Employers
at large tend to appreciate, recognize and ultimately reward individuals either
for their past achievements or their future potential. This preference is typically
reflected in an organization culture and its practices; in particular in the
recruitment and selection, retention and reward policies.
Recruitment and Selection
Offering the right position to the most suitable candidate definitely
represents the main objective every recruiter aims at attaining. Despite the desired
final end of the procedure is sorely clear, it might not invariably appear to
be equally obvious which the most suitable means to achieve the intended
purpose is.
Recruiters habitually assess applicants and candidates for any
given post on the basis of their CVs. Numberless anecdotes are constantly
unveiled and recounted by recruiters about what people include in their résumés
and about how self-explanatory this information may prove to be in many cases.
The hardest problem with CVs, nonetheless, is associated with the reliability
and trustworthiness of the information contained in this significant document.
More often than not, applicants tend to inflate the content of their CVs, either
overstating the positions these have actually covered or listing qualifications
these have never gained and do not hence possess; never mind the inclusion of
practical results these have never actually achieved. Inasmuch as identifying
the right person for the right position definitely represents a difficult feat
to perform, having to deal with altered and craftily devised CVs can just
contribute to make the recruiters’ task even trickier. The best and most
effective method recruiters should adopt to perform the task is that to
practically assess individual knowledge, skills and expertise, but according to
the circumstances this activity could prove to be particularly difficult to perform
in practice, especially when the recruitment and selection process has to be completed
to a tight deadline.
During this delicate and
important process, also in those cases in which the CVs of the applicants for
any given post properly and genuinely reflect the candidates’ previous
experience and background, employers, or rather, recruiters on their behalf in
order to identify the most suitable candidate for the current vacancy aim at
scrutinizing individual past experiences, that is, past achievements and at reading
between the lines, based on CVs and interviews, whether these, albeit not
having the desired experience, have the qualities and skills to yield
outstanding results in the not-too-distant future.
Many newly graduates and brilliant candidates who just have
never previously had the chance to cover determined roles, nonetheless, may prove
to be outstanding achievers whether offered the chance to show their abilities
and capabilities in practice. As long as these individuals will not be offered
the opportunity to perform and demonstrate what they are capable and keen to yield,
these people will invariably remain overshadowed by those people who can boast
a previous, specific experience. This practice can prove to be particularly
detrimental for new graduates, who very often find it frustrating, after years
of hard study, not to be offered a position potentially compatible with their
knowledge and skills for lack of practical experience. It should not hence come
as a surprise that many young people prefer approaching the world of work rather
than the academic one.
This practice, however, could reveal to be counterproductive
for employers too in that it may cause in the mid- to long-term a widespread
general shortage of talent. Yet, people who have gained a previous experience
of performing a determined task may tend to approach it routinely, without making
any valuable contribution in terms of innovation and originality. In some
cases, merely repeating what one is used to do may also account for introducing
or implementing a solution not necessarily fully meeting the employer
requirements and expectations.
Recruitment specialists and professionals should hence try and identify, and hence agree with the relevant managers, when some specific experience for any given post can be “sacrificed” or otherwise for future potential.
Retention practices
Employers’ preference for past achievers or future potential
performers is also certainly reflected in the business retention policies. Opportunities
for growth, training, teamwork, increased autonomy and responsibility,
involvement and participation and pay increases, just to cite some examples,
will be offered only to those employees who have attained the pre-agreed
results or to those individuals who have shown to have the capabilities to obtain
outstanding results in the future, whether the employer is willing and keen to
bet on these, accordingly.
Despite the sorting effect
is habitually associated with the pressure which the pay increases granted to
some individuals can put on the others as regards their decision to stay or
leave the company, the initiatives listed above can actually support and
complement the sorting effect provoked by reward practices. Individuals who are
not offered opportunities for growth and development in fact might find it more
appropriate to leave the organization. Even more so when the lack of prospects
is coupled with a lack of pay increases, whereas other colleagues are offered
and benefit of both of these types of advantages.
Reward practices
As it is usually said money talks so that employer preference
for past achievers or future potential performers is likely to emerge from their
reward practices, too.
Organizations aiming at rewarding past achievements and
outstanding or above-the-average performance have typically recourse to
contingent, variable pay arrangements. Pay increases are linked to past results
and performance and are offered as long as these are sustained over time, and
eventually consolidated into base pay after these have been repeated for a
given number of consecutive years. The cash supplement is in this case considered
as pay at risk or pay which needs to be re-earned to be repeated.
Conclusions
Employer preference for past
achievers or future potential performers may also be associated with the
individual experience in and acquaintance with the job. Individuals should
first and foremost have a future potential, this being the case after a while
these have covered a given post or role these will certainly become also past
achievers. 
The two features are not indeed mutually exclusive, but do not
either necessarily coexist. As discussed earlier, the concept of past achiever could
be merely associated with an individual ability to repeat a given level of
performance or achievements based on his/her past experience. In contrast, a
future potential performer, whose status could also coincide with that of a
past achiever, is a person who, albeit capable to re-achieve any given result, can
also extend and expand further his/her capabilities, reach higher level of
performance and regularly yield even more satisfactory, impressive results in
the future. Employers aiming at fostering both aspects usually have recourse to
contribution-related pay approaches, which are intended to favour employee
development and growth, whereas rewarding individuals for the results these
have yielded in the past.
It can be contended that in
general past achievers are not necessarily potential future performers, whereas
potential future performers can easily evolve into past achievers, still
preserving their potential to grow and develop further in the future and
consequently continuing to produce dramatic and impressive results over time.
Longo, R., (2014), Who to value the most: past achievers or potential future performers?; Milan: HR Professionals [online].
