Conduct a poll requesting managers (leaders) to list the 3 top challenges they face. If 'compensation for poor performers' is listed more than 30 % of the time, be warned -you have been infected! By affiliators and by power players! Hence, you will find it difficult to retain achievers in this environment.

Achievers can be defined as those individuals who serve, innovate and manage the delivery of customer needs. Non-achievers are usually affiliators (those who know the right people) and power players (those who comply and repay). They either can't deliver or won't deliver on customer needs - they are exclusively concentrating satisfying their own needs.

How to acquire achievers?

There are 3 steps to acquiring achievers:
1. Identify and quantify specific attributes for success
2. Selection through probing interview
3. Remunerate and reward achievement

Identify and Quantify Attributes

Before you can begin the selection of achievers you need to think through the identifying characteristics required for the specific role. A generic job specification is not enough as it usually focuses on role and responsibility which has the tendency to describe lower level competencies. The 'must haves', 'should haves' and 'nice to haves' will not always translate into achievement. You need to not only identify, but more specifically quantify specific attributes for success in that particular role.

Selection and the Face-to-Face Interview

The next step is selection. Nothing can replace the face-to-face interview, conducted by an experienced interviewer, who can carefully uncover the work history behind the cv or resume. Formal tests, references and background checks can serve ONLY to support the face-to-face interview. The interviewer will gain powerful insights about the candidate by walking them through their career history, from the very first job, uncovering reasons for taking and leaving the job, length of stay, accomplishments, lessons learnt, etc, focusing the candidate on achievements and accomplishments. At the same time, the interviewer is probing for strengths, weaknesses, motivations, goals, feelings about relationships, discipline, flexibility, personal tolerances or biases, fears, hopes, and most importantly, the ability to perform, in attempting to understand the actual experiences of a person's career.

There is no question in my mind that successful strategic recruitment is as a result of in-depth face-to-face interviews, which allows a seasoned interviewer to gain important insights into a prospective candidate, as well as forecast how well a candidate's experience and capabilities translate into behaviour that enhances your organization. The face-to-face interview also often helps the candidate think clearly and linearly about career goals, past, present and future. In my over 10 year interviewing experience, I have found that achievers love the opportunity and privilege of relating their achievements and accomplishments - affiliators and power players don't.

One important point to remember is that the interviewer must stick to achievement and work related questions, because, apart from the moral and legal issues, the type of questions asked, reflect on the interviewer's stand point and credibility.

Remuneration for retention

The third step is the remuneration package. Money acts as a motivator at work for many people, but to what extent and how important depends on their personal circumstances. People give to get! This is the basic principle in most work relationships - despite all the posturing and rhetoric. Remuneration must satisfy both employee and employer. Methods of payment can influence organizational performance, therefore, it should be fair, and should encourage keenness and enthusiasm by rewarding well-directed effort. Overpayment is counter productive.

Making every effort to be fair and appropriate is a challenge in today's society where prejudice, racism, and discrimination of every description can crop up in any conversation or circumstance. It is worth noting that envy and resentment can poison any enterprise. The best way for a company to overcome this is to generate economic growth through initiatives and channels of opportunity that everyone has a realistic chance of improvement. Only then can people feel that hard work, trust, faith, goodwill, creativity and persistence will pay off. Alternatively the result will be cynicism and pessimism, followed by hostility and rage.

There is a widespread view that employee satisfaction is a key performance indicator. Companies can no longer offer employees job security; they offer training, instead, to enhance employability. There is a great deal of evidence to show that this has resulted in the decline of employee loyalty. Companies are recognizing more and more that loyalty can be replaced by trust, especially in the remuneration arena. Trust is a valuable commodity as it can enhance growth. Not only must employers pay premium salaries to attract achievers, but the achievers must trust that their efforts will be rewarded. Salaries must be structured in a way that super achievers receive super remunerations through incentives.

Conclusion

Recruiting for talent acquisition is a strategic necessity. The importance of this must begin with top management. Too much carrying of under-performers, is usually accompanied by apathy and bureaucratic processing. Apathy pollutes the selection process which then becomes a posting and filling of jobs. Incentivised pay plans is the best cure for the virus of poor performers!