Today’s HR directors and business leaders are facing an imminent talent challenge, says Wendy Montague, talent and development expertise leader at Hay Group.
“Most acknowledge that today’s talent approach won’t stand up to tomorrow’s workforce challenges, but they’re struggling to understand what skills their company will require or how they’ll identify talent with those skills.”
In order to implement a flexible approach to talent and bring your organisation into the 21st century, Montague recommends the following five steps.
1) Define your strategy
When defining the talent strategy, HR should ensure it runs in parallel with the company’s business objectives, she says.
“Consult with business leaders to align your assessment approach with the organisations’ business strategy for the future.”
2) Review your assessment tools
Both your talent and business strategies should clearly define the qualities you are assessing for, especially with regards to critical roles within the firm.
Montague says this includes “looking at every aspect of the key success factors for a role, as well as finding and attracting people with the breadth of skills and competencies to perform well in the new roles.”
3) Apply insights past selection
HR should use information collected during assessment to predict and identify areas for future growth, Montague adds.
“Predictive analytics is a trend we see migrating to HR from industries like tech. Organisations like Google have long been using complex algorithms to project whether candidates will be a good fit, whether they will stay, and how far they will go.”
Taking this approach to deep analytics will ensure firms become more efficient when betting on who will succeed and who won’t. HR will also be able to adapt their assessment methods to better suit the business’ priorities.
“Firms using such recruitment and selection processes will have the competitive advantage in predicting successful performers,” she says.
4) Measure your talent management effectiveness
It is essential that HR report on and measure the effectiveness of their talent management strategies, Montague advises.
“Use assessment more broadly to identify high potential employees and inform long-term development programs to create a strong pipeline for mission-critical roles.”
5) Always re-evaluate
“Only by continuously reviewing and adjusting their approach to talent can organisations create a strong talent pipeline and ensure their talent becomes a true competitive advantage,” she says.
HR can do this by revisiting the talent strategy often in order to keep it aligned with the company’s changing goals.
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