How to hold on to high potentials

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Recent shortages of top managers in a wide range of industries have sparked
a war for top talent, write Nanette Byrnes and Amy Barrett in BusinessWeek.
Major oil companies are luring top players away from service providers like
Schlumberger by tripling their salaries. Yet although firms will spend up to USD
50 billion on talent development this year, many either fail to produce
homegrown leaders or, like Coca-Cola Co. pick the wrong internal candidate to
become CEO. So what are the secrets to hiring, training and retaining stars, ask
the authors?

High-performing companies create a wealth of bench talent by turning
human resources into a strategic asset, they observe. One key talent management
tool often used is a customized HR solution like a global database combining
career records with personal staff profiles. University alliances to hire top
students and graduate training programs can also help to produce talent
internally. Other strategies include recruiting top HR staff, ensuring full
C-level commitment to talent management and amplifying managers’ strengths
rather than criticizing their weaknesses, add the authors. Successful companies
treat losing a high potential as a disaster that is fully investigated via an
exit interview, they note. Talent is a valuable weapon to companies seeking a
competitive edge and deserves far more attention in the future, conclude the
authors.