendations for talent pool membership.

Phase 2: Develop Internal Talent Pools

Again we’re talking about preparation for succession across all departments and levels within your company. During this phase the talent pools get defined and the competency requirements for all key areas are outlined as well. Those hi-pos are assessed on those critical competencies and then based on development requirements are assigned to various talent pools. Talent assessments to track improvements and progress, and to identify any gaps are continually conducted during this phase.

Phase 3: Recruit from Within

Now comes the fun, and the reward of the activity. As openings become available. you’ll be able to readily identify successor candidates based on a much larger pool of employees who have been developed to step in.

We’re pretty passionate about succession planning based on this best practices approach. Learn more about how we support this type of program with our award winning succession planning solution, and chime in with your thoughts on building bench strength from inside your own companies!

This makes perfect sense since highly engaged employees tend to be high performers*. And we all want high performers on our teams.

On January 31st renowned author and engagement expert Chester Elton (@chesterelton) will lead a webcast based on his runaway best-seller “The Carrot Principle.”

During this webcast, Chester will demonstrate how purpose-based recognition can lead to higher productivity, engagement, retention and customer satisfaction.

Chester will also introduce the simple steps to becoming a Carrot Principle manager and to building a recognition culture in your organization.

Webinar Details

Date: Tuesday, January 31st

Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET

Register: Click Here to Register

Another Reason to Attend

Drawing on case studies from leading companies, Chester will share ground-breaking results of one of the most in-depth management studies ever undertaken. This breakthrough 10-year study of 200,000 people found dramatically greater business results when managers offered constructive praise and meaningful rewards in ways that powerfully motivated employees to excel.

You’ll also hear about how this culture can be enabled by a best-practices based talent management system that supports better business results.

If building a recognition culture in your organization sounds of interest, register for this webinar today.

About Chester Elton

Called the “apostle of appreciation,” by the Globe and Mail, and “creative and refreshing” by the New York Times, Chester Elton is co-author of several successful leadership books and is an in-demand speaker the world over.

Elton’s books have been translated into over 20 languages and have sold more than a million copies worldwide. The Carrot Principle by Simon & Schuster has been a regular New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and 24-Carrot Manager has been called a “must read for modern-day managers” by Larry King of CNN. The Orange Revolution was the number one selling business book in the United States according to the Wall Street Journal.

As a motivation expert, Chester has been featured in The Financial Times,Washington Post, Fast Company and the New York Times. He has been featured on 60 Minutes, CNN, ABC’s Money Matters, MSNBC and National Public Radio. Chester also has a weekly feature as “The Corporate Coach” on WCBS radio in New York.

* Source: Human Capital Institute

This CFO.com article provides a perfect example of the mistakes that can be made when it comes to compensation practices.

To avoid these compensation pitfalls, pay for performance policies and processes must be transparent and consistently executed.

Here are three steps to ensuring your compensation practices are fair and truly motivate your workforce:

1. Foster a performance-oriented culture

To drive high performance in your employees you need to give effective feedback. Clearly tell your employees what they are doing well, and why you value their behavior (impact on team, organization, customer, etc.).

Conversely, tell them what they need to change/improve and why (impact on team, organization, customer, etc.). Your feedback should include a specific example of when the behavior in question was demonstrated (no generalizations!).

Since the goal of feedback is to help employees improve their performance, ensure it is helpful and timely (i.e. provided shortly after the behavior is exhibited).

To foster better employee and organizational performance, your employees’ personal goals should in some way contribute to the achievement of the organization’s high level goals.

This alignment ensures your employees understand exactly how they are contributing to the organization’s goals and are engaged and accountable for the organization’s success.

2. Reward your workforce accurately and fairly

The rules and guidelines set for compensation should be clearly defined and accessible. Goals and performance ratings should be a known and visible factor in determining employee compensation.

When you provide visibility into the process and ensure employees understand how pay strategies are set, it raises their level of accountability to make performance a day-to-day priority.

For you as a manager to be able to make informed compensation decisions, you need the right data at your fingertips:

• Your compensation budget
• Pay scales for various job codes, and which apply to your employees
• Your employees’ compensation history and performance history
• Your employees’ performance ratings for the year

Without an easy way to view this data you won’t know with 100% accuracy that you are making very good pay for performance decisions. Nor will you be making very good use of your time.

An automated compensation management solution (yes, like Halogen’s!) enables transparency and ensures pay-for-performance is being implemented the way it should be. These solutions remove tedious administrative barriers that make pay-for-performance hard for you as the manager and for HR to administer.

3. Measure program effectiveness

As the CFO.com article I referenced earlier states, your organization should be continuously monitoring and periodically recalibrating the pay for performance program after it is implemented.

Questions to ask:

• Are compensation dollars delivered to the highest performers and to potentials meaningfully differentiated?
• Does the compa-ratio make sense based on performance level and time in role?
• Are you as a manager appropriately trained on how to effectively communicate compensation and adjustments to keep employees motivated and engaged?
• Do you understand the basic elements of compensation (pay scales, job codes, compa ratios, bonuses, stock options, variable pay, etc.) and how to use them?
• Do you have the tools you need to track progress on goals?
• What are the reasons for under performance? How will you address it?

Finally, ask your employees for feedback on the process. Do they feel they are fairly rewarded and compensated? Do they understand the process?

Understanding your employees’ perspectives and attitudes can help you improve your compensation management skills.

Communication is Key

For your compensation program to truly be effective, you need to clearly define and communicate expectations and monitor and review progress relative to those expectations.

Work with HR to ensure the right goals are selected, apply judgment when goals need to be revisited, coach individuals or groups on how to best achieve results, and rally toward goal achievement to reinforce desired behavior.

Rinse and repeat.

What is your advice when it comes to ensuring fair compensation practices in your organization? Does the above ring true?

But not so fast.

Addition by subtraction is actually a good thing—and it has nothing to do with handing out pinks slips. Instead, it’s about becoming an exporter of talent—a topic that Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director, thoughtLEADERS, LLC discusses in his blog post, How to Build You Team by Getting Rid of Your People.

Figliuolo talks about developing people by growing their skills and responsibilities, and making them more valuable in the organization. So valuable, in fact, that other leaders want to “poach” them (but they won’t because this would be terribly bad form).

Anyway, you get the idea.

A good leader will fulfill his or her obligation to develop employees to the point where they’re ready to (happily) move on in their careers. A good leader will also be able to fill in the gaps left by a departing employee by nurturing, developing and engaging remaining employees. Gaining a strong reputation as a good manager as a result.

Yes, you can be in the talent export (and import) business too

Building a better team through talent export all comes down to fostering employee development.

While most companies do a good job of identifying talent, what many don’t do is properly develop the talent they worked so hard to acquire. Not surprisingly, it’s those companies that tend to fall behind.

According to Human Capital Institute, it costs roughly 1/30 the amount of time and money to develop an excellent person as opposed to hiring his or her replacement—a compelling argument for focusing your time and effort on employee development.

Companies that have strong development programs in place send a positive message to their employees, creating higher morale, engagement, and productivity, while giving employees a tangible reason to maintain high levels of effort.

These employees know their efforts won’t go unnoticed, and they know that they won’t be held back if something more attractive, exciting and challenging them comes along.

Tips for getting rid of your people

Good people managers know how to “get rid of their people”. To be an exporter of talent you need to:

1. Recognize that almost everyone on your team wants to grow.

2. Expand the skills and scope of your team members.

3. Let other managers know you’ve got a fantastic A-player on your team.

4. If an opportunity comes up, encourage him or her to go.

5. Repeat process!

As a manager, and exporter of talent, should you be worried about losing your best people?

The answer is no.

While there will be a significant hole to fill on your team, Figliuolo advises not to worry. Others within your organization will come knocking at your door asking to be part of your team.

Why? Because you have a reputation as a good people manager—one who offers challenging and meaningful development opportunities that help people move on (and up) in their careers.

So, the bottom line here is that when you become an exporter of talent you actually start to attract and import new talent, creating what Figliuolo refers to as a “virtuous circle” of employee development within your organization. Sounds like a good strategy, doesn’t it?

Are you already an exporter of talent? Do you have best practices to share? We’d like to hear from you.