FOLLOWING SACHIN: Like successful cricketers, topnotch IT pros are also hiring agents to get themselves the best jobs

Amitabh Bachchan doesn’t appear for job interviews. Sachin Tendulkar is equally relaxed about the assignments he is signing up for. They have agents who take care of all that. You don’t have to become a superstar to find yourself so lucky. Today, in the UK, top IT professionals are also hiring agents to get them the best jobs. “IT wizards are now being paid at levels not seen since the dotcom boom,” says Management Issues magazine. “Some have even taken to hiring their own Hollywood-style agents as a result.”

It’s not come to India and one doesn’t see it happening very soon. But it does raise one question that is equally important in the Indian context: how far should companies go in mollycoddling their stars.

Before the advent of reforms, “talent” in many companies was a commodity. Take the public sector. Once you got the job, you were in clover. You got your yearly increment; promotions were by seniority. There were no stars.

“There is a school of thought which believes that you should not have stars,” says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. This stems from two factors. First, stars — and the preferential treatment they get — create dissonance within the organisation. Second, stars leave. All the effort put into them is lost to the company.

In Hindustan Lever, for instance, it was customary to have three people in the running for the CEO’s post. When one was finally appointed, the other two left the organisation to seek greener pastures elsewhere. It was obviously a huge loss.

But Levers is still grooming talent. The departure of some high-fliers has not turned it off the star trail. “If you don’t have any stars, you are a mediocre company,” says Singh.

But how far should you go in mollycoddling your stars? Is there a line you need to draw? Professor Charlie Trevor of the University of Wisconsin draws on some recent research. “A recent Manpower study of almost 33,000 employers across 23 countries revealed that 40 per cent of companies world-wide are struggling to find adequate talent to fill jobs,” he writes in an article in the Wisconsin Business Alumni Update. “Meanwhile, a recent Towers Perrin study of roughly 86,000 employees in 16 countries found 58 per cent of employees actively looking to change jobs or open to leaving if a good opportunity emerged. Together, these two studies suggest that when the supply of talent is low, and a majority of employees (including stars) are open to leaving, retention of stars is even more important.”

“You must realise that you must not try to buy stars,” says Singh. “Some employers feel that if they get in a wonder worker at an inflated salary, others already with the company will perk up and improve their performance. More often they just slip into apathy.”

The real answer is not to import stars but to groom them from within. Yes, there are jealousies when Mr A, whom you have known all your working life, gets promoted over you. But if you are honest with yourself you will realise he deserves it. And if your company is consciously creating the environment to breed stars, there will be a lot more of them.

BEGIN FROM BASICS

How to get and grow stars

Recruit good people. Use disciplined hiring practices to attract promising candidates.

Establish supports. Encourage high performance by creating supportive structures, such as:

Systems and processes. Leadership. Internal networks. Training. Teams.

Use savvy retention strategies. Retaining stars requires more than salaries. Understand what motivates your high performers. Then take steps to satisfy their interests.

Source: Harvard Business Review