Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Talent Management Trends in 2013


The two challenges Organizations are facing today are the combination of growing markets (a need to expand globally or into new products and services) coupled with a need to hold back costs. While the economy is expanding, business executives remain afraid of committing large sums of cash to growth - a problem well documented in the business press.  What this has done is create a talent squeeze. Organizations are finding skills gaps, headcount gaps, and leadership gaps in their workforce which they must fill to grow - yet they do not have the resources to dramatically increase salaries to compete for labor. As a result, we are seeing a tremendous focus on sourcing and recruiting strategies, internal career development, and leadership development.

These problems are very business and organization-specific. In some cases the challenges involve a shortage of critical skills which create shortages in particular job roles. This takes the form of shortages of production engineers in the oil and gas industry, regional managers in the retail industry, nurses in the healthcare and insurance industries , or mid-level managers in manufacturing and most industries.

Human Capital is becoming increasingly important for organizations of all sizes and shapes across the world. The workforce is made of Gen Y and Gen Millennium at the entry& mid levels, who are more adept at technology than any others, who will be more than happy to spend time on internet learning new things than spend time in class rooms. The learnability is attaining different and new meanings. The retention of high potentials, increasing engagement, gender balance and equality, and age diversity will continue to dominate the happenings as it has always been, I feel 2013 will be marked by this increased phenomenon of people management, where technology plays a vital role.

1.       Employee- Led & Manager- Supported Career Planning: Organizations can explore deploying organic (viral) strategies which assess both the employees’ “needs” & their personal “offer” (skills, abilities, intangibles) against the “offer” & “needs” from their organization. While this assessment allows for an evaluation of employee-organization alignment and/or gaps, it serves a few more purposes, including increased communication, enhanced development planning, assessment of cultural and performance fit for achieving shared success.

2.       Increased Engagement Initiatives: The initiation of mindfulness at work to let managers deal with stress and anxiety more effectively. In other words, more attention to well-being at work; The growing focus on intercultural awareness and leveraging diversity to achieve individual, team and organizational goals. Companies are starting to recognize and harness diverse leadership approaches and perspectives.

3.       Talent Acquisition: The ability to search companies’ career pages and apply through smart phone will be a one to look out for. I also think more companies will be investing in their employee value proposition for 2013, followed by making sure they are working through internal barriers for hiring top talent. Customer relationship management tools to build future talent pipelines will still remain hot. But I believe more companies will start to invest in SEO strategies to attract top talent.
4.       Talent Management is a Business Problem, not an HR Problem : I feel there is a critical need to understand that talent management is not an "HR process " but rather a "business process" which must be implemented through line of business executive leadership. Talent management strategies, should be developed in the context of your particular business strategy.

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