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Fostering Talent Opportunity - Getting Past First-Base

(As seen in the Strategic Direction Journal - September 2007)

Large Ripples in the Talent Pool

The world of work is in flux, and new talent management conventions are rapidly developing. What constitutes key organisational talent is changing ever faster as new technologies and consumption patterns force organisations to re-assess their talent needs to ‘future proof’ the emerging business. At the same time organisations are recognising that diversity management is an essential strategy for ensuring a strengthened internal talent pool, and no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ which fulfils a social responsibility obligation.

For much the same reason, international talent pools are increasingly targeted by both states and organisations, as, according to Wooldridge, 2006 (in The Economist, print edition, Oct 5th 2006); ‘the more countries and companies compete for talent, the better the chances that geniuses will be raked up from obscurity.’ Global hunting increasingly makes sense.

On the other hand, local talent pools are flexing their new options, (eg. shifting to portfolio careers), opting out of the world of traditional work, taking their skills internationally, shifting sector, etc, and finally, key talent pools in the West, eg. senior leadership, are aging and nearing retirement.

As organisations are increasingly opting for ‘buy-in (and discard)’ versus ‘develop internally’ in response to commercial and talent availability realities, it is not surprising that the concepts of organisational succession and organisational career development are increasingly anachronistic. This trend has obviously impacted at the ‘psychological contract’ level, and survey results are increasingly indicative of talented people being driven by personal objectives vs objectives driven by their organisations.

We are entering a much purer supply-demand situation in the world of work; possibly uncluttered by concepts such as shared values, mutually-beneficial career paths, and so on.

What Remains Unchanged?

Although the organisational talent picture is rapidly morphing as developing countries develop their talent, and as the developed countries seek new ways to lay their hands on an ever diverse but always limited pool of (technical and, to a lesser extent, leadership) talent, the same broad rules of attraction apply – given the opportunity,  truly talented people tend to gravitate towards the best organisations; those most likely to provide them with the leverage and experience they are seeking,  Where their choices are initially sub-optimal, they are usually well courted by the head hunting fraternity and can move on quickly; especially those people who understand and apply the principles of sound networking.

So, although there is room from greater personal discernment on the supply-side, and harder, more rigorous work required on the demand side; the broad principles of attracting, engaging and retaining core talent remain largely unchanged – talented people join organisations which they perceive to be attractive and leveraging (to themselves), and leave organisations which they discover fall short of the mark from leadership behaviours, value-proposition and engagement perspectives. Examples abound amongst the greatest brands in the world, including many of the media space’s hot brands which regularly experience 20%+ staff attrition rates, including key leadership and technical talent.

What also remains unchanged is that truly talented people often remain hidden to their organisations and sectors, in spite of highly sophisticated assessment and development programmes. Very often great assessment is not matched with equally excellent performance management rigour, but, for the most part, talented people are often simply not given the real-world opportunity and space to shine.

On this, whilst few organisations can be indulgent about identifying and fostering talent via open-ended experiential development opportunities; there is certainly much to be learnt from those organisations which recognise that truly effective competency assessment requires a degree of talent nurturing in the real world. Without opportunity and space to shine in the real world, any assessment is incomplete.

The dotcoms and the ‘fast-four’ e-commerce consultancies managed to do this so very well in the late nineties – during which they experienced almost perfect commercial and growth conditions, giving them space to indulge in a little talent nurturing in the real world, albeit for a short period until the dotcom bubble burst.  A little naiveté around cost management also assisted this process.

For this reason, at HDA, we tend to challenge organisations to identify ‘opportunity’ as a key element of talent management. This implies investing real money and time into the provision of stretch opportunities, (high quality on-the-job development opportunities, project participation, secondments, international assignments, etc), mentorship and coaching; in addition to the typical assessment activities. 

Without this investment in creating opportunities for nurturing talent, talent-potential, is missed, and opportunity squandered.

Moving Beyond Reputation

Talent at any level (senior, technical, high potential, etc) can be attracted by an impressive reputation, by the promise of exceptional career progression, competitive financial rewards, and so on, but ultimately, it is the experience of the relationship that that person has within an organisation that determines the longevity and the win-win consummation of the relationship. Image and promise is not enough for highly marketable and talented people. Very often the image/reality disconnect is quickly reached, sometimes in weeks, days or even hours These people can move on and do where the taste of reality within the organisation does not add up to the external brand reputation..

As a consultant, I see this all the time with great brand names which have had to come to terms with staff turnover rates of 20+% each year, despite their having a business reputation and external brand which attracts excellence. This cycle is most often recognised as being due to haphazard, neglectful inductions, leadership behaviours and ethics not matching superficial expectations, sub-optimal working environments, structural and process frustrations, and so on.

Implications for Successful Talent Attraction, Engagement and Retention

Well-led organisations are recognising that attracting and engaging external talent early on is enhanced by employing employer branding principles. ‘Employer Brand’ is an old principle clothed in new labelling, and broadly touches on ‘employer of choice’, ‘employee value proposition’ (EVP) and ‘unique talent experience’ concepts. Those organisations recognising that the effective employer brand is the one underpinned by outstanding leadership behaviours rather than by hype and image, are the ones likely to generate greatest success in this area.

Well-led organisations are also taking the time to regularly measure team engagement with the principles and objectives of the business (via surveys and focus groups), including permanent staff, contractors, and other customer facing constituencies). Rather than simply measuring engagement, where many organisations stop; those taking direct action on the outcomes of these measures are the ones who will ultimately convince their teams, and in particular their key talent, that there is real value in the relationship.

Well-led organisations show evidence of expending effort (if not huge cost) on improving the marketability of their key talent via coaching, project and stretch opportunities, etc, whilst they are incumbent within the organisation, and are likely to hold on to key talent longer than those who do not recognise this opportunity-cost need in talented people.

Similarly, recognising that relationships will not always be truly permanent, well-led organisations put practical effort into providing career coaching and transitional support via redeployment and outplacement when roles no longer fit, and in so doing very often build upon their employer brand, both in respect of the morale of staff remaining with the organisation, and in respect of the reputation with which new candidates associate the organisation.

Conclusion

Given current global talent shortages, lots of noise is currently being made about the management of organisational talent, and a lot of money is being spent in its name at larger world-class organisations.

Whilst businesses, consultants writers and gurus tell impressive stories of sophisticated systems-based talent management strategies and initiatives; and whilst the most sophisticated commentators can prove complex ROI arguments for their talent strategies; the fact is that the most successful stories often tell of success in the face of significant commercial, and hence, resource constraints, given strong charismatic leadership underpinnings.

Organisational leaders who take visible ownership of talent nurturing, and who use a combination of personal charisma and example-setting to develop and engage organisational talent at all levels are worth their weight in gold to their organisations. By taking bold and visible steps to expend time, money and other resources on the nurturing of organisational talent; and by influencing their direct reports and their direct reports to do the same, often in the face of difficult business conditions which make their commitment more notable, they prove their commitment to providing opportunity to talented people within their organisations.

Without clear visible top-down ownership of the talent agenda, and clear leadership behaviours which support the promise,; most talent strategies are doomed to remain expensive means to an elusive end – great strategies, structures and stories about applied resources, but without the final consummation, in the form of key talent engagement and retention.  

 

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