Making the decision to use technology to transform your talent management game is one thing. Coming up with an effective strategy is another. However, it’s important that Human Resources, or Talent Management, come into the 21st century. A modern talent management system connects a company’s public face with how it actually feels to work there. Promises made by recruiters that are actually kept means your current and future employees will view your company as a legitimate opportunity to perform, develop their skills, and succeed.
Developing a Talent Management Strategy
1) Prioritize
Without your C-Suite and HR department fully buying into the change, little progress can be made. The best talent management systems determine an organization’s greatest needs and focus on them.
Establish a communications strategy focused on each group of stakeholders, define project roles and responsibilities, and develop a plan for training. Each division, department, and manager should be made a stakeholder.
2) Identify Goals and Priorities
What are your organization’s current strategic goals? Are there any new challenges the company would like to undertake? List them all.
With the deliberate application of tools to measure and track information, determine systemic and department-specific issues that offer clear paths to improvement.
Compare where your organization is today to where it wants to be, and identify any gaps it needs to address in order to achieve these goals. In identifying each gap and goal, consider also the risk of failing to address it.
If your company wants to lead the industry in customer satisfaction, you first need to quantify your current customer satisfaction ratings and the ratings of whatever company is top ranked. That will help you identify the specific areas you need to improve.
With each priority identified and in place, you can determine your HR department’s SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/relevant, Time-bound) and link them with the pertinent company-wide goals.
3) Determine Metrics
Like anything else, talent management systems must be measured. This includes both the implementation of those systems and the determination of their effectiveness.
Statistics such as overall retention rates, retention rates broken down by demographics, data derived from exit interviews and more should all be measured.
There should also be a system in place to regularly review the data and adjust your company’s tactics based on the findings.
4) Identify Challenges and Drivers
How might internal and external challenges impact your business’s ability to achieve its goals? What if the job market changes? The economy surges or lags? New technologies emerge? Regulations become more restrictive or lax?
5) Identify Your Talent Management Processes/Functions
Transforming your talent management systems requires integrating and optimizing your organizational structures, processes, and technologies.
Identify your current HR talent management processes and determine which need to change and/or whether new processes need to be added. Determine what other businesses in your position have done to improve and seek to emulate them where you can.
Also evaluate technology solutions including options for upgrading or adding new functionality to automate manual processes, provide business intelligence and improve management reporting. Redesign talent management business processes to eliminate redundancies, improve workflow efficiency and maximize the advantages of the new technology.
6) Measure the Results, Successes, and Contributions
As you start to implement new processes and achieve each goal, it’s important to communicate the results to the organization.
Track relevant metrics so you can report on your progress and successes, but remember, just because a goal has been achieved or a process has been initiated doesn’t necessarily mean they need to be kept as is. If your measurements don’t indicate any added value to the company, be prepared to adjust both or either to suit new, refined goals or needs.
7) Talent Training and Career Paths
Once an employee has been brought on board, the real training should begin. It is essential that an atmosphere of continual professional development be inculcated whether that training is through internal programs, via partnerships with local schools, or online programs.
The best companies develop clear career paths for their employees. The best talent management systems provide tools to assess and measure employee strengths, provide visible opportunities for career progression, and offer mentoring or coaching to allow employees to develop the requisite skills and experience to attain the next position or role.
Identifying your organization’s top talent and providing programs to develop them can provide tremendous benefits. In addition to the added value a better-trained employee brings to a business, employees with a focus on their career path, especially younger employees, remain with organizations for long periods of time and allows the company to strategically shepherd them for present and future positions.
Career maps can also help employees and HR customize their career development. These usually involve self-assessment tools and discussions with managers regarding the employee’s strengths, current weaknesses, skills, etc. Career maps can help identify positions within an organization that mesh with employee and organization goals, be those lateral moves or promotions.
The Wrap-Up
Businesses outperform their competition when their strategic talent management system is an essential and integrated part of the corporate strategy. The use of analytics and diagnostic tools help executives, department heads, and managers put aside generalities and “gut instinct” and embrace detailed analyses of workforce performance drivers.
Contact us to learn more about how you can transform your talent management processes.