I hear more and more from senior executives that one of the biggest challenges they face is finding and keeping the right talent. Yet businesses seem to continue to convince themselves that everyone is replaceable. In addition you will find blogs, articles, tweets, conference presentations that promote this hypothesis.
In today’s world, human capital
In the hopes of starting a lively discussion, I offer what I view as the top 4 reasons why certain employees are irreplaceable in today’s world:
- An employee is a person and not a piece of capital equipment with product features. You may think you understand the value a key employee offers to your company, the impact they have on your company’s success and what exactly drives his or her value to your company. Unfortunately, you can’t truly appreciate a person’s true value until this person is no longer at your company (i.e., you will underestimate the value of a key employee, not know all that they do for your company or comprehend exactly how they have done it all so well).
- Each employee has a unique impact on a company’s work environment. Work environment and company culture can drive productivity across an organization. Certain employees serve as the “glue” for an organization, and without them a work environment can fall apart at its very core. In today’s world, even having a company culture is difficult, and having a work environment that is not full of the stress of doing more and more with less is increasing rare. An employee who serves as glue to a productive work environment binding a unique group of individuals with dynamic personalities can be irreplaceable.
- An employee has his or her own professional relationships that exist outside company walls which are leveraged with his or her own style in impacting the success of his or her employer.
- Each employee has a unique skill set in terms of technical and soft skills. This is especially true for a long time employee who has lived a company’s journey in achieving success. This knowledge and the respect they pay for this journey in having lived it can’t be replaced.
Business is business, but this mentality often leads to poor decisions that derail company success -- parting ways with any employee who lies at the very heart of a company’s success.