Does your organisation see talent management as just another bureaucratic box ticking exercise driven by some obscure HR initiative? As a talent manager do you struggle to quantify the effort required by your managers and leaders to deliver what’s required? Do people perceive your talent strategy as ‘not for everyone’ and simply not fair for all?
If so, then it’s time to get fully transparent. People at all levels need to fully understand what your talent strategy means, both to them personally and to the organisation. The processes and measures need to be clear and relatable, but, more importantly, they need to be seen as fair, non-elitist and without bias, to achieve the desired results.
Here are two things to consider to make your talent strategy fully transparent and relatable.
1. Put the organisational strategy at the heart of talent development
The heart of a talent strategy needs to be built around the overall strategic focus and goals of the organisation. To achieve that strategy, you need the right people with the right skills to perform in the critical and specialist roles that are required to deliver that overall outcome. For many in the mid to lower tiers of the organisation, this strategic focus can get diluted.
Ensure your people’s goals and objectives are linked to the strategic priorities. While many critical and specialist roles will have a strongly defined link to the strategy, others may feel that their contribution is slightly vaguer.
Building the skills required to deliver your strategy needs to apply to people at all levels. People identified as high performing with high aspiration, quite rightly, are recognised as your ‘top talent’ but everyone's skills and experience also needs equal focus to build your future top talent.
2. Build the skills of your people managers
For some managers, the clarity of your talent management principles and the capability to deliver them are clearly established. For others, it’s not. One of the key components of effective talent management is the ability of people managers to understand the strategic drive of their area of the organisation and ensure their people are being developed in the skills required to deliver it. This incorporates not only the ability to set goals and objectives that are strategically relatable but also the skills to coach, support and enable their people to reach their full potential.
Investing in ‘talent management skills’ provides a much-improved return on investment on your entire learning and development offering. Your managers’ future development and experience opportunities will result in the ability for them to apply the right level of coaching and guidance towards their future and top talent.
To find out more about our ALIGNED® talent model, please contact me at matt@twentyoneleadership.com so we can continue the conversation.
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