Transition for best talents: how internal transitions are carried out in the TECHIIA holding.
It happens that a great talent leaves the company because he/she wants a promotion, new challenges or to change direction. To keep such individuals, TECHIIA is looking for positions in other holding companies. On how it happens, HR Business Partner Tetyana Voloshina.
Tetyana Voloshina, HR Business Partner TECHIIA holding
Why keep talents in the company
TECHIIA is an international holding company with more than ten technology projects: from an esports media holding and a product IT company to a manufacturer of plush souvenirs based on computer games and comic books. About a year ago, TECHIIA pointed out that in various holding companies there are cases when best talents resign because they "hit the roof", want to move in another direction, or expand their competencies, but do not see such an opportunity in the current company.
“It was sad to lose such staff. So we decided to create a process that will help keep such employees. A good solution was the opportunity for professionals to move between companies within the holding, — says Tetyana Voloshina. — This process is called "transition". Now that the person resigns, we can offer him/her another vacancy within TECHIIA.”
Thus, the holding solves multiple problems at once:
— It keeps the best talents. After all, finding a new professional is a difficult and long process;
— It saves on onboarding. When a company takes a person from the outside, it takes about three months to fully onboard, tell how the processes work and what the corporate culture is. With a person who has already worked inside the holding, it is much easier and faster;
— It keeps the expertise. Moving to a new company, the specialist transfers all the acquired skills to the new employer. When he/she stays, all the experience continues to benefit the holding.
How it works
TECHIIA is launching a transition process for those professionals who meet a number of criteria. They:
— are loyal to the company;
— share the corporate culture and values;
— provide good results;
— perform their work well;
— non-conflict.
There are several stages of this process.
Stage 1. Recommendation
When a person intends to resign, the Head or the HR of the company may recommend such a person to Tetyana Voloshina for consideration in other companies of the holding. The employee fills in the special questionnaire providing the following information:
— why this person decided to resign;
— for how long he/she worked for the company;
— what are this person’s responsibilities;
— whether he/she had subordinates;
— what are his/her strengths and weaknesses;
— in what positions or directions this person could be considered.
It is important to talk to this talent — whether he/she would like to stay in the holding and whether he/she is ready to consider vacancies in his other projects. If the answer is yes — it’s time for Stage 2.
Stage 2. Career consultation
After receiving the recommendation, Tetyana Voloshyna, as the HR Business Partner of the management company, conducts a career consultation with such a talent. It helps analyze the current situation, talent’s strengths and weaknesses, expectations from work and salary, and determines which positions this talent can apply for. The options can be quite unexpected.
“For example, we had a specialist who was engaged in marketing research — before entering new markets, he analyzed whether there would be demand for a particular product. He knew mathematics, analytics, and marketing. When he decided to resign, we considered him in the finance and marketing department for the research direction,” says the expert.
Stage 3. Search for vacancies
Tetyana submits her comments together with the questionnaire from the Head or HR to the hiring department. They are looking for vacancies that can suit such a candidate.
If there are no such vacancies, the candidate's application form is returned to Tatiana. She communicates with the managers of the holding company and finds out if they need such talent. It happens that a certain company was just thinking about launching a new direction, but did not have time to open a vacancy.
In order not to waste time, at the same time a person can look for a job outside and pass interviews in third-party companies. To maintain a good relationship with its employees and help the person, TECHIIA is even ready to recommend its colleague to other companies or recruiters.
Stage 4. A standard hiring process
If a candidate is ok with a certain position in the holding, he/she goes through all the usual stages of hiring as all the candidates from outside: interviews, meetings with the CEO, team leads, etc.
Results
According to TECHIIA statistics, 20% of the best talents that the holding was striving to keep. were eventually successfully employed by the holding companies. For example, the office manager of one company became the office administrator of another. An HR of a small company moved to a larger company and acquired expanded authority. And the sales manager switched to another type of business.
Of all the employees who remained in the holding due to the transition process, none resigned during the year. But there were some that for various reasons could not be retained — for example, people who used specific languages that were not required in other projects.
Here are some tips from Tetyana Voloshina on how to organize this process in your company:
1. Find a person who will help professionals find positions within the holding or corporation. Usually, such a person is someone from the HR area, or from the management company. This should be someone who knows the specifics of all business projects and can assess the competencies of a particular talent to understand where he/she can be useful.
2. Don't be afraid to keep the relationship with the person who decided to leave. Management often believes that if a specialist decides to leave, then he/she is not loyal to the company and should be forgotten. But this is not the case — a person may like his/her employer, but may decide to leave for many other reasons. Therefore, if you have good cooperation with a person, you need to maintain a good relationship. Even if there’s no place for this talent in other projects of the holding, he/she will appreciate the care and efforts to keep. In the future, such a person may be good for networking, recommending your company to new talents, or even return to your company later with new expertise.
3. Involve managers in this process. They may not have time to open a vacancy, but are already thinking about finding a specialist or opening a new direction.
4. Do not try to keep a person at any cost just because he/she is "your guy". The new position should really suit this talent, match his/her skills and experience. To do this, a person must go through the entire standard hiring process so that the HR and the new manager can clearly determine whether this specialist is right for them. After all, even a professional may not show the expected results in a new place.
5. Talk to talents about what will happen. They should not get the impression that the company wants to keep them at any cost and they are guaranteed to stay in the holding at a position created specifically for them. In this case, if there’s no vacancy for this talent, he/she will be disappointed and just lose time. They must understand that this is a hypothetical possibility and that the company will not mind if that talent will go for interviews with other employers.
To sum it up, the talent’s relocation within the holding can bring significant benefits to a business, but it is important to organize this process properly. To do this, the holding company or corporation must have a responsible person who sees the situation comprehensively and can find a place for the talent where he/she will be really useful.
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