Talent Management Strategies

Shameela Winston | Monday December 9, 2019 16:54

So this week we look more closely at some of the strategies an organisation may establish and implement in order to have a successful and meaningful talent management programme in place. So, before we can define or articulate our talent management strategy, we need to answer these questions: Firstly, why do we want to be a high performing organisation, and secondly how will we recognise that we have achieved that goal?

Goal setting is something we just can’t get away from, as tedious as it can sometimes be.

Tedious not because we don’t appreciate the value of having goals, but because of the complex balancing act we engage in to accommodate the different interests and varying realities of each department, each team, and each individual in developing goals that are SMART. You remember SMART don’t you? So, whenever we talk about SMART goals, in other words, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals, we are talking about talent management metrics. These metrics enable us to keep track of what we’re doing. In the case of the HR department for instance, a SMART goal might relate to staff turnover.  Make that talent turnover (because in all honesty there are staff we fight to retain and staff we may prefer to release). So talent turnover! If the HR department does not have a SMART goal around the retention of talent, how would it be able to determine whether it is meeting its aspiration of cultivating a performance culture? So the first question we need to answer when we talk about talent management is, what do we want to achieve, and how would we recognise our arrival at that point?

 

What is our focal point?

As far as talent management is concerned, there are several possible areas that we could focus on as the employer. Do we want to be seen by employees as the preferred employer? If that is what we want to be recognised as, you know, an employer of choice, or a great place to work, we need to accept that there is a cost involved in building up and availing the array of benefits that are associated with being a great place to work. So in terms of building the talent management strategy, how are we going to create a working environment that attracts, motivates, develops, rewards and retains talent?  On the other hand, if we simply want to be known in the market as the most technically competent, then it means our focal point would be attracting the best technicians in the field. Are we getting them from the best institutions, or are we developing them ourselves, or are we headhunting them from competition?

And when we have them, making sure the working environment, from conditions to service to rewards to everything, appeal to this group of people.

Following the HR talent management model is very helpful when responding to these questions and making these decisions because it practically leads you in mapping the specific direction you can take, and prioritising the activities to focus on, from planning and recruitment all the way to retirement.

It may come as a surprise to some to note that managing talent is more involved than just finding the best and placing them in your organisation.

Talent management is not just training as we said before. It is a continuous process of evaluating and monitoring policies and practices, because the reality of it is, everyone is looking for talent and as soon as your protégé is ready to launch, the competition is ready to snatch him or her with a better set of conditions.  How we profile the position, how and where we recruit, our reward model, development opportunities, succession, engagement and motivation, amongst others, are medium to long term practices that need significant investment if the talent management goal is to be realised.

It means then that this reality has the implication of diversification of the HR skill set. Where it used to be just about waiting for applications to flood into the company, now the HR department has to learn how to recognise and exploit opportunities of marketing the organisation.

The quality and placement of job adverts for instance. The way the interviewing panel talks about the organisation to prospective employees. The way applications, successful or not, are responded to. The way communication within the organisation is handled. The quality of the organisational culture.

These are just some of the marketing opportunities that can be used to attract talent away from the competition, or not. It’s not just about a ‘competitive package commensurate with candidate’s profile’.

Another new skill for the HR team that wants to build a talent management approach is data analytics to help the department profile the staff population and figure out how to package benefits in a way that becomes meaningful to the escort ataköy various demographics represented in the organisation.

Finally, once you as the employer feel that you have successfully positioned yourself to be an attractive employer of talent, it is critical to keep monitoring yourself through a talent management dashboard so that you can have sight of how your KPIs stand and change as time goes on.