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BUSINESS LEADERS: RETHINK YOUR TALENT MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Business leaders rethink talent management

Leaders are planning for a future where uncertainty and change are everywhere. 

For many organisations, this involves a fundamental reappraisal of work, performance and talent, and a willingness to throw out the rule book and reinvent things. A recognition that many of the tools and processes we have been using are not fit for the challenges we will face – that we need new approaches with greater flexibility.

This blog explores the questions we should be asking about the future of talent management. We’ll also discuss the changes that leaders can start making now.
 
Our insights combine knowledge from five roundtable discussions featuring 30 senior leaders from across the globe. We’ve pooled knowledge from large and small, public and private sector organisations, all adapting their talent management strategies.
 

Tasklist for leaders in talent management

As a business leader, successful talent management is the fuel firing your growth. Your main focus areas ought to address:
 
  • Retention planning for existing talent.
  • Recruitment for new skills.
  • Personalised approaches to talent management.
  • Employer branding for passive recruitment and retention.
 
1. To retain top talent, consider the location of work
 
Our evolving world of work will continue to feature hybrid working models. Some employees will work primarily from home, while others will share an office location.
 
A hybrid working model raises questions surrounding employee engagement, including:
 
  • How important are face-to-face interactions in your business?
  • What are the preferences of team members?
  • How can leaders provide support for healthy home working?
  • How can leaders involve team members in making decisions?
 
A hybrid working model will allow you to reach a wider pool of talent. But this approach also comes with greater responsibilities for leaders managing hybrid teams.
 
Strike a balance between budgets and employee needs
 
In the long-term there are also a number of strategic implications regarding company facilities. All talent management solutions need to balance financial gains with productivity considerations. Altering facilities costs mustn’t impact engagement and performance.
 
Leaders need to establish:
 
  • How do we meet individual and organisational needs in the best way?
  • Would we prefer more flexible office arrangements of renting space where and when we need it?
  • How do we redesign office space around our new goals and purpose?
  • What purpose does our previous office space serve?
  • What working practices do we need to fine-tune to support our goals?
  • What are the long-term risks involved with working from home?
 
The role of leaders in talent management planning is to consider all of these questions. Exploring relevant answers will help you to create a safe and happy working environment for employees. H3:
 
2. Recruit talent from overlooked sources to futureproof your team
 
Most leaders see a need to build far greater flexibility into their workforce planning. Flexibility enables rapid change as a reaction to new challenges or situations.
 
Plan for a range of scenarios and prepare your workforce accordingly. Proactively building the workforce you need for the future will help to ensure that you continue to have access to the talent you need.
 
Challenge assumptions to support succession planning
 
Business leaders need to challenge assumptions. We mustn’t assume that ‘good’ people have a certain amount of experience in a particular sector. Nor should we think that successful employees require a set career path or specific qualifications.
 
Many senior leaders describe being ready to move to a different model of talent planning. Rather than rely solely on employees or contract talent, they now recognise the need to broaden their talent network.
 
Digital and emerging tech skills are valuable and often in-demand. Yet we base this scarcity on people with formal digital qualifications. Large numbers of high performers possess extensive experience and self-taught skills. Future-proof talent management plans should engage applicants with alternative experience.
 
Rethink talent management for the future
 
Identify scenarios and future requirements first, then you can prioritise talent on a scale of availability. Questions to ask yourself include:
 
Can you upskill or redeploy your existing team members?
  • What are the skills they will need?
  • How can you help and encourage them to develop these skills?
 
Can you train and develop new starters to fulfil the skills and knowledge you need?
  • What would be the level of investment and risk?
 
Where might there be new sources of people with the talents you need?
  • Is there better availability in other parts of the country or the world?
  • Do other professions have similar skills that would reduce the training investment?
  • Are there any ‘hidden’ sources of this talent?
 
Who else will need people with these skills?
  • How could you collaborate to develop more of a talent network?
 
How could you outsource the challenge?
  • Who could you work with to access the people you need?
  • Could you ‘borrow’ from other organisations? Or crowd-source a solution?
 
What is the role of technology?
  • Which tasks can we deliver successfully through technological solutions, including AI or robotics?
 
All of these questions will play a key role in shaping your talent management planning.
 
3. Personalise your approach to performance management
 
Beyond location and strategic workforce planning, you must personalise talent management in the evolving world of work. Recognising team members’ different circumstances is vital.
 
Leaders need to find ways of supporting each person throughout their career development. It’s increasingly important to focus on reducing the risk of burnout and addressing issues of fairness. Personalisation of talent management processes can go even further in the longer-term. Talent management should focus on the aspirations of our talent, not just the needs of the organisation.
 
A partnering model recognises both the goals of the organisation and the people within it. Remember: the needs of employees hold value in the same way as customer needs.
 
Treat every employee as an individual to secure your talent management
 
Achieving a personalised approach may require additional support, including People and Culture teams. Consider flexible contracts and ways of working on a case-by-case basis. To inform your approach, ask yourself:
 
  • How can we research the needs of our team members?
  • How can we apply customer research methodologies internally?
  • What are the viable options for how we could work with people in different ways?
  • How can we flex to suit different employee preferences, and to maintain employee happiness?
  • How can we continue to evolve the ways in which we work with people?
  • Can we help our staff to develop their careers in ways that will be fulfilling and motivating?
  • How can we support our line managers to make this approach work?
 
Above all, business leaders need to involve, support and empower managers to enable personalisation at all levels.
 
4. Bring your Employer Brand and Culture to the fore
 
Organisations must define their company culture clearly. And, importantly, leaders must consider how to sustain and communicate a culture virtually.
 
We need to accept that organisational culture is constantly evolving. Leaders cannot control the culture, but can influence it through actions, priorities and processes.
 
The starting point is to define purpose. Ask yourself:
 
  • What is your organisational purpose and how do you align all of your processes and activities to this?
  • What behaviours and values will help you to achieve your purpose?
  • How do you engage and involve everyone within the organisation to work towards this?
 
With purpose at the centre, you can consider your whole operating model and how it serves or undermines your purpose.
 
Some of the elements of culture to then consider include:
 
Prioritise transparency
 
Share information on your future talent requirements to inform employee development. Think about:
 
  • How transparent are you willing to be?
  • What are the implications of high and low transparency in your organisation?
 
Empower your employees
 
Higher empowerment typically aligns with higher flexibility. Consider:
 
  • To what extent must rules, processes, authorisation and formal decision-making protocols drive people’s actions?
  • How much will you empower people within agreed guidelines?
 
Ensure psychological safety
 
Providing a safe and inclusive workplace is a key enabler of innovation, flexibility and continuous improvement. To foster a supportive environment, ask yourself:
 
  • How much do you want people to feel that they belong, to feel able to learn and to call things out if they see them?
  • How much do you want people to feel safe to challenge others, to take risks, to innovate? 
 
Encourage feedback loops
 
In an agile world we need to be willing to take lots of small ‘course corrections’. We may know where we want to go, but we may have to change direction along the journey. Leaders need to develop rapid feedback loops to identify key factors, such as:
 
  • What’s working and not working.
  • How the environment is changing.
  • How our customers’ needs are changing.
  • How our team’s needs are changing.
 
This challenge is essential for you to reinvent your organisational culture for the evolving world of work.
 

The role of leaders in talent management: your next steps

Consider each of the questions we’ve posed to explore your attitudes towards effective talent management. Leaders have an opportunity to examine assumptions and shape the type of organisation we need for the future.
 
If you take an active role in positive talent management, the benefits will include:
 
  • Better access to talent.
  • Higher levels of engagement.
  • Greater retention.
  • Higher performance.
 
As the world of work continues to evolve, take this as an opportunity for a refresh. Consider how you can position your organisation as an employer of choice amid a tight battle for talent across the globe. 
 
Learn more about talent management from our experts:
 
 

AUTHOR


Dr Maggi Evans
Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Consultant and Coach

Maggi is an experienced consultant and coach with international experience across a wide range of sectors including professional services, financial services, retail and FMCG. She is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and combines research and practice to develop practical solutions to drive business improvement.

Maggi has been a consultant for over 20 years, specialising in talent strategy and talent development. She has a reputation as an insightful consultant, helping clients to reduce the ‘noise’ around an issue so they can focus and act on key issues which will make a difference. Maggi is on a mission to help organisations, leaders and individuals to liberate talent. Her first book ‘From Talent Management to Talent Liberation’ has recently been published.