The Transformation of Talent Management Processes in a Rapidly Changing World
Delivering unbiased and proactive insights to make decisions that identify and place critical talent in real-time.
The unprecedented events and new realities of 2020 have had a major impact on how we look at Talent Management. The need to unlock the true potential of people within the workforce, to transform and grow the business at an individual level as well as organization-wide, has never been greater.
The Black Lives Matter movement has opened eyes and the demand for an open and transparent culture has become more critical than ever. Removing bias from decision making is imperative and here to stay.
Furthermore, most organizations will face periods of economic uncertainty following COVID-19 and need to take protective actions to secure business sustainability and growth. The pace of digitalization in the workplace continues to put pressure on existing people practices and requires new mindsets and behaviors from individuals and teams.
Leveraging Existing Talent and Skills
Currently, less than a third of leadership roles are filled through succession plans (from the 2016 Gartner & SHL Leadership Validation study), while internal talent is up to speed much faster than external hires (and they cost half as much). The landscape of work is changing rapidly and will continue to do so. Understanding the skills and capacity of the current workforce is critical to optimize the succession planning process, leverage existing talent and skills, and meet and exceed goals – both today and going forward.
So that’s the problem. How do we solve it?
First, we need to research a workforce’s ability to deliver on the current strategy and lay the groundwork for sustainable growth in the future. We need to identify people who can accelerate transformation and understand where to invest in people development to have the greatest possible impact on ROI. And we need to do all this in the context of a proactive and unbiased approach. Here’s how:
- We need to shift from developing a small number of people and leaders in carefully designed structural identification and development programs to including the whole workforce and identifying hidden talent and existing capabilities.
- Recognize that a one-size-fits-all approach no longer exists. Not all leaders necessarily perform well in every business context. New contextual leadership skills have become fundamental to help deal with unprecedented and continuous change and better align the capabilities of the workforce.
- People leaders should be more involved and leading in the process of succession planning for their teams and individuals and have insights into the business needs across the organization to maximize the impact for both business and employee.
It’s time for change. Getting the talent management process right is an ongoing effort that continues to evolve along with the changes facing the rest of the world. The HR ecosystem must be built in a way to address business queries proactively, taking a holistic approach, and mapping all internal talents to a critical business issue. Regardless of business functions and silos, we need to look for the best possible fit across an organization. We need to find a way to facilitate internal moves and provide proactive, unbiased answers to people decision making.
Talent solutions and answers need to be connected to individual, team, and organizational needs. They need to be predictive to drive performance and engagement. It’s time for business-relevant and unbiased answers to people questions. It’s time for a new approach to Talent Management.
Get in touch to learn how SHL can help with unbiased identification, placement and readiness decisions in real-time, on one platform. Our technology was honored with a prestigious award at SIOP 2018 for best-applied research in the workplace. We’d love to tell you more.
