Talent Management: The Dos And Don'ts Which Will Make Or Break Your Organisation's Talent Pool

Organisations around the world invest a lot of resources, time and money in Talent Management to retain High Potentials (HIPOTs). These are highly capable, intelligent, and quick learning resources that we're handling. Would a hike in salary package, grade, or designation keep them motivated all the way?

 

Imagine a goldfish inside a tank with lots of fighter fish. A formula1 car on a heavy traffic road. Shoe polish alongside fruit racks in the retail outlet. How repulsive are these images? This is simply how hipots will feel if they've to work in an environment that does not suit their culture, aspirations, and capabilities. They may feel suffocated and what follows next is the hipot going in search of fresh air.

 

 

CAPABILITY MISMATCH:

 

Think about it as a situation where your hipot has to report to a manager who's low on general intelligence. The manager would most probably take more time concluding a brainstorming session. The hipot may see this extra time as waste and incapability of her manager. The hipot would possibly not find enough motivation to sit through the future meetings with the manager or not look ahead to learning from the manager.

 

 

CULTURE MISMATCH:

 

Everybody knows that adults don't want to be told. A hipot would hate to be directed incessantly, plus they want to be challenged cognitively. They might prefer guidance only after trying out things on their own. An environment where the organisation or the managers are less tolerant towards learning through experiments and failures will not likely support nurturing a talent pool. ‘Telling approach' is considered one indicator of an organisation that lacks a high-performance culture.

 

ASPIRATION MISMATCH:

 

Tenure-based promotion is a popular enough a way to repel the talent pool farther from organisation. What is needed in such an environment will be to manage somehow and stay put for the promotions to happen. A hipot will find operating in such an environment insulting. Hipots anticipate to grow according to performance, effort and demonstrated capability.

 

Organisations can't expect hipots to wait patiently for their turn of promotion. The irony is that the organisations don't look out for their patience while recruiting them. The talent management strategy must be in line with the intent to nurture and retain the talent pool.

 

“At companies with very effective talent management, respondents are six times more likely than those with very ineffective talent management to report higher 'Total Returns to Shareholders' than competitors.”

 

“Only 5 per cent of respondents say their organizations' talent management has been very effective at improving company performance”.

 

Source - https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/winning-with-your-talent-management-strategy

 

 

ATTRACTING VS BUYING TALENT:

 

Does your organisation attracts talent or buy it from the market? These generally are two different things. If your organisation is attracting talent, there is no doubt that you will always have a talent surplus situation, no matter what the market condition is. In case you are buying talent from the market, you may consider the following thoughts:

 

• Increased wages are not going to keep the hipot motivated all the way

• A Deputy Assistant VP grade will not likely mean much for a longer duration

• If there's a mismatch between expectations and reality, the hipot may regress in performance after joining your organisation

• Recruiting hipots can result in interpersonal challenges with an increased employee churn

 

 

Some pointers which can help in making informed decisions about attracting, recruiting, and retaining the talent pool:

 

• Define the DNA of hipots for your organisation

• Define the strategy to recruit hipots. You would have to make certain that they work with managers who can offer them the right environment

• Conduct surveys to check if your organisation's culture is conducive for nurturing the talent pool. If there are shortcomings, including organisational culture and practices, address them through a robust learning architecture

• Make leaders answerable for talent management and review them regularly

• Define a career path for all roles in the organisation. The employee should enter, get promoted, and exit the organisation at the right time

• Make people development a default competency for managers and leaders. Organisations should give talent management competency enough weightage for making their promotions decisions

• Provide equal opportunity for all employees to learn and develop

• Make the promotion criteria objective and transparent

• It is totally ok not to recruit hipots for your organisation, but this decision should be based on talent pool bench-marking

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