The A&O of Talent Management

1. What is talent management?
2. What is the employee-life-cycle?
3. Why is talent management important?
4. Who is responsible for talent management?
5. How does talent management work?
6. What stages of talent management are there?
7. What are good talent management softwares?
8. Conclusion

The harvest of a field not only depends on how good the seed is. A successful harvest yield depends on other factors: How well has the field been prepared, how has the care been, was it watered enough, has the seed received enough sun? Does the missing rain need to be compensated or does the harvest burn down in the sun, what to do if there is no sun? You see, a harvest is complex and then so simple again. The mixture and the amount matter, just as it is with talent management. Our guest author Carolina Heinke explains everything you need to know about talent management in this article.

What is talent management?

Talent management fosters and demands people as a corporate strategy. Talent management is the process of attracting, identifying, retaining and developing qualified employees. Those with above-average abilities and high potential employees with development opportunities are usually considered talent.

Talent management is often used as an Anglicism for human resource development and is equated with personnel development. And yet, it is not.

Human resource development usually only begins after the start of a new talent. Talent management, on the other hand, covers the entire employee-life-cycle. Talent management includes recruiting, so it is a holistic approach.

All aspects of talent management such as recruitment, selection and development are reflected in the employee-life-cyle.

What is the employee-life-cycle?

The employee-life-cycle is used to identify and express the different and important phases that employees go through when they are active in a company. There are six different phases: attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention and offboarding. Employees go through each phase chronologically.

The goal of the holistic corporate strategy is to fill the positions in the company that are relevant for business success in a timely and long-term manner with the right people.

Source: https://die-personalerin.at/der-employee-lifecycle/

Why is talent management important?

Talent motivation & talent relationship management

Only those who promote their employees will be able to retain them in the long term. The task here is to identify the needs of the employees and connect them with the future requirements of the company. Intrapreneurship programs are increasingly being implemented, as they have a huge effect on employee motivation. Talents are enabled to become entrepreneurs in the intrapreneurship programs.

Talent-Relationship-Management focuses on actively building a long-term relationship with talents, not only within, but also outside the company. Building a relationship with potential talents, that is, maintaining the contacts, knowing what a talent is open for and keeping these preferences up to date, gives you the opportunity to directly offer suitable positions and quickly fill them.

Support of strategic corporate goals

Talent management goes hand in hand with organizational development. Continuous development and change are the key to success.

Knowledge advantage = competitiveness

A company is only as good as its team. All ideas, successes and co. are developed and driven by people - without talents no success.

The better a team is set up, the better a company is set up.

Continuous further development of a team through coaching, further training or new challenges not only make individual talents better, but the entire company.

Who is responsible for talent management?

Clearly HR! BUT, not alone.

Talent management is teamwork. Good talent management is characterized by the fact that employees, management level, superiors and HR jointly develop, design and implement the process.

How does talent management work?

In strategic talent management, supportive processes, policies and mechanisms for employees are created. It is important to consider the experiences of the employees in the planning.

Before a talent management can be build up, goals must be set. You don't need to start running if you don't know where to go.

• How and what are the company's goals?

• What do we want to pursue with these goals?

• How should the company develop in the future?

• Which talents do we need for this?

To identify the key positions, the requirements must be clearly defined. For this, classic job descriptions with a clear requirement profile are usually recorded. The clearer the profile, the better talents can be found. More on that later.

Based on the Employee-Life-Cycle the following points arise for talent management:

1. Attraction:

Only through Employer Branding, personnel marketing and corporate influencer is the interest of talents aroused. It is no longer sufficient just to be there. As a company, I must actively make myself visible as an employer. An innovative talent management process can be used perfectly here to advertise new talents with the knowledge that employees in this company are developed and promoted.

To analyze how a company's employer brand is perceived, rating platforms like Glassdoor or Kununu help. Here you will get an insight into the strengths and weaknesses of a company's employee offering and an overview of compensation in comparison to the overall market. Regular employee surveys also help to get feedback about the company. One tool for this is, for example, Leapsome. This gives companies an overview of the resources and skills they already have and the gaps that can be uncovered.

2. Recruitment:

There are two possibilities here: the recruitment process optimization within the company, or outside the latter.

In the company, I may already have the right person for the position. With the help of employee discussions or skill and competence management, I can identify this talent. Skill and competence management provides a detailed view into the ability profile and shows me who brings what skills. From these results, the appropriate employees can be promoted.

Outside the company, it is often no longer enough to simply write a job description. Instead, I have to actively go into the market and contact suitable talents. Qualified talents are often only won through active sourcing andSocial Recruiting. Here, point 1 attraction is even more important. The messages that are shared in job descriptions and on social media about a company give insight into the company's values. Corporate values are the beliefs, values and norms that are lived out in a company, and are the standard in exchange with applicants, employees, customers and partners. Communicating the company culture and existing mechanisms helps understand what is necessary to fit into the company environment and be successful in the company. This communication helps a talent determine if the company is the right employer.

During the selection process, it is recommended to use potential analysis and aptitude diagnostics to identify the right talents. A well-organized recruiting process ensures internal efficiency. Equally important, however, is that it conveys a clear message to the talents about what it could be like to work in your company. This can be another indication for a talent's decision. A software, like Aivy .

3. Onboarding:

With the hiring, the onboarding process starts. A smooth and integrative onboarding process forms the basis for good and long-term cooperation. Effective onboarding enhances the integration into the team and company. It gives the talent the opportunity to get off on a faster foot and minimizes the induction time. For example, the following questions should be considered:

• What prerequisites need to be created for a talent to be ready for deployment?
• What does a talent need if it works in the office, and how does that change if it works remotely?
• What is expected of managers?
• How, when and in what circumstances are expectations clarified?

It is costly to recruit, hire and train new talents. Therefore, it is crucial to minimize turnover to consider everything that needs to be done to give new talents a good start.

The onboarding process can be easily digitized with tools liked.vinci Bewerbermanagement . This way, every department knows who is responsible for what, when and how, both before and during the onboarding of new talents.

4. Development:

Main focus is of course development and the system of performance management of talents. By promoting talents, they are enabled to take on higher functions and their tasks. It is crucial that the developments and measures are coordinated with the career goals of the talents and in line with the company's goals and the corresponding requirements.

5. Retention:

Retaining talents is not so easy these days. Talent relationship management is crucial here, because an attractive compensation is not enough anymore to make talents feel good in a company.

Open communication, a respectful management and corporate culture and a pleasant working atmosphere are the basis. In addition to the value systems, the personal goals also have to show a large overlap with the company goals. The following help:

• Regular check-ins: Every employee, even talents, need a regular exchange with their superiors. These meetings allow individual goals for the position as well as a personal exchange. It is a good opportunity to inquire about the well-being of the talent and ensure that it feels valued and supported.
• Formal annual talks: In addition to the regular check-ins, there needs to be a formal annual evaluation process that requires more planning and structure. Each year, a year-end impression of their performance should be shared with the employees and any changes in the position, career within the company, or expectations should be discussed. Compensation should also be reevaluated to ensure it is competitive and fair and keeps pace with inflation.

6. Succession planning

Succession planning is not represented in the employee-life-cycle, but it is an essential component of talent management.

Succession planning allows companies to respond earlier to personnel changes and make a solid risk assessment of how likely it is that a position will become vacant.

Regular exchange with talents about their career plans and a planning of the joint development allows companies to build up a talent pool and also understand what makes certain talents successful in their work and what holds them back. Does a certain mix of experiences, education, competences or communication styles work well in your environment, for example?

With the buildup of a talent pool, gaps can be quickly filled.

7. Offboarding:

Talent offboarding or talent exit is often forgotten and ignored in the talent management process. Every strategically thinking company should see talent offboarding as a great opportunity.

It is in the company's own best interest to ensure that the offboarding of a talent, for whatever reason, goes as well as possible for all involved.

It is perfectly normal for paths to part. Not every employee will always stay in the company. Important during off-boarding is to put oneself in the position of employees. It should be tried to understand how the decision came about, what happened and whether a party could have done something different. How and in what way can an employee be supported to start the next section?

Every talent that goes can either come back or be the best testimonial. The world is small and talents often know each other. Imagine you have a talent in the recruitment process. This talent contacts your exited talent and asks about the position, your company culture and why the company was left. The responses of the exited talent depend a lot on offboarding.

Furthermore, the way a company deals with offboarding affects the relationship with other employees. Employees often observe the offboarding process from the outside and form their opinion, which has an impact on their behavior.

A proper and humane offboarding provides insights into the reasons why employees leave, which can support and improve other areas of talent management such as employee acquisition, performance and employee retention.

What stages of talent management are there?

Often one does not start from scratch, but already has implemented one or the other approach of talent management.

There are four stages of talent management:

1. Reactive talent management:

Is used purely for filling open positions. Talents are sought or developed as needed. Here we also speak of the lucky mushroom principle. I as a talent will be developed if luck is on my side. HR acts on behalf of the leadership or level.

2. Spot talent management:

Individual talents receive development measures. There is no all-encompassing talent management, only individual measures. Often talents are promoted who have been identified as high performers and are expected to take on a leadership position in the future.

3. Systematic talent management:

Talent management is aligned with corporate strategy. Tools and measures for talent management are derived from strategic tasks. Talents receive measures and tools, coordinated with their development goals.

4. Internalized talent management:

Talent management is anchored in the corporate culture. Talent management is lived. Employees identify their potentials in harmony with the company and promote them in order to be able to meet future challenges.

Source: Talent Management – Fitting PE and Culture? Anja Beenen & Maximiliane vom Stein (managerSeminare, August 2019)

What are good talent management softwares?

There are few good tools that map the entire employee-life-cycle. A good digital solution is offered byPersonio andWorkday HCM.

Leapsome is a great digital performance management solution.

There are several applicant management systems: Workable, Greenhouse, Recruitee, andBreezyHR.

With all of these tools, what matters is what you are looking for, how big your company is, and what a tool should be able to do.

Conclusion

Talent management can contribute significantly to the long-term success of a company. A talent management process that has been successfully implemented can be THE showcase as an employer. This showcase is unique and gives a clear competitive advantage.