School of PE Blog

Talent management is the process of acquiring, onboarding, and retaining productive employees. The goal of talent management is to effectively align the goals of the individual with that of the organization in order to create a highly productive and effective workforce. Talent management is under the working umbrella of your human resources team, and the responsibilities of implementing the process lie in their scope. Let's look at the basics of talent management, the process of managing talent with a talent management model, some challenges you'll face, as well as tips to help you along the way.

There are four basic steps or pillars to managing talent strategically. If one pillar is weak, the foundation breaks and the strategy doesn't stand up to time and economic change.

1. The first is to attract great talent. This begins in the application phase, wherein a potential applicant uses advertisements and the description within the listing to get a feel for the job based on your requirements and their ability. It's important to be as accurate and open as possible here to showcase the most realistic vision of your working environment in order to attract the right person. This part continues through the onboarding phase of working, in the interview, in training, and throughout the first several months of the job.

2. The second is to develop employees that excel. Beginning in the onboarding phase, everything from here on out goes into developing top-performing employees. From traditional training methods to professional certification, and rewards systems that encourage employees to do their best in every area, developing employees that excel in their job is an important part of managing the employee talent pool that you're building.

3. The third is to motivate your staff to succeed. Keeping employees motivated on a daily basis when overall goals are so far off can feel like an insurmountable task. However, it's instrumental in keeping them aligned with the goals of the company. Offering perks of the job, and rewards and recognition for a job well done motivates employees to create and foster a good working environment.

4. The fourth step in managing talent is retaining top performers. Spending all this time and effort in developing a talent management strategy doesn't mean a thing if you have trouble keeping that talent invested in the company and the work they do there. In order to retain top talent, it's important to create a company culture of effective workers, and then incentivize them to stay by investing in their career and future as it relates to the company.

Broken down, the principles to managing talent are to attract, recruit, develop, empower, and reward the right kind of talent in order to create a mutually beneficial relationship between company and employee.

Below you'll find some challenges facing talent management and tips for keeping your talent management strategy running smoothly, but let's first look at what a talent management model might look like.

Step One: Talent and Strategy Planning

- Here you'll identify your goals as an organization, how employees will fit into the plan, form an HR team to manage everything and plan the overall workforce organization.

Step Two: Talent Acquisition

- This is the beginning of the onboarding process. Acquiring talented employees begins with creating an ideal candidate based on your organization goals and selecting this talent from your ideal candidate pool.

Step Three: Employee Performance Management

- Identifying important ways in which your selected employees fit within the organization is critical. If they end up not being a good fit, readjust your expectations and return to the candidate pool. At this point, offer coaching and mentoring in the form of leadership and professional development. Help them define their career trajectory to ensure that their goals align with the organizations.

Step Four: Training and Development

- Within the training and development phase lies several key points in the employee's time with you. Measure the effectiveness of your training program and offer appropriate learning opportunities that ensure that they're still aligning with the organization's goals.

Step Five: Succession Planning and Identifying

- It's the goal of most organizations to have long life spans, and a very important part of that is finding employees that can take over for senior employees when their time comes. It's important to continually identify, train, and evaluate the best candidates that align well with the goals of the organization and can help maintain its longevity.

Step Six: Total Rewards

- Employees who feel like their needs are met, and their goals are appreciated and continually being met are likely to stay with the company that first invests in them. Having a compensation plan, as well as a rewards and recognition plan that proves the organization's appreciation of the work their employees have done is instrumental in managing a highly productive talent pool.

While talent management is something that every organization should take seriously, there are some common challenges that talent management teams face regularly.

Teleworking in Business Organization: According to Pew Research Center, 71% of people working from home during the pandemic stated that they would like to continue working from home indefinitely. In their survey, a majority of respondents stated that they found it very or somewhat easy to have the right technology and equipment necessary for their work, while less reported being able to get their work done without interruptions and even more felt less motivated to do their work. While possibility and potential are both there to complete the work, a major problem with teleworking lies in motivation.

Developing Diversity: The issue with diversity lies not in the types of people working in an organization, but the diversity of qualifications met within that organization. It can be difficult to find a well-rounded group of people that work well with each other and have a balance of strengths and weaknesses that work well off of each other.

Managing Today's Talent with Yesterday's Tactics: As the world grows in many different ways- economically, technologically, therapeutically, etc.- many employers, especially ones that have been around a long time, find it difficult to adapt to changing environments. However, it has proven to be a valuable skill of many organizations showcasing their longevity to evolve with the changing training and management tactics.

Creating a Balance Between Organizational and Personal Needs: Many workers today have found that the best tactic for a fruitful life is to find a job that brings in money and helps the world operate, and to find fulfillment in hobbies and family, rather than their job. As a result, the work isn't the most important aspect of their job to them. However, loyalty to the company will come if the company itself respects the needs of the individual with adequate time off for familial obligations for instance, while still being able to maintain their work obligations.

Limited Supply for Insatiable Demand for Value: Similar to supply chain management, when there is a higher demand in the supply and demand ratio, keeping up with the need for high value employees and talent can be difficult. Between training and elevating an employee and fostering their skills, finding people with the potential to even become employees that excel can be difficult.

Eliminating the Power Struggle Between Employer and Employee: Breaking the cycle of a power-hungry employer and employees who just want to do their job well and having their employer trust that they'll do well is going to take time and effort on both parts. Learning to manage the day-to-day operations beyond simple training endeavors while maintaining a harmonious balance between employers and workers will eliminate frustration in the workforce.

Now that we've talked about some challenges with managing talent, here are some tips to a successful talent management strategy:

- Have perks and incentives that draw and maintain productive workers.

- Have regular one on one meetings with employees.

- Consider company culture in everything you do to ensure that the work environment is one of shared productivity.

Talent acquisitions and management is one of the most important parts of building a business and aligning with an effective business strategy. Without a proper talent management strategy, it's impossible to know whether your acquisitions are right for the company, and it's impossible to address questions and eventual hiccups in the road without first being able to define the area in which the question lies. In order to develop a proper talent management strategy, consider the overall goals of the company, any challenges you may face along the way, and always recognize talent when you see it.

Interested in facilitating training opportunities to benefit your current team or to attract talent? Reach out to School of PE today to learn more about how we can help your team members take their careers to the next level!