Demystify the key to 'talent management' success
Talent management is an eminent concept many organisations have been talking about for ages, yet only a handful of them really find the way to bring the most values out of it.
There is no doubt that talent management is a highly crucial management topic and an extremely important human capital issue for any organisation, if it wants to stay relevant, competitive and secure long-term business success. The changing trends in the global workforce further intensify the "talent war" and ignite many to review their talent management practices whether it is still valid and effectively implemented.
In this article, I sum up the four most vital keys to the success of talent management as follow.
Defining your talent objectives
In practice, a good talent management programme starts with a very clear talent objective - why are you doing it and what do you want to get out of it in a long run?
The truth is many organisations initiate talent management programmes as a reaction to a few incidents such as a rapid turnover or the frustration of top management at not getting the right workforce skills. Whatever the motives might be, if organisations simply just undertake talent management without really defining their talent objectives, such a programme would not yield a high investment pay-off and will eventually lead to a dilution of the programme's value over time.
Despite the different motives, there are three most common talent objectives. The first is to obtain a constant flow of "fresh and innovative ideas" from a large group of bright young generations ie to plant the right seed and give them the right opportunities to show and shine, then produce innovative products and services out of their talent investment. This objective normally leads to "young talent programmes" developed for both existing employees and external potential talent.
The second one is to secure a capable workforce for particular job functions or for critical positions. This objective often leads to a talent programme focusing on a small group of core skills or key skills employees where those skills are needed, as they are important, scarce, and risk losing competitive advantage to the competitors.
The last is to secure the future leadership pipeline. For small companies, this type of objective may have a narrow focus on a particular leadership level while larger organisations may have a broad focus on multiple layers of leadership throughout the entire organisation. In short, with a clear talent objective, the organisations will then be able to define clearly their targeted talents and plan on how to manage the overall programme to meet the desired outcomes.
Planning your talent programme
One of the most common myths is the struggle to define and distinguishing "talent" and "high performers".
Talent usually means employees who not only perform well in their current roles but also demonstrate strong potential to grow and extend to unfamiliar job responsibilities. High performers, on the other hand, are a group of employees who consistently perform well in the given roles but may have limited potential to be stretched out to work in unfamiliar roles or greater responsibilities.
Although many studies show that talent can create a much greater impact to the longer-term strategic values, the high performers - known as workhorses - do contribute greatly to the company's current business success. Therefore, planning a talent programme shouldn't neglect this fact and find the way to keep this group of employees stay motivated and continue delivering the desired values to the organisation.
Implementing your talent programme
The most critical part to ensure talent efforts work is based on the right implementation. "Who should own the programme?" "Who should lead the implementation?" "Who should be accountable for grooming talent?" - these questions are crucial and the right answer is definitely not the human resources department. Instead, it is the business leaders who are working closely with all those talents whereas HR can provide processes, development programmes, and tools to support. As a result, too many talent programmes fail due to not getting the right support from the top management.
Another problem is that most companies emphasise more on business results than on developing people, which is considered to be the long-term investment. Also, some want to keep the best talent within their function and are not willing to rotate those talents to an area that could create strategic values for the organisation. The proposed solution is to articulate a clear roles expectation for talent management, prepare support processes and tools for its business leaders, and promote the culture of talent development and retention throughout the organisation.
Evaluating your talent programme
To keep abreast of the ever-changing demographics of the workforce and the varying needs of the organisation, a talent management programme has to be a continuous process of improvement by properly reviewing process as well as the visibility of talent information, defining clear success measurement, etc.
Besides that, the business leaders and HR should create an on-going reflection on these areas:
_ To monitor the shift in business priority ie to keep evaluating the change in business situation while evaluating the existing talent programme to ensure its strategic fit.
_ To review the execution approach - to spot errors in order to improve the overall impact. It should be noted that the most frequent error usually lies in the lack of top leadership commitment and support, an over-designed programme with a lot of complicated extensive form and/or too many criteria for selection, and the lack of critical knowledge and skills of key stakeholders to implement the programme.
_ To monitor the risks and gaps after a certain programme imple-mentation as they may imply for the need to review and adjust such programme.
All in all, talent management cannot and should be done just because everyone else is doing it but if you're doing it for a good cause then I hope this article will at least guide you to the right direction for your talent management program and your organisational success.
Author Nipatra Tangpojthavepol is a senior consultant of APMGroup