Talent Management in 10 Easy Steps

1

Redefine talent management

Start by considering Talent Management at the right level; take a bird’s eye view of the dynamics of today’s employer/employee world.

It isn’t any longer a planning activity, and nor is it a matter of developing and retaining talent. It is, rather, a matter of spotting talent and getting the talent in just in time, so you have the people with the skills to get the work done.

2

Find the common denominators

For staff planning, identify the common denominator skills across managerial jobs. Those are the skills most managers in your organisation will need, irrespective of changing specialism, such as coaching, managing virtual teams, and creating a climate for trust, open communication and honest conversations – and spotting talent.

Become expert at describing those abilities, so you can include the right descriptions in job postings. Gather information from specialists on the job about what knowledge, skills, capabilities and attitudes they project for the next year or two.

3

Share the responsibility

Make staff planning part of everyone’s job and rely on the local teams and business units to let you know when they need more – or to reduce – staff. This has worked very well in highly-efficient and profitable companies such as Nucor Steel^**.

Train every person with supervisory responsibility to report changes in skills/capabilities required in their areas. Develop a continuous up/down communication capability. HR should consult on an ongoing basis across the organisation.

4

Become nimble

The new paradigm requires a nimble, flexibile, well informed and responsive HR function, comfortable working without medium- or long-term plans and with only short-term succession plans. These are keys to maintaining some balance between surplus and shortfall.

5

Develop simulations

In the method of supply chain management, ask experts – managers and non-management specialists – at operating unit level to develop simulations. That is, they posit several sets of assumptions about what drives the demand for talent and the build/buy costs. Ask the experts to assess the simulations.

6

Rely on the operating units

Leave decisions about which simulations to pursue with the operating units. Given that they are working to shorter time scales, they will be best placed to know when needs change and the organisation needs new people on the job.

The operating units may find this less of a change than Human Resources. Business has become more and more decentralised, with operating units accustomed to profit and loss responsibility. This responsibility engages employees and even contractors in a close look at the unit’s requirements and provides a sense of ownership that can help you retain talent.

7

Rely on judgment plus intuition

Getting what you really need in the mix - what kind and how many – necessarily involves subjective judgment, intuition and objective judgment based on experience. Keep the discussions local and wide open to ideas; diverge before converging, and foster creative approaches.

8

Weave talent management and business strategies

At the company level, make sure business strategy and talent management are iterative. Of necessity, both are now relatively short-term plans that inform one another.

9

Consider a new recruitment paradigm

Recruitment is more important than hiring practice in attracting the right group of applicants. The new paradigm suggests that you need to find and hire highly specialised people faster than before. If you have equipped the organisation with skilled people and process managers, hiring specialists who may not stay for the long haul is more straightforward.

This suggests that you start a campaign to market the organisation, and that you sell the job in each recruitment ad, just as you would sell to a customer. Be very clear: we’re looking for this, not that; here’s what’s good, here’s what’s hard. Be precise about the terms of engagement.

10

Make the culture change

For many, this talent management paradigm shift is a culture change, in that things are unsettled and uncertain. And there are key role changes that some prefer not to undertake yet must, in order to avoid confusion, anxiety, unease and unsound investment in outdated practices.

• Make short-term projections yet accept that you’ll probably be wrong, even though the cost of being wrong is that you have a surplus or a shortfall.
• Don’t expect people to be right any more; just good at estimating.
• Redefine HR’s role as understanding the ins and outs of specialist jobs, teaching operating managers and staff specialists to create and assess simulations, and writing precise marketing-wise job postings.
• Mesh strategic business planning with HR planning – all short-term - as a joint Human Capital activity.
• Train technical specialists to create simulations and interview skills.