Search

Fortune: The talent conundrum: Managers may be tempted to hold on to their best employees, but that actually hurts the entire company

31 Jan 2024
When managers hold on to their best workers, they hurt the entire company.

Originally found at Fortune

Given today's strong labor market and longer hiring times, it makes sense that managers with a good team would want to hold on to their employees for as long as possible. More than half of all supervisors admit to hoarding talent, or preventing subordinates from pursuing jobs that would allow them to work with another manager, according to 2020 research from management consulting firm Gartner.

But supervisors who hoard talent are actually hurting their company by stunting internal mobility, according to a recent paper from researchers at Cornell and Pennsylvania State University, published in the Academy of Management Journal. They analyzed more than 96,700 internal applications submitted to more than 9,890 jobs posted within HealthCo, a large U.S.-based health services company, between 2014 and 2017. They found that managers who promoted members of their team at a higher rate the year prior to posting a job opening received an 8.91% increase in total internal applications, and a 11.58% increase in applications from high-performing employees.


Continue reading the original article at Fortune.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Journal.

Read the Academy of Management Insights summary.

Learn more about the AOM Scholar and explore their work: