by Joanna Fletcher

Created on: December 22, 2009

There are millions of highly talented employees out there searching for ways to monetize their special gifts and make a real contribution to an organization. Finding them and keeping them is more of an art than a science. They want to work hard, they are extremely self-motivated, and while money is important, it is not their primary drive.

Word of mouth is a great way to attract them, meaning that you must be impeccable at all levels of your organization. Talented people love to do research and will make sure that your face reflects the reality of your workplace. Basically, if you are doing everything right, they will find you.

Be Sure You Really Want Talent

Be clear about what you want this person to do. Give your expectations up front and be prepared for solutions that you have not anticipated. If you want someone who will do what you expect, shoot for a hire who has an IQ of around 120-130. They will still be brilliant, and their ideas will be far easier to digest.

Facilitate Mentoring

Very smart people often require much more pastoral care than the regular employee. They need an advocate who has sufficient authority and standing in the organization to smooth their way and be a constant contact. The best way to get this is to help them find a mentor that they can connect with and facilitate that relationship however you can.

Walk Your Talk

Talented people often hold a high value around authenticity, or to put it another way, they have well-developed bullshit detectors. If your company image is built on being fun, results-driven, caring, or whatever the current buzzword is, you had better be able to demonstrate this behaviour throughout the organization. Make sure your mission and vision statements truly capture your company culture.

Don't Hold their Inexperience Against Them

Gifted employees can grok, or comprehensively comprehend, an organization's functions and norms faster than you ever thought possible. After three months their ideas and feedback should be valued equally with someone who has worked there for two or more years. Talented people do this by rational analysis of every event, meaning that they can acquire "experience" exponentially faster than most people.

Give Them Plenty to Do 

Talented people need to learn constantly. If their assigned work is not providing enough learning material, or mental challenge, they may focus their learning on areas that you do not wish them to examine. It is not the volume of work, but the depth and quality of work that matters here. For example, if they are doing invoicing, do not simply give them double the amount of invoices to process, but let them work on a way to process invoices faster.

Trust Their Instincts

If they create something new, at least let them run a pilot program and get some more data with a view to implementing their solution. Even if their idea does not work, there is valuable learning for all in finding that out. Simply squashing their schemes may be interpreted as an act of violence.

Pay Them Appropriately

Like anyone else, talented people need money to survive. They will have little tolerance for someone else taking undeserved credit for what they have done, and even less tolerance for being paid inappropriately.  These people have confidence in their ability to find work and will often leave rather than demand appropriate compensation or recognition.

Ask Them What They Want

The best source of information about retaining a valuable employee is that employee. Talented people are highly various and idiosyncratic in their needs. Ask them what they want and find creative ways to provide it.

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