Capable employees are definitely the cornerstone of a company's success. The problem is that many company leaders fail to identify real talent. What is even worse, in times of crisis, the majority tends to reduce the number of employees without assessing the potential of the individuals or asking for their input in innovatively improving their work.
My experience from the Slovak market and the outcomes of many global studies confirm that it is very likely the talents are already within your company. You just need to identify and support them.
Talent and low-performance shown simultaneously
With the help of a special research agency we approached mid- and C-Level managers of Slovak companies, asking them about their work with talents. 60% confirmed they did not look for talent among their own employees during the crisis. This is clearly a mistake: previous crises have shown that companies with radical headcount cost cuts and cancelled innovation investments had problems to return to normal function afterwards. The importance of continuous talent work was also confirmed by the survey: seven out of ten companies which took care of internal talents were also able to identify people, who did not commit to the company`s success and were a burden.