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Talent Management Perspectives

Published September 2009

Avoid 'Stars' for Long-Term Business Value

 

  Deanna Hartley

Unprecedented unemployment rates and economic turmoil have contributed to a larger-than-ever qualified talent pool. But employers should resist the temptation to hire "stars," or candidates who have outstanding credentials but fail to provide sustained value to the organization because they're not team players.

"When you hire people whose investment is essentially around their own career and their own resume as compared to building something that lasts, that's a real problem," said Russ Eisenstat, co-founder of management consulting firm TruePoint, former Harvard Business School professor and collaborator on the book High Commitment, High Performance.

"At the end of the day, it's the team that wins the game and not any individual player," he explained. "If you bring in someone who is an outstanding individual contributor and has great technical skills without considering the role they play in raising the overall level of play for the firm, you run a major risk of fundamentally disrupting something that's already working well." 

Similar to an optimally functioning sports team, a thriving business is only as good as the sum of its parts.

"If you look at any business strategy, individuals don't deliver those results; it's a collective process that typically cuts across multiple organizational silos," he said.

Further, being able to identify and hire candidates who are team-oriented not only boosts morale within the organization, but it also has a tangible impact on the bottom line.

"[For example,] if you're talking about developing a new product, research has to talk to development who has to talk to manufacturing who has to talk to sales and marketing - and if you aren't able to make those links happen and bring the pieces together, you're not going to get very far," Eisenstat explained. "So a great research scientist or a brilliant manufacturing engineer or a great salesperson is not going to get very far without being part of a team, and those people who are able to make those horizontal links work and truly make collaboration happen in the organization are fundamental to any organization's success."

So what strategy can talent managers adopt during the recruitment process to ensure they hire the right talent for the long term?

One way is to listen and ask telling questions during the interview instead of letting the candidate drone on about the highlights of their resume, Eisenstat explained.

"In recruiting, [it's important to] understand [whether] the candidate has stayed in a position long enough to make a meaningful difference of building a business or is just going from position to position in order to [further his or her] career path," he said.

One key factor that's often overlooked is the way an organization presents its hiring strategy internally.

"When the issue comes up of bringing high potentials and stars into the organization, people can see it as these folks coming in as blockers, basically taking positions to which they had hoped to be promoted," Eisenstat explained. "On the other hand, if an organization says: 'We're really trying to raise our game, and we're bringing in people who have expertise, skills, talent and capabilities to help the company [move forward],' then it becomes a developmental opportunity for everyone."