Latest Seminar Highlights
Talent management – the next step
By Helen Fosh, Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Human Qualities
A recent survey of UK-based organisations revealed that, despite progress being made over the last decade in talent management, talent strategies and practices have not been fully embedded into the fabric of organisations and are not being reflected in the decisions made by business leaders.
This was just one focus of the discussion and debate at Human Qualities’ breakfast seminar held on Wednesday 17 September in London, which brought together fifteen HR professionals working in the talent arena in a lively and practical session.
On the whole, organisations have been successful in raising the profile of talent management in their businesses and gaining the overall commitment of senior leaders to the idea of attracting the right talent and developing talent internally. However, the problem now is that many organisations are failing to deliver on their talent strategy because practices have not been properly implemented or embedded and are not being seen as having an impact. The reason for this issue primarily comes down to a lack of manager time, skill and understanding. The challenge for the HR community now is to ensure that high quality and effective talent management becomes part of managers’ day jobs and ingrained in the culture of the organisation.
The pull (vs push) of talent development
Helen Fosh of Human Qualities shared a case study from a global technology organisation that has been successful in engaging and involving managers and creating a shift to a culture of talent management. The key to the success of this programme, which involved a series of integrated practical solutions, was to start small by working with and developing the skills of a select group of senior managers. “We gained momentum and built support for talent development through word-of-mouth and sharing success stories, this effectively created a ‘pull’ factor for other senior managers who saw what could be achieved and wanted to get involved”. Helen continued by saying “This programme was different to others we have seen, which rely on HR to battle for senior managers’ time or chase their managers to take on responsibilities in talent development, once a reputation began to develop for the programme, managers were hungry to learn how to develop their talent and showed real enthusiasm for being part of the success. This in turn had a positive impact on the rest of the organisation”.
Light-touch, high impact strategies
This theme was developed later in the session when the need for ‘light touch, high impact’ strategies for talent development was highlighted. This was particularly pertinent for the professional services firms who were represented at the event, as they often struggle to gain the time and commitment of their fee earners to take part in talent activities. Carolyn Bogush described how she has helped organisations to get around this problem through implementing tools such as the ‘Developing Talent Toolkit’, developed by Human Qualities through their experience in working with leaders. The toolkit works by navigating managers through a series of stages of action and dialogue with their people. It is designed to slot into everyday one-to-ones and discussions rather than requiring hours of extra dedicated time and commitment. It turns the concept of talent development into something real for busy managers, something they can grasp and talk about which in turn helps to dispel the myth that talent development requires something magical or mysterious. It also works by encouraging managers to give control and responsibility to individuals themselves, whilst creating a supportive and encouraging environment for development.
Managing talent in a global business
Another topic on the minds of HR professionals at the session surrounded the challenge of managing talent in a global business. For example, delegates raised questions such as “Is it really appropriate for organisations that operate globally to subscribe to one definition of talent?” and “Is it advisable to develop a global talent development programme when the needs and leadership expectations of different cultures vary so greatly?” Two delegates shared how their organisations have overcome some of these issues by differentiating between ‘global’ and ‘local’ talent and developing career paths for both streams.
As a business psychology consultancy working with a range of international businesses, Human Qualities has helped a number of their clients to develop a talent strategy that works on a global level. Shane Pressey from Human Qualities described how she has worked with one FMCG to develop and embed a talent strategy using objective assessment and global development centres at its core. Local and regional talent initiatives have been developed to feed into globally managed programmes to provide objective, standardised information about the talent across the business. Objective information provides the basis for decision making about talent on a global level and ensures the risks of making senior leadership moves across cultures are minimised.
Others agreed when one delegate shared how individual countries want to retain some control and ownership over their talent development practices which can lead to some quality issues and inconsistencies when it comes to global talent management practices and decision making. Kate Oliver shared how Human Qualities has helped to educate and engage local HR teams and managers in using global frameworks consistently, through balancing the chance for them to input into the design of the process with educating around best practice.
If you are interested in finding out more about how Human Qualities can help your organisation to develop and manage talent, please contact helen.fosh@humanqualities.co.uk or call us on +44 208 566 1661.
