Talent Management Changes Need to Be Carefully Considered

Talent Management Changes Need to Be Carefully Considered
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Talent Management Changes Can Help or Hinder Performance
Talent management changes are never easy.  When change touches the entire workforce, you had better consider carefully how it will affect your talent management strategy.

Will your top talent accept and adjust to the change or will it push them toward disengagement and perhaps to the competition?

Talent Management Changes at IBM
IBM recently made a risky move. It has mandated that thousands of its employees no longer work remotely but in set locations or they must look for another job. Wow! And this from a company that once upon a time was an early advocate of working remotely.

Only time will reveal the impact of this decision.

Talent Management Changes at Yahoo
We know that remote worker policy changes did not work at Yahoo. Marissa Mayer’s similar edict regarding remote work resulted in worker disaffection with the company and a slow downward spiral for Yahoo that ended in its recent purchase by Verizon. But IBM and Yahoo are entirely different organizations with entirely different strategies and cultures.

Will IBM Fair Better Than Yahoo?
Some experts cite Yahoo’s experience and predict doom for IBM. Yahoo’s motive was to bring people together and presumably enhance collaboration and innovation. Some skeptics say it was also about reducing headcount.  Regardless, Yahoo’s employees appeared to rally against the edict because they felt a significant loss of power and value.

But IBM’s workers may react differently.

  • IBM’s corporate culture seems to rely more on collaboration and appears more tolerant of a top-down approach.
  • IBM’s employees may appreciate more structure to their workday and the greater opportunity to build strong relationships with their colleagues through more frequent face-to-face interactions.

This is, of course, what IBM hopes for. The success of their talent management changes will depend upon:

  • How well they know their employees
  • How easily those employees accept this major shift
  • Whether the change in policy will strengthen or weaken their workplace culture

The potential upside is a more collaborative environment where open communication is supported and encouraged, a more engaged employee base resulting in greater productivity, and an organization primed for future success.

How To Make Better Talent Management Changes
When you as a leader are considering major organizational changes, you should carefully consider if this is a good move to attract, develop, engage, and retain talent for your unique culture and strategy — not about whether it is good or bad for other companies or other employees than your own.

The Bottom Line
Our organizational alignment research found that talent accounts for 29% of the difference between high and low performing organizations.  The goal of talent management should be to create and sustain organizational excellence through people — attracting, developing, engaging, and retaining the top talent that makes sense for your specific business strategy and your unique organizational culture.

When talent changes are done poorly, as with Yahoo, misaligned talent management approaches can grind your company to a halt. When talent changes are done right, as IBM hopes, talent can differentiate your company from the competition in both good and bad times.

To learn more about Talent Management best practices from the field that work, download  The Research-Backed Talent Management Recipe for Success

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