Talent management is often perceived as the overlooked kid in the block of corporate strategies. Whether it’s a big, medium or small organisation, it is not the natural top priority. However, putting talent management in the backbench can cost companies millions, (if not billions) of dollars in potential revenue. Why then do companies continue to forgo the need to address this?
Bill Millar, a Forbes business writer, attributes this to many managers having no formal experience in organisational performance, and having little understanding on how talent lapses limit or damage performance and growth. In short, they can’t know what they don’t know1.
In this article, we will help uncover some of these misconceptions and myths about talent management.
Myth #1: Talent management is just hiring, right?
No, it’s not. We wish it was that easy. Hiring is just part of the process in talent management. In definition, talent management is a systematic process designed around attracting, developing, motivating, and retaining productive, engaged employees.
The goal of talent management is to create a high-performance, sustainable organisation that meets its strategic and operational goals and objectives. Hiring is only the start.
Myth #2: Talent management is for the HR department, not for the Company’s Management or Board to bother with.
Nay, and a thousand times, nay. Lest you forget, your business, is run by people. Till artificial intelligent robots could replace your entire workforce, as an executive or boss of a company, talent management is indeed something to be serious about and thought as a company strategic thrust at top levels.
This begins from the policies you roll out, the paychecks you issue, the culture you breed, the hierarchies you build, the career paths you develop, the vision and mission that you shout out and so on and so forth. The policies rolled from the top will flow down naturally to your workforce.
While the bulk of the work can be handled and managed by your human resource department, top management needs to take the time to work with them on how to strategically create a culture that can achieve a sustainable organisation run by your people.
Remember, when your base crumbles, your top-line sales too will suffer.
Myth #3: I’ve promoted some of my best people to be managers. They should be able to take care of the people under them.
Yes, and no. People management is a skill. It’s also an art. Not everyone has the aptitude or interest to continually lead a team to reach full potential. The top engineer in your company may not have the relevant skills to manage people.
As Gallup polls suggest: “…only three in 10 people have the naturally recurring thought patterns to manage individuals for performance excellence, and thus increasing workers’ productivity. Choosing the right people to be managers and leaders and investing in the development they need to excel could hold the key to unlocking the national push for higher productivity.2”
It is thus pertinent to not only select the right people for management roles, but also to equip them with the relevant skills to do the job well.
Myth #4: In that case, I only have to hire the top talent and I’m all set.
Yes, and no. It’s not about hiring just the top talent. It’s about job matching, and building the career path that is suitable for them. There are potential problems in hiring over-qualified talent to a specific role, that could prove to be too simple and unchallenging to them. Do not hire an MBA-educated candidate to do administrative work.
The company needs to select its candidates by properly defining roles, expectations, motivations, and the desired skill level of candidates, and see if these meet the role you are looking to fill. By properly matching your people to suitable roles, you have a greater chance of your staff being properly challenged at work, and continually engaged. This helps to increase your retention rate.
Myth #5: Ok, I’m now convinced that talent management is difficult and challenging to start.
Well, don’t give up yet. No doubt, people are complex creatures. It may be difficult to guess what your people’s thoughts, feelings and values are. We suggest to stop the guessing, and start digging. There are tools in the market which can help you understand people simply and accurately.
Emergenetics is one such tool which helps you to understand an individual better by uncovering an individual’s thinking and behavioural preferences. Knowing how they prefer to think and how they are likely to behave will make it easier for you, the management, to engage them directly. This knowledge and information is a crucial start to
- Meaningful conversations about their expectations of the job
- Cultivating an inclusive and healthy workplace culture where no one is seen ‘misunderstood’
- Developing policies that are relevant to the needs of your people
Talent management is an important step to a healthy and growing organisation. As Richard Branson, Founder and CEO of Virgin group famously puts it: “Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”
Footnotes:
- Essential Tools of Talent Management by Bill Millar
- Singapore at 50: Population Pressure and the War for Talent
By Naweera Sidik, Assistant Manager | Marketing Communications
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