The fine line between a collaborative Employee and one who doesn’t get enough done

Certain employee type exists who have a highly collaborative nature and get along very well across all departments in the organization. These people, however, tend to often score low on their appraisals as they do not particularly excel at anything as they can never focus on one aspect in detail. Such employees are by and large women. These women can avoid such situations and succeed at the real metrics that matter at the workplace while continuing to be their usual helpful selves if certain norms are followed by the organization. The organization must stick to goal-oriented feedback instead of personality based which is often the case in female employees’ case. As part of the company’s talent management schemes, these people must be clearly informed about their path to promotion. However, some metrics must be designed to leverage their collaborative nature as well. A concerted focus on results must be maintained. Most importantly, employees must get rid of their hidden but inherent biases especially regarding female employees.

Source:https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-fine-line-between-a-collaborative-employee-and-one-who-doesnt-get-enough-done

Bridging the Cultural gap in cross-border Talent Management

With globalization constantly on the rise, there is a major need for multinational companies to create talent management systems conducive to working in different cultural landscapes. A case of an American company which was recently taken over by a Chinese one can be highlighted. The new formation needed 3 different CEOs in a matter of just two years. The first two were Chinese and American respectively, thus viewed with suspicion by either side. The next one was a Singaporean having worked before in both the west as well as China. He was thus able to manage due to the experience gained. A number of Chinese firms are now focusing on training their employees to be able to gear up these kind of issues which are bound to surface periodically.

Source:http://www.humanresourcesonline.net/futurist-bridging-cultural-gap-cross-border-talent-management/

Solutions for improving diversity in Tech

In spite of apparent progress by women and minorities in various spheres of life, their numbers at top IT firms is alarmingly low. There exists a mismatch between number of women graduating from IT courses in colleges in the USA with the number of jobs they hold down. Management consulting giant McKinsey says that the business world will potentially lose more than four trillion US dollars by the year 2025 if greater gender parity is not established. Some steps have been suggested in order to ensure greater diversity in technology companies. Diversity needs to be promoted as one of the parameters for talent recruitment. In order to develop and sustain innovation at the workplace it is essential to have diversity so that various kinds of ideas can bounce off at the place reflecting the variety of experiences or background. Startups led by women need to be supported by industry. None of these targets though will be met until specific targets are set with measurable metrics mentioned.

Source:http://www.cio.com/article/3098350/leadership-management/solutions-for-improving-diversity-in-tech.html

6 Ideas to catapult the growth of your top Talent

Talent management experts have identified some ideas which if followed can elevate existing top professionals further ahead at their work. The first such idea is trend spotting as applied by Unilever where top managers from across the globe are assigned the duty of identifying some business trends that will be crucial for the company to address in fifteen years’ time. This also enables the company to stay ahead of the curve in terms of global business intelligence capture. Similarly, sometimes these top managers are gathered together at one place and given the challenge of devising turnaround team. Soemthing will need to be revolutionized for the good during this process. To gain practical exposure, employees are sent for consumer deep dive where they actually spend substantial amount of time with their customer base. Some companies have even actively encouraged their top talent to step out and start up their own firms as this allows them to test new ground. Top talent must also possess the ability to negotiate and thus these people are often thrust into positions where they need to deal with government officials. Organizations have even established innovation hack rounds where professionals are stacked in places and exposed to pressure cooker like conditions with the sole aim to develop some ideas.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/human-resources/6-ideas-catapult-growth-top-talent-01590636#0leIvkIubSPH2U4B.97

Neurodiversity: The benefits of Recruiting employees with cognitive Disabilities

A pool of talent largely ignored until very recently, is being tapped into by the corporate world. Individuals suffering from autism were long considered unemployable but now it has been understood using several case studies that people who suffer from the same, often exhibit above average intelligence levels in certain fields. SAP is one of those companies what have stepped up recruitment of people with autism. These organizations team up with a Danish firm called Specialisterne that has around three-fourths of its employees afflicted with the malady. They have even developed a certification to prove that such individuals can be highly productive. So that these companies do not appear to be exploitative, they have arranged corporate training sessions with Specialisterne where these recruits undergo a five week programme and get certified. The word autism is instead getting replaced in the corporate world by the term neuro-diversity.

Source:http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/neurodiversity-the-benefits-of-recruiting-employees-with-cognitive-disabilities

Randstad Sourceright launches ‘twago’ Freelance Management Platform

Top talent solutionsfirm Randstad has developed a new software called ‘twago’ which is built is such a way as to support organizations managing freelancers. With growing flexibility at work, most organizations today employ an army of freelancers or gig workers. Traditional talent management software cannot manage this deluge of freelancers as their modules are designed for full time employees. Twago also facilitates recruitment of freelancers. Once on board, project management can be personalized with such gig employees. Twago is connected to the company’s central analytics wing called Talent Radar.

Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/randstad-sourceright-launches-twago-freelance-management-platform-585418501.html

How to find and engage authentic informal Leaders

There is an urgent need for talent management professionals to source authentic informal leaders. These are those leaders who inspire all around them through their own work but maintain a sense of trust and authenticity across the organization. These kind of leaders aren’t always the star performers but prefer being in the engine room. They do not always accept hierarchy or protocol but behave like their true selves. These people get bogged down by formal communication channels such as project report statuses. Instead they rely on direct face-to-face interaction. Unfortunately some such leaders lack the patience or perseverance levels to stick out at one place for too long. Once they succeed at a place, they look to move on, but generate enormous productivity till they are there.

Source: http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/How-to-Find-and-Engage-Authentic-Informal-Leaders