Event – Arco Baleno

1. Institute for Financial Management and Research(IFMR)

2. Team – Lone Warrior

3. Participant Details

a. Srikant Rajan
b. Mail - Srikant.rajan@ifmr.ac.in
c. Contact - 9962552824
Case Background

The situation faced at the beginning of a new week is a possible resignation of four
employees within an organization. These employees are from varying seniority levels and
functional expertise. The immediate (Short term) objective here is to prevent such an
exodus from occurring. The long term objective is to undertake a set of activities that
simplify talent management and minimize the possibility of occurrence of such an
incident.

Analysis Framework

The case is analyzed from two perspectives, viz short and long term. The short term
perspective investigates the importance of retaining talent and identifies barriers to it.

The possible resignation candidates are evaluated on the basis of the relative importance
of the identified barriers towards talent retention. Then, alternatives that could appeal to
each of the candidates are worked out.

The long term perspective aims to identify all the stakeholders’ w.r.t to organizational
talent management. A strategic framework for talent management is then derived.

Assumptions made in case analysis are stated in footnotes.

I. Situation Snapshot

The table below indicates the situation snapshot at the organization.

Amrita Thomas Rajesh Sanjana

Sales Associate
Project Manager , Manager, consultant
reporting to working NBD, Relationship Strategy
Ramaswamy(Vertical since 12 Manger, working Formulation, aids
Background head) years since 15 years in NBD
Very High, one of
the few women to
hold such a
Medium position within the
Seniority Medium High High organization
On the basis of the
rumor of he joining a
competitor it can be
No Clear assumed to be above No Clear
Performance Satisfactory Indication average Indication

Figure 1 – Situation Snapshot

A. Observations
1. All employees are from medium to high levels of seniority; none is an entry level
or someone who has clocked in just a one/two years1
2. Equal split
a. In terms of kind of work, right from strategy, to project work (operational)
to client acquisition (NBD) and consequent sale. In essence it covers the
entire gamut of work within the organization (Except HR)
b. Equal split in terms of gender, two male and two female

1
Assumption based on case facts
The above indicates a lack of certain parameters which fuels up the discontentment
among employees as they move up in seniority. It can also be inferred that these exist
across all domains in the organization. The possible silver lining is that there appears to
be no discrimination on the basis of gender with regards to these policies (Admittedly not
conducive for Employees)

II. Importance and Barriers to Talent Preservation

The importance of attrition is again on two levels namely, the top line (increase in
revenue) and bottom line (Decrease in costs of doing business) of the organization.

Attrition at medium to high seniority level impacts the top line more than at lower levels.
This is due to the fact the sizeable resource investment in terms of training and
development would be lower for employees at this level than at the junior/entry levels.

In situation analysis, I inferred the existence of certain non-conducive parameters towards

work within the organization. Here some of those barriers are identified here and their
relative importance w.r.t the employees is depicted.

Amrita Thomas Rajesh Sanjana

Lack of Respect for Work(Ego
Boosting) X X
Lack of Consideration / Empathy X
Presence of Red Tape/Bureaucracy X
Lack of excitement in work X
Inadequate compensation X X

Figure 2 - Barriers to Retaining Talent

A. Observations and Analysis - Figure 2

1. Amrita – She is a project manager, and hence would have put in more than 4-5 years
2
.She has recently been back form maternity leave so there would be no feeling of lack of
consideration/empathy. Some of her responsibilities could entail

1. Focus would be on coordination and delivery of projects

2. Mentoring/training new recruits

Her work is structured and predictable. Hence I have scored her high on lack of
excitement in work. Some alternatives that could appeal to her are:

1. Promotion towards a strategic rather than operational work

2. Change in functional role, shift in domains3
3. Multi project coordination role,(Multiple domains) that could develop her domain
knowledge

2. Thomas – He has been working since 12 years and is currently a sales manager. It is
possible that he has worked has way up the organization, right from the lowest level of
say a sales representative. The fact that it has taken him 12 years to do that may indicate
that his capabilities are average.4

His average capabilities may have resulted in a non achievement of sales

targets/figures in certain periods. It is reasonable to assume that such scenarios
would have resulted in unpleasant exchanges. His discontentment with his work
may be thus a result of lack of empathy/appreciation for his work.

Alternatives that could appeal to him:

1. Creation of mentorship role as an official responsibility, specifically for new

recruits(not necessarily in sales)

2
Assuming she joined at entry level
3
Project manager is assumed to be domain specific
4
Assumptions, based on case facts
 2. Advisory role in product development
3. Performance Evaluation as a function of
a. His sales targets
b. Success of products in which he recommended modification
c. Performance of recruits he trained(very low weight age)

3. Rajesh – He has been working for 15 years, in a NBD and a relationship management
role. The recent rumor of he joining a competitor, would be indicative of his superior
knowledge and capability. His presence contributes to organizational top line growth the
maximum among all the other participants.

Additionally in a role that contributes to revenue in direct relation to his efforts, he may
feel undercompensated (Mental comparison between the mismatch of his compensation
and revenue generated by him).

Hence Rajesh is well aware of his worth to the organization. Alternatives that could
appeal to him:

1. Promotion to a strategic decision making level

2. Increase in Compensation

4. Sanjana – She is a woman, working at the associate consultant level in the

organization. At a decision making level, she is bound to encounter opposition towards
execution of her ideas. Thus an alternative that could appeal to her, is the flexibility
to work independently, minimum interference

III. Stakeholder Perspective – Talent Management

Consider the following prevalent theories of employee management and motivation

1. Need theory – Maslow, ERG Mc Clelland and Herzberg.

2. Goal Setting Theory
3. Reinforcement Theory
4. Equity Theory
5. Expectancy Theory

All the above theories focus on employee need and behavior such as performance,
attrition being a function of his work within the organization i.e. internal perspective.
However they do not consider, employee need influence due to external stakeholders
namely the customer and competition.

Thus, the above analysis does not consider all stakeholders w.r.t to talent
management. However, an employee action may be considered a function of three
stakeholders:

1. Internal Environment - His workplace

2. External Environment
a. Customers
b. Competitors
 Favorable

Competitor Customer

External

Internal Employee

Organizational

Unfavorable

Figure3 - Stakeholder Perspective - Talent Management5

That is the employee can be considered as a particle in action, under three forces. The
graphic above indicates which areas are favorable movements and vice versa. As seen
above attrition (unfavorable) will occur when the two forces

1. Internal - organization control

2. External - employee customer relationship, become weak wither in tandem or
in isolation.

Talent management thus viewed from the perspective of stakeholder theory has two
dimensions

5
Original , under further research by the author
 1. Improving the Employee Customer interaction
2. Strengthening /Modifying/adapting internal organizational policies.

Employee customer interaction can be measured in terms of human sigma.6.This

approach aims to reduce the variability in customer employee encounters.

6
Human Sigma, The Gallup Organization