Tagged with Talent Management

Carnival of HR – The Talent Race

Alright people! I bring to you the latest Carnival of HR. Themed as “The Talent Race”, this edition contains interesting posts about how could organizations effectively Attract, Engage and Retain their employees and what are the latest practices in Talent Management. Additionally, I wanted to have some Asian flavours by getting posts by people writing about the Asian context. Unfortunately, I didn’t get many posts about talent management practices from Asia. And that means that one, we need more professionals in Asia to blog on the subject and two, I need to expand my Asian network even more!

  • Jon Ingham is one of my favourite bloggers. He feels that there is a need for a differentiated unique proposition for people management. Sticking to the theme of “talent race”, he shares how Haier (a consumer electronics MNC that started off in China) established race tracks for a unique way of managing their talent base.
  • Laura Schroeder wonders where has all the talent gone. She analyzes reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Bersin & Associates to come up with strategies to bridge the talent gap.
  • Tanmay Vora writes at the QAspire blog and shares with us some Core Lessons in Leading & Managing People. He says that “working with people, guiding a team and helping them in their quest for peak potential is one of the noblest things we can do as leaders. It is an opportunity and an obligation as well.
  • As HR professionals, we are often heard advising employees to “take charge of your own development”. But do most employees really know how to do this? In this post, Dan McCarthy, from Great Leadership, offers a free step-by-step self-study guide to developing leadership skills. Best of all, it’s free to use and/or share, as a way to engage and retain valuable employees who are willing to learn on their own but need a little structure”.
  • Heard about the “HR Hairball”? Find out in this excellent post by Mark Stelzner.
  • It might be important to hire employees for their skills, but hiring for culture-fit is really important as well. Wally Bock shares his views on Hiring Well. One of my favourite lines from the blog post – “Performance and growth are often situational”.
  • Amy Wilson writes about transforming existing performance models into one that is more work-centric and embedded in the natural flow of business to get the best work done.
  • A strong learning & development platform is critical for organization looking at managing their talent base effectively and driving sustained business performance. Linda Fisher Thornton from Leading in Context shares 11 Learning & Development Reports. Informative!
  • Anita Lettink feels that “best practices” may not always work for you because you have your own unique context. Instead, she shares some guidelines for winning the Talent Race.
I would like to thank all the contributors for sharing their ideas. Also, thanks to Shauna Moerke for the giving me the opportunity to host the Carnival of HR.
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Upcoming Carnival of HR

After a long long wait, I am ready to host my first Carnival of HR.

As a consultant, I constantly meet HR professionals and get great opportunities for conversations. What I realize from these conversations is that most HR professionals are in a race – the “Talent Race”. And the race seems to get hotter and harder as some parts of the globe ease out of the economic downturn and are preparing for the next growth phase. So, tell me more about what are your latest & greatest ideas about winning the race – specifically how do you think we should go about attracting, engaging and retaining talented people in our organisations? What’s new in talent management?

And since I am based in sunny Singapore, posts with an Asian flavour would go to the top of the pile! So, start putting your thoughts together and write out the next best idea. Few things to keep in mind:

  • Submit a recent post. Something that is written in the 2 weeks preceding the Carnival
  • Send me the posts by 4th July, 2011. My email is i at abhishekmittal dot com
Hope to hear from you soon!
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PWC Research : The Talent Race

I was looking at a recent research report from PWC on its Global CEO Survey 2011. Apart from interesting data on strategic priorities, innovation, business confidence, sustainability etc., it also touches upon the talent agenda through a section titled “The Talent Race”. I pulled out a few slices of data, which I found interesting. And since I am in Asia, I was keen on comparing the Global data with Asia-Pacific data. The chart below talks about the key challenges highlighted by CEOs, considering the talent required for business success over the next 3 years:

The top challenges highlighted for Asia are – limited supply of candidates with the right skills, competitors poaching talent, global talent deployment and inflexibility of talented people. As the Asia growth machine turns faster, companies are definitely feeling a talent squeeze. But are too many companies simply “buying” talent, rather than investing to “build, deploy, grow, retain” talent? Also, interestingly, “providing attractive career paths” is cited as less of a challenge by CEOs in Asia. I am not entirely sure how to read this because most of my experiences seems to suggest that this is a continual challenge for companies here. Is there a potential disconnect between what leaders and employees think?

The report also states that over 80% of the CEOs globally are seeking a rethink of their people strategy. When asked about what changes they anticipate in their people strategy over the next year, the response are as follows:

Use of non-financial rewards to motivate staff is right at the top of the list. (“Meaning” is the new money?) Leaders in Asia are also looking at deploying more employees on global assignments as they expand. There is lesser focus on incentivizing younger employees differently, which makes me again wonder if focusing on age-groups is useful or should we really focus on “life-stages” of employees. In Asia-Pacific, there is the same level of focus on attracting and retaining women in the workforce as the global levels, but the focus on recruiting / retaining older workers is higher in Asia-Pacific.

Of course, these are just some of the insights from the study. Tell me what else you found interesting!

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Book Review: Retooling HR

I often end up discussing what books I have been reading with friends and like-minded professionals. Frankly, reading is the best habit I keep and I read a variety of materials everyday for 2-3 hours at least. The latest book I read on HR is called “Retooling HR” by John Boudreau. It is most unlike the traditional books on HR, very very fascinating.

The idea of the book is to apply commonly used business analysis tools to HR / Talent Management problems. It does not disregard existing HR systems, frameworks and approaches, but focuses on articulating and solving such problems in a way that leaders and managers readily understand because of their familiarity with these business tools. For instance, it applies “portfolio diversification” techniques from Finance to scenario planning for talent management. It borrows from Marketing Research to identify hot talent groups and optimize talent supply strategies. My favourite was the application of “Conjoint Analysis” to design Total Rewards for Microsoft. Here, employees’ preferred Rewards packages were determined and the data was analyzed to find out the expected costs / pay-offs of each Reward scenario. The books is full of such real-life examples. I am soon to start work on a new project on Human Capital Risk Management and I think this book will be a great resource for me.

I strongly recommend the book for anyone who wants to bring strong analytics, clarity, logic and structure to the way HR & Talent Management is approached in his/her company. In fact, I feel this book will be a great addition to “recommended readings” for business school students as well.

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Deloitte on Retention Strategies

I often get asked about the generational differences in today’s workforces and what should be done to retain the different age-groups of employees. There are a number of studies, including proprietary studies done for individual companies, which touch upon this. Recently, Deloitte published a research study titled “Talent Edge 2020: Blueprints For the New Normal.” While the report makes for an interesting and informative read, one of the graphics caught my attention.

Image Source: Deloitte

For the Gen Y (age under 30 yrs), the report says, non-financial aspects are critical. Company culture, flexi-work arrangements, training opportunities and managerial support & recognition are key factors which make these employees stay put in their organisations. For the Gen X (30-44 yrs), Baby Boomers (45-64 yrs) and Veterans (above 65 yrs), the retention drivers are centered more around the financial incentives. This is a very interesting finding, which contradicts the conception that Gen Y employees are only looking for better pay opportunities.

What has been your experience in retaining the different generations in the workforce? What works the best for Gen Y?

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