The talented young professional walks into the CEO's office, settles in his chair, smiles. The CEO smiles back. There is a little tension in the air, but no acrimony. The employee wants out. He is bored, needs a new challenge, perhaps has an offer he cannot refuse, or maybe he just wants to spend more time with his family. He is not clear why he wants to quit.

In CEO offices around the world, this scene plays out again and again. Every top management person is bound to have a story about a talented professional who came on board with great fanfare, performed well for a few years, and then left unexpectedly. Managers usually try to retain such employees with the usual carrots-more money, new leadership roles, a fully-paid sabbatical. Sometimes it works. Other times, it doesn't.

Star performers of an organisation are generally in their late 20s or early 30s. And they have a habit of making their employers' lives anything but happy. They are often demanding about the nature of the jobs they want to do, seek fun at work, want constant growth and challenges. They also want more money, all the time. They make motivation and retention, two difficult games to play as it is, even more difficult for managers.

Sudhir Vashist and Amandeep Kaushik, two star achievers at iYogi, a software solutions company, took less than five years to reach where they have-Sudhir is assistant manager, online marketing, while Amandeep is manager, operations. Both revel in their work. "Work is never stress, it all depends on the attitude," they say. Their value to the company is much more than just what they are paid, which is substantial by any standards.

What makes a star different from your average employee is that "these people are on top of the game," said Promila Adhana, head of HR and training, Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon. "They add enormous value to the company."
"A star has the four qualities of self-awareness, strategic thinking, ability to influence and to relate to others," added Ashok George, president, Hero Mindmine, a training and HR consulting organisation. No one wants to lose such an employee, especially to a competitor.

These are the days of talent wars, given that the talent crunch is becoming particularly acute in the home market across all industries because of the mismatch between what students learn in college and the expectations of new-age organisations. Studies by several independent agencies including Nasscom show that professional graduates (engineers and MBAs) lack proficiency in areas that are most critical for entry-level positions. Apart from gaps in subject-related skills, there are shortcomings in soft-skills, besides personality-linked inadequacies.

Which makes the new economy's available talent pool quite small, of which only a few will qualify for star status. With everyone after these performers, it will also jack up attrition rates. The hospitality sector, for example, is currently facing an attrition rate of 36 per cent which is likely to rise to 50 per cent by 2010, mainly because the travel and retail sectors are offering compensation levels that are tough to match.

Research has found that the attrition rate is higher among new job entrants. An Assocham-Eco Pulse study found that the maximum attrition is among employees in the 26-30 age group. It found that the segment of employees most vulnerable to change are those with an experience range between two and four years.

Which only raises the stakes for companies to attract and retain the available talent. It has become a cliche, but true nevertheless, that in today's knowledge economy, a company's most important asset is the energy and loyalty of its people, the intellectual capital, that can quit and go to work for the competition. It then becomes important not only to give these people the jobs they can do well but also responsibilities that they are genuinely interested in.

At the same time, companies know they cannot keep them all. The trend then is to identify a few mission-critical people and do whatever it takes to keep them. And offer flexible quitting plans to those who want to leave  while keeping the door open for them to return if they want to.

"The star performers today spend an average of two years in a particular role, after which if they are not given an enriched role, they tend to get bored," said Narsimha Rao of Agro Tech Food Limited. At Argo Tech, the HR team has developed a five-pronged approach to facilitate what they call "capacity building", aimed at keeping top performing employees engaged and committed.

Generally, new professionally qualified aspirants take the path of least resistance, like taking up a job purely for the money, even unaware of the many activity choices available at different critical points in their lives. Competency and rewards, both monetary and value-based, no doubt are important. Which leads to people getting drawn into certain career paths even if they do not like the work it involves. But this soon leads to disenchantment resulting in loss of productivity or abrupt exits.

In most organisations, stars can be broadly classified into two categories. The first are the late-stage performers. "These include experienced managers ready to enter the executive ranks," said Adhana. This group typically forms the top 10 per cent of the company. Like the Korean electronics and home appliance giant LG's core group of employees which comprises just 20-30 of  the total staff strength of around 2,000 and are considered indispensable. "If they leave, the company would be in trouble," said Dr Yasho V. Verma, LG's director, HR and support management.

Star performers have their quirks. These are people who want to make a difference, even change the world. They want to be respected by the people they work for. And they cannot be micromanaged. They want the organisation to love them and nurture them, delight in them and celebrate them. They particularly want their bosses to get out of their way. Hierarchy be damned.

"Earlier, promotions were a long-winded process," said Sudeshna Dutta, co-founder and executive vice-president, corporate development and HR, AbsolutData Research and Analytics, a niche player in the KPO sector. "This could be frustrating for those who have it in them to make the cut sooner."

Anil Beejawat of Somany Ceramics concurred, adding that the "dynamics of business have changed where the employee needs to be assured of his/her importance to the company. We need to tell them constantly that they are appreciated and see that they are rewarded accordingly."

The second category of star performers are those who are identified as such at an early stage. Usually in the 25-30 age group and in the lower rungs of the organisational structure, their skills and productivity set them apart. At LG, this group is around 145 in number. Since they are relatively new recruits, the company monitors them closely for performance and skill development. "There has always been a debate between performance and talent. While talent is an abstract term, performance is there for everyone to see," Verma said.

Ultimately, it is those who make their talent work who become the stars. Those with potential but no drive remain stuck at the lower levels of the growth ladder. One could have an exceptionally high potential to be a star, with requisite qualities, yet not be a star. As Robert Kelly, author of How to be a Star at Work, writes, "star performers are not people hanging out in lazy-boy chairs relying on their stellar IQ or remarkable social skills. Stars work hard to live up to the values they believe in."

Generally, employers try to find places in their organisation where the exceptional employee can be used with a bit of "stretch" of his skills-which can be stretched in many directions. Which is a good thing and can help the employee move into areas that he perhaps did not know will hold his attention and satisfy his emotional needs. Yet in the end, when that employee quits, he invariably attributes his unhappiness to the bosses or the "company culture" so to speak.

Most companies identify their stars in two related ways. One is of course monitoring and furthering their skill and personality development. The second is having rigorous review and appraisal processes. Technical and subject skills can be identified early enough in a person's career. And enabling further development is a simple enough training process which every successful company, big and small, now has in place.

As happened to Gaurav Mehra, principal consultant at Stellar, a niche recruitment player. He joined Stellar in 2004 fresh out of a B-school and was soon handpicked by the MD to work on an important project. There has been no looking back for him since. "Within two years, I was able to get an overall perspective of the company's working," said Gaurav, definitely one of Stellar's star performers. Today Gaurav heads Stellar's Kolkata branch. In fact, he was the one who set up the branch in West Bengal. And he was able to achieve all this within five years of joining the organisation.

Stellar obviously has both development and review processes that worked in Gaurav's case. But performance reviews are not a simple affair and not all companies are able to make it what the stars would like it to be. Performance reviews are not just a matter of accomplishments, goals, skill development and plans for growth. They also need to include personal views on career satisfaction. A good performance review dedicates time to non-job issues, like life interests and other personal issues. Managers now have to listen better to understand what their key employees like and dislike about their jobs.

Let's hear from another star performer at Stellar, Mona Baruah, a principal consultant at the firm. "An important factor that helped me click was the two-way communication with the company," said Mona. It helped her understand what the company expected of her and also provided an opportunity to explain what she expected from it in return-an opportunity to upgrade her knowledge, and the hunger for challenges, something all stars crave for. "Challenges that are intellectually stimulating or strategically impactful are what drive me," Baruah explained.

While there are no foolproof systems by which to identify stars, HR departments of successful companies have all developed their own systems to identify the top performers. At NIIT, star performers get spotted through the performance management system that involves relative ranking and moderation process. All NIIT business units send nominations to the HR department, which does a shortlist based on the previous year's performance evaluation.

LG, on the other hand, has for the last two years been working with an experiment called the KPI assessment centre, comprising a panel of five experts across various fields. The experts identify the stars from their performance in various skill and personality games. Those selected are then groomed for key positions within the company.

At Cairn India Limited, the process of identifying stars starts right at the recruitment level. "Candidates are measured against the DNA of success and they also undergo three levels of psychometric testing," said P. Senthil Kumar, director, HR, Cairn India Limited.

In TCS, "we look at the candidate's potential based on feedback from seniors and supervisors and formulate a list of A category employees," said Ajoy Mukherjee, head of HR. "Such A-list candidates come to the fore at TCS when measured against a 'competency stack'. The candidates are evaluated based on the training they have received and the domain they work in. The score of a high-potential and high-performing candidate is obviously high and judging their competence and training requirements, they are assigned a certain training schedule."

Retaining those thus identified then becomes a whole new ball game. The key ingredient-besides incentives like advanced training sessions, foreign assignments and lifestyle goodies like paid holidays and family perks-is of course the reward, the recognition system that each company customises for its star performers.

Cairn India, for instance, has its CAF awards for employee contribution that impacts the company's business beyond one's normal area of responsibility, and reinforces the value of teamwork. The award acknowledges and rewards employees at all levels on an immediate, monthly and quarterly basis. These awards, in most other companies, too, range from attractive bonuses to foreign holidays. The aim is to enable these often quirky and finicky stars to live a lifestyle normally associated only with the rich.

Training opportunities are, of course, important to these people. "Every month a batch of 40 employees is shortlisted, based on the company's present and future requirements, and sent to IIM-A for a course," said Subhro Bhaduri, executive vice-president, HR, Kotak Mahindra Bank. Cairn sends its key employees to international colleges and universities on scholar programmes. "The entire cost is borne by the company and the employee also receives his full salary during this study tour, which could last up to two years," said Senthil Kumar. Such initiatives resulted in 100 per cent retention in the last two quarters for Cairn India.

LG, too, has been able to curb attrition rates because of its HR policies. Everywhere, these practices aim to involve the key people in the company's core functions besides helping him/her to chart a unique career path within the company. "If a candidate doesn't know where he is headed, he tends to look for avenues outside. To assure them of a good career within, organisations need to help them chart a course," said Verma. LG is putting in place a process to help any employee chart a five-year career path in the company. And for the stars, they offer a much faster growth track and additional incentives.

Most companies are, in fact, increasingly adopting fast-track career growth for star employees. At iYogi, this process begins as soon as an employee joins. In the first stage of grooming tomorrow's leader, the iYogi HR team gives the prospective star additional responsibilities with requisite training. If the performance exceeds expectations, they are listed for special projects and assignments, often requiring cross department movement/postings.

Sudhir Vashist joined iYogi as a team leader two and a half years ago. Within six months he was promoted, and wanted to dabble in the quality section. "I did not have any experience in the area," recalled Sudhir. "I was there for eight months, after which I moved to my current posting in marketing." Sudhir now understands how iYogi works and ?iYogi has been able to retain a ?vibrant talent.

"We prepare a business plan for all employees at the onset of their careers here," said K.R. Sreejith, iYogi's VP, online sales and marketing. That business plan ensures that the star is constantly challenged. "Stars need challenging assignments to move out of their comfort zone and perform better," added Mona Baruah.

What is also important is involving the star in the decision-making process at various levels. "It keeps their interest and makes them accountable towards the project and assignment," said Baruah.
But what about all the others in any organisation? "Organisations need to cultivate talent instead of just waiting for stars to show up at their doorsteps," said George. To address the problem of jealousy and griping from the others, some companies keep their star performer's policy confidential, with only the management and the stars themselves being aware. At other places, even the stars are oblivious of their star status. However, there are also a number of companies which prefer to keep the policy transparent in the hope that it will motivate everyone.

But transparent or hush-hush, the fact is that there will always be a small set of employees whose skills and contribution are much more than the others. So what makes such people-the Sudhirs, Monas and Amandeeps-tick? They like to win, more than anyone else, and for any company being a winner in their field remains the best motivator and retention tool. "Stars live the DNA of success," explained Senthil Kumar. They display entrepreneurship, ability to take risks and deliver a pioneering spirit. Which means companies need to try and recreate start-up like conditions for them constantly.

Hero Mindmine's George said that stars "think out of the box and ensure at the same time that they are strategically sound". They are consultative and solution-oriented in their thinking. Their demands remain a bundle of contradictions-a winning environment, immediacy, meaning, constant change and freedom. "Values and ethics mean a lot to them," said George.

Concurred Robert Kelly, who writes: "Being a good person, seeking self-knowledge and taking responsibility for where you're going are probably key pieces of the star's core belief system." In other words, soft skills is the trump card of today's stars.

The select few  
Star performers are generally in their late 20s or early 30s. Their value to the company is much more than just what they are paid, which is substantial by any standards.

Research has found that the attrition rate is higher among employees in the 26-30 age group. u Employees most vulnerable to change are those with an experience range between 2 and 4 years.

The trend now is to identify a few mission-critical people and do whatever it takes to keep them.

Stars can be broadly classified into two categories. The first are the late-stage performers and typically form the top 10 per cent of the organisation.

The second are in the 25-30 age group in the lower rungs of the organisational structure, their skills and productivity setting them apart.

Star performers spend an ?average of two years in a ?particular role, after which if they are not given an enriched role, they tend to leave.

Most companies identify their stars in two related ways. One is monitoring skill and personality development. The second is rigorous review and appraisal processes.

Training opportunities are important to these people.

Most companies are adopting fast-track career growth for the stars with additional incentives as compared to the average employees.

Customising careers  
According to a McKinsey report, star performers make a 50 to 100 per cent greater contribution to the organisation than their peers. No wonder then that they are given exceptional freedom and space. But even that may not always be enough.
In an article in HBR, management researchers Timothy Butler and James Waldroop say that exceptional professionals leave because their bosses don't understand the psychology of work satisfaction. They just assume people who are very good at their jobs are also happy doing it. But that is not always the case. Especially given that the 20 and 30-somethings passing out of today's engineering and MBA schools are the kind of people who would succeed in any job. So how does one get them to stay?
The key is not to focus only on what they are good at, but at the kind of activities that make them happy and give them a sense of fulfilment. It is that happiness that keeps them from quitting. It requires their bosses to play both detective and psychologist, the researchers say.

What exactly makes people happy at work? Several studies have been done, all of which mainly focus on ability, values and life interests. Different weightage is assigned to each, depending on the study focus. But overall, write Butler and Waldroop, the least importance has been given to life interests. Though in the end, this may be the most relevant in keeping the star from jumping ship.

Fancy titles  
One bait the companies dangle in front of their younger star performers is fancy designations. With benefits equivalent to that of senior managers. The trend is towards creating specialist designations that clarify the expertise and area of responsibility.
Since one important element for retaining talent is enabling a clear career path, companies are trying to create more vertical upward momentum by creating new designations in specialist domain areas. Maruti Suzuki, for instance, has adopted this model for its design engineers.

As companies move into niche spaces in different sectors, specialist knowledge and niche skills become important. And not easy to find. The focus then is on retention globally. For instance, Toyota's chief designers are on a par with the senior V-P. The hotel industry is pampering its speciality chefs with fancy designations, rank and salaries to match.
This trend of fancy designations was begun by the BPO sector, which continues to give fancy titles like team developer and chief of collection.