September 2009
Why Talent Management is Important in Challenging Times
At a time of unprecedented economic pressure
you may feel that investing money in talent management programmes
is too much of a luxury. Well, there is strong evidence to suggest
that companies which do invest are better placed to succeed when
recovery gathers pace. In this paper, we look at some false assumptions
people have when considering their talent management strategy.
FALSE ASSUMPTIONS
With unemployment going up finding people is easy
Good talent is always difficult to find and the
fact is that there are always opportunities for those we class
as ‘key talent’. Our career transition team has
been working with senior managers who have left their employment
but have, without exception, found alternative employment within
a reasonable timeframe which is typically three to six months.
In one case the participant secured employment during his notice
period!
Indeed having more candidates on the market in itself causes
problems because of the fact that somebody needs to separate
the high performers from those who are less suitable for your
vacancies. Research shows that objective and selective recruitment
is critical to building high performance. The use of sophisticated
selection techniques is also an example of high commitment
HR, a key part of high performance working.
Moreover, many good potential candidates are afraid to move
companies as they sometimes think “better the devil you
know”, so employing the services of a professional
recruiter is important if the right talent is to be attracted and
the right hire chosen. That is why we always meet each and
every candidate face to face and why we assess the candidates
using psychometrics, aptitude and attainment tests as a matter
of course. We can then benchmark them against other external
candidates and organisations we know. Indeed, if you are using
other recruiters or managing the process ‘in-house’,
we can still carry out this assessment process for you as a ‘stand
alone’ service.
This provides great value for money when you consider the risks
of a failed hire.
Retention is not a problem when people fear redundancy
Even in the worst times good and excellent people can find
new positions if they wish. That is not all. Recent research
from the CIPD shows that over a third of employees plan to
leave their current employment when the economy recovers. Employee
engagement is going to be a real problem in the near future
and this will add to the burden of costs your business faces
before considering the opportunity cost of losing key skills
and experience from the organisation.
Treating employees well is always a high priority for successful
businesses and offering L&D opportunities can be a key part
of an employee’s total reward at a time when
low pay rises, zero bonuses and job uncertainty damages moral,
damages employee engagement and ultimately discourages valuable
discretionary behaviours amongst your people.
Development doesn’t help us
to improve performance
The ‘bottom line’ effect of leadership and management
development is now proven with a well established link between
performance and strong leadership. In good times it is easy to
mask managerial shortcomings, but with pressure on margins and
profits comes the need for the right people to be on top of their
game and to have the leadership skills which are proven to benefit
business performance.
Our experience of working with underperforming management and executive
teams is that once an organisation and the individuals understand
their strengths and development needs, we are able to work with
the client to facilitate self development activities. These need
not cost a great deal of money and we can also design L&D interventions
which are focused on achieving cost effective but rapid step change
in performance.
Outplacement & career counselling isn’t
a priority
Keeping the survivors of redundancy programmes motivated and engaged
is critical and, with retention likely to become a big issue going
forward, it is important you treat departing employees well in
order to maintain your employer brand. Outplacement and career
counselling for senior employees helps departing staff and has
a positive effect in mitigating the so called ‘survivor syndrome’ associated
with remaining employees. This in turn helps maintain ongoing employee
engagement.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Even during these turbulent times it is important to look to the
future and remain focused on long term strategic plans.
Successful organisations conduct annual talent reviews and look
to ensure they know who can step up to the next level when the
need arises. They also look to ensure that those people gain the
necessary experience and development they need to succeed in the
next role. The real trick is to ensure the organisation has the
talent to meet future needs and then to try and predict future
job requirements. These then determine whether your existing talent
can meet these needs and, if not, what needs to be done to meet
the requirements.
Sadly, many organisations we know have just not got their succession
planning right and consequently fail to get the most out of their
people and thus have yawning skills gaps in their organisation.
More worryingly still is that they may not realise this.
Hard times are not an excuse to avoid managing your talent and
budget constraints don’t have to be the end of strategic
thinking.
Matthew Davis is a CIPD qualified Talent Management Consultant
who managers The OPG, a practice within Ramsey Hall
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