4 Smart Talent Management Strategies to Grow

Smart Talent Management Strategies
Most of us define talent as a special aptitude or gift, and we can spot it when we see it. But “talent management” is not quite so simple.  Smart talent management strategies anticipate what an organization will need in terms of employee capabilities and proactively plan to meet those needs.

The Definition of Talent Management
Fundamentally talent management is the ability to attract, develop, engage, and retain people in a way that makes sense for your unique strategy and culture.  And talent matters.  We know that talent accounts for 29% of the difference between high and low performing companies.

Talent Performance and Anticipation
Done right, smart talent management strategies are all about performance and anticipation.  Talent management requires strategically planning a company’s human resources to best enable the organization to execute its business strategy. And it’s not enough to put the talented employees in place for future needs; it requires fully engaging and maintaining those employees at their peak performance.

So How Do You Ensure that the Right Talent is in the Right Spot and Performing at an Optimum Level?
Smart talent management strategies are explicitly linked to and supported by your organizational culture and your business strategy. In other words, alignment of your strategy, culture, and talent is the key to igniting and maintaining workforce greatness. Our organizational alignment research shows that aligned companies:

• Grow revenue 58% faster
• Are 72% more profitable
• Retain customers 2.23 times longer
• Engage employees 16.8 times higher

Four Smart Talent Management Strategies to Grow

1. Explicitly Align Talent Management Strategies with the Business Priorities
   Successful talent management strategies proactively help to accelerate business strategies.  Clear business strategies focus investments, decisions, resource allocations, and efforts toward the company’s most important goals.

   Clear business priorities also set the talent management stage for goal setting, transparency, and accountability.

   Goal Setting
   Each employee should have a clear line of sight and understand what is expected and how they specifically contribute to the overall company objectives, what is needed to achieve the goals, how success will be measured, and who bears the responsibility for what.

   Transparency and Accountability
   When there is performance exposure and transparency throughout the organization, every employee where they stand and how they must work in concert to succeed.

2. Create a Ready Source of Internal Talent to Increase Organizational Flexibility
   The market for talent is constantly changing. Organizations that can adapt when unforeseen changes arise are the companies that survive and thrive when the less flexible competition falls by the wayside.

   Maintain and develop the skills of your employees so they are primed to take on greater responsibility as the need arises.  You need ready candidates at every key position.

   Instead of reactive filling open requisitions, smart talent management strategies build internal and external talent pools by proactively developing, courting and building relationships with high-quality talent long before they are ready to apply.  With only 25% of the workforce actively looking for a new job at any given time, talent pools are a must to support high growth.

3. Foster Collaboration and Develop Better Systems for Knowledge Sharing
   The timely flow of information has a direct correlation to high performance.  Make information more readily available by setting up a process to ensure skills, interests, and experience are accessible for all.

   Employees can reach out and collaborate more easily and managers can use the data for more informed talent management decisions.  It’s all in the interest of increasing employee engagement, retention and business performance.

4. Track and Reward Desired Behavior
   Once you have clearly defined the critical few competencies for success in each job and set expectations for performance, you can make fair decisions regarding rewards and recognition.

   The goal is to motivate employees to strive for their full potential. When you know what constitutes success and failure in each job, you’ll be better able to put the right person in the right position.

   When employees feel productive and successful, they are more fully engaged in their work and committed to doing their best.

The Bottom Line
Smart talent management strategies are about the people AND the business.  One cannot thrive without the other.  Is your talent management strategy focused on performance and anticipation?

To learn more about how to focus on the people AND the business, download The Surprising Research-Backed Talent Recipe for Talent Management Success