Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/182340
Talent Acquisition Star Struck Think before you poach talent. By Boris Groysberg "Buyer beware" is a sign that could be hung outside the door of many of today's HR managers when it comes to talent acquisition. Too often HR professionals are seduced by high-priced stars from other companies when they should be looking internally. By strengthening their own talent management programs, they will be able to cultivate and retain the stars of their own. Our research has shown that expensive "free agents," who may have been stars at their previous organization, often suffer from a lack of performance when they leave the job for a similar position. In fact, my book Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance examined performance records of more than a thousand star analysts at Wall Street investment banks, and we found they often [74] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2013 suffered an immediate and lasting decline in performance upon switching jobs. In those cases, the success of those stars went beyond their individual abilities. It was actually linked to the processes, platforms, and relationships they had at their previous place of employment. Relationships are based on mutual trust, which oftentimes has to be rebuilt at a new company, even if the employee walks in the door with impressive credentials. And rebuilding takes time. However, research has suggested a few exceptions to the "non-free agent" rule. In particular women who happened to be high performers at their previous jobs tended to maintain their performance even after joining a new company. One reason for this transitional success is that