THE WAR FOR TALENT - TALENT MANAGEMENT

The global talent crunch which is triggered by the huge demographic shifts and the economic expansion has made organizations to rethink about the talent management - identify, recruit and retain the best. The term has not been so popular a decade ago but these days or even didn’t exist but today this is far more sophisticated. To win this war, organization needs well quipped & experienced army of commanders and generals who excel at the new competencies and transform human resource into a truly strategic function.

Today, business leaders and top executives understand that there are three significant components to a successful business:

• Have the right strategy
• Execution of operations should be aligned to that strategy
• Grabbing the best people to execute those operations.

Finding the best people are essential to an organization success, but keeping them is even more important. It needs time consumption and resource engagement for identifying the new talent than to retain the top talent you already have in your organization.

HR plays a Strategic role in the business success because it is not just limited to identify the best people. It is assuredly about identifying the best people at reasonable cost, with the minimum attrition and the getting the best performance. They guide the CEOs and the top management for the right decisions.

Talent Management integrates all aspects of human resource beginning from talent acquisition to compensation, employee development, employee satisfaction and employee relations. The competitive market, business expansion and the need of skilled workforce has alarmed the human resources to get the scarce resource, develop them to their full potential and make them stay in the organization. Compensation and incentive plans are now far more viable for the skilled workforce due to the proposition of switching towards higher compensation plans in other organization which are in quest of talent.

Following can be considered as the key components of making a better talent management system that involves all aspects of HR and integrate them into a holistic process.

• Improvement of sourcing channels.
•  Improve screening methods.
• Using professional and social networks and relationship building in the industry.
• Competitive compensation & reward plan.
• Technological advancements to streamline the system and minimize the errors.
• Implementation of an effective assessment/appraisal system.
• Employee engagement.
• Better career and succession plan.
• Clarity of goals and communication.
• An effective training department to ensure employee development to their full potential.
• A better work environment and management techniques.

The success of any organization depends upon the extent to which the human resource department is able to integrate talent management applications and move towards a holistic process. After adopting new talent management applications, majority of the organizations then realize the need for integration. These technological investments are made to streamline processes and improve efficiency & effectiveness. If the organizations have multiple systems of records and databases and the conflicting processes, they cannot enjoy the full power of technological advancements. 

Talent management is increasingly becoming an imperative part and business leaders have more strategic expectations of their HR leadership. In past years, CEOs and top executives had more focus on performance management rather than engaging their potential to deal the talent scarcity and retention, but now the focus has shifted to maintain the talent management system and focus the HR analytics.

CEOs are ready to offer the strategic seat to HR leaders now, and want them to align business strategies and the processes. Retaining the talent with competitive compensation is critical for an organization and the annual merit increase is a very significant financial decision for CEOs where they approve a spending that adds millions in the budget, so they need the evidence that would justify it. Do you think that HR Leaders can get a WIN in the WAR FOR TALENT MANAGEMENT for their organizations?

HRBP: THE NEXT BIG THING THAT ALWAYS WAS

In today’s competitive and cut-throat business landscape, organizations can be spectacularly unsuccessful due to the unskilled and inadequately trained work force despite being rich in cutting-edge technology and processes. A competent HR Department acts like a back bone of an organization, enabling it to achieve its strategic goals and all the while acting as a conduit that harnesses the human potential and channels its strengths to align with that of its other resources.

HR Business Partners (HRBP) is still a nascent concept for organizations in our region, although it is an evolutionary concept that is already being embraced by the developed world.  HR Business Partners (HRBPs) are tasked with being a part of multi-disciplinary project teams that pierce through the divisional and departmental barriers and keep both internal and external relationships working. They are knowledgeable, professionally well-equipped and possess ample business capabilities, HR capabilities and Consulting Capabilities that enables them to take the center stage to get things done for the entire organization.

The HRBPs are also being of help in coming up with innovative ways to identify the promising talent in the organization and devising strategies to train, promote and retain that talent to take the helm in the future. Although once labeled as such, the HR Department is no longer limited to handling employee grievances and ‘assembly line’ issues. The concept of HRBP is not just old wine in a new bottle because it is as real as other organizational disciplines that translate their work into quantifiable financial performance and measurable success.

Apart from recruitment, promotion and compensation, in wake of the recent economic recession, HRBPs have played an instrumental role in mergers, acquisitions and restructuring of large organizations – a role that was once typically reserved for financial pundits and something that was unimaginable a few years ago. The companies are increasingly expanding the role of these professionals by valuing their input in areas such organizational development and succession planning. The HRBPs understand the impediments at the ground-level and not only help resolving these issues, but also facilitate top management in formulating policies that result in more hands in glove with approach.

Some argue that to call HRBPs ‘business partners’ would be an understatement as they enjoy a strategic role in the organization and are best positioned to help top management chalk the future course of the organization. This paradigm shift has also helped wane the conflict that existed between the management and the unions as the issues represented by the unions are now better understood and facilitated by the HRBPs. The organizations that have comprehended this crucial factor have found their goldilocks zone as they are cashing in on the saved time and productivity due to averted strikes and long-winded negotiations.

The employees have taken solace in the fact that they are being heard and the management has also shown accommodating attitude, leading to healthier overall working environment.

As we can see, as the role of HRBP is interwoven into the corporate fabric, it marks the beginning of a new era where rather than serving as a distinct department, HR is being decentralized and now serving at the operational core. With HRBPs gathering employees under one umbrella and cultivating the culture of thinking, working and rising together, it is the organizations that stand to triumph from this. The concept of HRBP will continue to evolve and as it does, it will continue to bring the employees closer because for the first time, they begin to see the big picture for themselves.