HVE - High Value Employee(s)

Why High Value Employees (HVE) Need To Be Identified, Supported & Have Individual Plans Of Action

Imagine this ↓

Your best-performing member of the department comes to you and suggests they are unhappy and have been applying for external roles.

Your first thought was likely FFS, your second was to try and talk to them and hopefully listen to their points.

Your next action is likely to convince them to stay…

If this comes as a shock, there are likely three things that it could be or that are happening:

1. You are busy and missing the signs from this employee

2. The subculture or company culture has shifted and the employee doesn’t feel connected
   or

3. The company is not moving in a direction that connects with said employees.

Most department leads do not identify who is your HVE (your high value employee(s)). They have an idea but do not actively treat the identified employee as such. They definitely do not have a plan of action for these individuals.

Yes, you can identify them and treat them well and they will look to progress their career elsewhere but many do not actively check-in, you miss their signals from their performance dropping, being continually frustrated in meetings and hearing what they are saying from their silence, you or they actively miss 1-2-1’s,

In some organisations, they train department leads and executive teams to identify and actively discuss key person risk - when someone is that important it creates a business risk for them to become unhappy and leave the business. If you were to take a step back, would your HVE be a key person to leave the business and create a risk to the business?

Do you have a handful of HVE’s or a high-value employee who you need to connect with and work through how they like to work, how you could support them further or know when to get out of their way?

A coachable moment for the week ahead is to review your team (try not to make it a 9-box exercise), identify your HVE and work out a plan of action for them or the HVE’s.

Remember: It is also great to support them in moving on, often high value employees need to leave and it’s ok as their line manager to support them in reshuffling your org and creating the most effective org design.

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