3 Reasons why Talent Management isn’t working anymore

There are some reasons for why talent management is no longer as effective as it used to be. This is firstly because people have tribal natures and tend to hang out or even work in silos. Genuine meritocracies rarely exist. Most organizations and people working with large firms reward conformity rather than innovations. In this culture it is very difficult to identify the true leaders who stand out. A lot of the companies which do have a good record of recruitment and development, have so because the recruits tend to thrive within that particular system. People on the other hand do not appreciate the context and randomly choose organizations such as Goldman Sachs, GE or Exxon just because of this perceived good reputation.

Source:https://hbr.org/2016/07/3-reasons-why-talent-management-isnt-working-anymore

How to use pre-hire Assessments

The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator was developed during the Second World War to determine personality types and the kind of jobs suitable to them. Now seven decades on, several sophisticated assessment tests are conducted industry wide to determine best fit for respective organizations. A formal hiring process I used by around three-fifths of firms as per business intelligence firm Aberdeen Group. In fact, market research conducted by Deloitte clearly states that this assessment industry has grown by nearly forty percent over the past five years. More than just skills and behaviour, likely consumer assessments are scored by Baltimore based Pegged Software that caters to the health care industry. Using this, top performers can be modeled. Also roles can be clearly defined based on organizational requirements.

Managers, this is what your newcomers expect from you on day One

Today’s newcomers to industry have very different work ideas than the prevailing sentiment over previous generations. There is a lot more that fresh recruits expect. As part of their onboarding, some tips have been suggested by a talent management publication. Expectations must be clarified right at the beginning. Senior managers must provide timely information to the rookies. Managers must also make sure that newcomers feel part of the industry by giving them insider information which only hardened industry professionals can provide. Management training must be included from the first day itself in some form or the other. The newcomers must also be provided with mentors whom they can address their issues and can learn from directly. Finally these recruits must be familiarized early on with coworkers as well as team members along with their respective roles.   

7 Steps to an Effective Inbound Recruiting Strategy

Employer branding is quite often key to effective talent recruitment drives. A proper recruitment content strategy needs to be developed for the same that involves several steps. Planning for current and future needs is the first stage involved. The next phase involves evaluating the existing talent pool within the firm. Then external demographics need to be assessed such as the country, region, city as well as factors such as sector and the general economic trends. The existing sourcing trends need to be analyzed and overhauled if deemed necessary. Then a calendar needs to be put in place to put in writing the exact corporate strategy for recruitment purposes. The available resources need to be allocated accordingly to ensure this target is achieved. The use of data analytics must be made for this purpose as these days social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook can yield great results in this aspect.

The Biggest work trend you’re unintentionally Ignoring

Leading MBA institute the London Business School has found out that by the year 2020, around half the workforce will be engaged in working remotely. Yet in a market research conducted by FlexJobs recently, it emerged that very few firms have gone ahead with the process of quantifying the ROI for working remotely. It is a trend that is spreading fast, yet organizations are not working to best leverage the same. Firms are reluctant because they feel that certain work processes can’t be done from home. Also part time schedules confound a lot of regular workers. The commitment sometimes goes missing from the freelance workers. This needs to change if we are to experience the paradigm shift by 2020. 

Google this: Company Culture and Bottom Line

Google is frequently cited across surveys as being amongst the best employers possible. It brings us to a conundrum. Is Google’s positive work culture responsible for its business success, or the other way round their vast revenues enable them to possess such an upbeat work culture. As per market research conducted by MBA institute Duke’s Fuqua Business School, work culture is the most important aspect in any firm according to nearly 80% of those surveyed. Google’s company culture was like its present state back in 1999 when they barely had 8 employees and has maintained that level ever since. It fosters a sense of ownership and employees are encouraged to be hands-on at work. Google has the agility of a startup when it comes to collaboration and decision making. Technology oriented companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Adobe also have favourable rankings.

Strategic HRM: Building Organizational Capabilities

The field of HRM has moved away from simply managing the personnel to building capacities for the organization. Business consulting giant McKinsey believes that HR is now part of the process to drive tangible business results. Organization such as Apple and Google excel due to the fact that the capabilities of their employees have been built up using specific corporate training modules. Among Asian companies, Cebu Pacific of the Philippines has particularly cracked this code. Strategic HRM is that field of HR management which specifically bridges the gap between the social and emotional part of the business with the corporate strategy. In this way, HR is now in the same league as finance, operations and marketing. 

The Rule of Thirds and why it’s key to managing massive Change

There is a Rule of Thirds that exists in photography which mentally divides the photo frame into three parts, each of which must have some interesting story to tell. Similarly, a Rule of Thirds exists in management, where each team comprises of three kinds of professionals. There is the Excited Third which is always ready to pounce on to any business Innovation and get it started. Then there is the Thoughtful Third which is keen to implement changes yet, needs some more convincing. Finally there is the Skeptical Third which will key doubting and will not be convinced of the initiatives until they themselves see the changes occurring. As part of the talent management portfolio, any firm must understand that all three kinds of professionals will be part of the teams, and each has its own way of handling.

5 Reasons to choose a top Brand over Pay

Top branded organizations such as Google, Apple and Nike do not need to make much effort in order to get the best out of talent recruitment. The best ones available usually want to associate themselves with such brands. In fact, due to their brand names, the aspirants rarely if ever haggle over payments as money is seen secondary to the pride and prestige associating with these companies brings them. Beyond such seemingly frivolous values, lie more tangible ones such as job security and career growth. In fact these names on any individual’s CV give a clear signal about their quality levels as without the same these firms would not recruit them. These firms can also provide professionals with varying levels of opportunities and experiences. In the long run, salary too improves with good work.

Organization Culture: Key to Attracting and Retaining top Talent

Talent management is now considered of key importance to most organization and it is an organization’s culture that is key to the same. It includes beliefs, values and norms shared across the organization, which ultimately aid in retaining talent. A good work culture must involve a clear corporate strategy including mission and vision. The tom management must exhibit genuine compassion towards employees. The company policies must be guided by a clear and strong value system. Two communications both vertical as well as horizontal must be constant. A three sixty degree feedback mechanism must be initiated. Also the operations of the firm must run smoothly. There must exist complete transparency in dealings.

 4 Reasons Social Media is a critical Recruiting Tool

A leading business consulting publication has identified reasons why social media is an important tool for the purpose of recruitments. It is actually the best way to reach job aspirants. LinkedIn now has 400 million users which is a clear indication of the cultural shift from which the field of recruitments can shy away from. Job candidates are also much more likely to show their real selves on social media rather than during a formal interview and thus this is the best tool to gauge transparency. Referrals could be relied upon to attract good employees, however it is proving to be a less consistent source now and thus social media is the way forward. 

The Problem- Solving Process that prevents Groupthink

Two major reasons exist which explain why the majority of people struggle at creativity. The first is that they have not had the opportunity to seek creativity in their education. Secondly, they aren’t able to harness group dynamics. While the first may be beyond rectification after a certain level, the second can certainly be worked upon by talent management teams within organizations. However, Alex Osborne’s ideas which bore fruit during the 19050s are not proving very successful now. Instead firms are trying out the divergence- convergence theory. As per this, initially lots of ideas are thrown in by individual members which differ from one another, but slowly and steadily the list is narrowed down until there is complete convergence within the group. This process best tracks the divergence within the group yet brings out the best ideas to conformity. 

What it really takes to attract Top Talent

During the heady days of the dot com boom, there used to be a term known as ‘employer of choice’, implying an organization which attracted best talent. Yet those were remarkable days of extremely low unemployment, quite different from the more stable present world. In order to excel at talent recruiting, firms no longer need to dole out ridiculous perks, yet they must outperform their rivals in various ways. Company performance matters as all employees wish to associate with winners and successful firms rather than those which aren’t. In case the company can’t offer anything remarkable, the firm will simply have to settle for what’s best on offer.

Why Creative People are more likely to be Dishonest

Creativity is a gift which is highly valued and people with such abilities tend to see themselves as different from the crowd. They believe in a false sense of entitlement and this leads them to being ultra aggressive with desiring of material benefits. While thinking outside the box is highly regarded in organizations, creative people can also hurt company’s integrity. Appleis one organization which highly regards its employees who come up with business innovation, yet it once saw internal stealing due to this sense of entitlement. An experiment among MBA students also proved this point where students who displayed creative elements tended to lose out on integrity as opposed to less imaginative thinkers. Every organization must make clear distinction between creativity and crossing the line. Also creativity must not be seen as a special ability but something the entire team must work towards.

Preparing Employees to Telecommute

An internal study conducted by ADP, made the firm realize that a significant chunk of their employees were working remotely from home. In fact business research conducted by Staples Inc. revealed that nearly three-fourths of aspirants indicated that joining the firm would partly depend on work from home flexibility options. Such revelations have pushed organizations to develop more telecommuting friendly work practices. This also has benefits for respective firms. Due to spiraling costs of real estate, greater number of employees working from home enables reduction of office space cost. It also helps get the best out of creative personalities and thus aiding talent management. A lot of time that is spent of commuting gets saved. Parexel International Corp. is another such firm that has developed an intranet which company employees only can use from any location enabling a virtually connected workforce. This even helps in time sharing as different employee groups can work across separate time zones.

 Eliminating Performance Reviews: Those who do it well v/s those who Don’t

A number of large organizations including Fortune 500 ones have made news lately due to their decisions to scrap annual employee performance reviews. While some organizations have executed this change properly, many others have simply done an eyewash resulting in increased angst rather than decreased. As per a leading business consulting think-tank, a common error is that forms and systems have been eliminated entirely. Performance ranking has been removed, yet has not been adequately replaced. Finally some firms simply lack the internal motivation and require stringent reviews. Juniper is one prominent example of a firm that is executed elimination of performance reviews the right way. They have driven business innovation within the existing company culture. The performance management is now part of a more holistic approach and driven towards the final purpose. Juniper has implemented a ‘Conversation Day’, which encourages employees to speak out and this has proved tremendously effective. Juniper has devised a rating considered J Player against which all employees are judged and given percentage points. Finally employees are encouraged to collaborate and contribute simultaneously on individual basis. 

What the smartest companies know about attracting topTalent 

One of the reasons certain organizations have risen to the top of the pyramid in their respective industries is people and talent management. Somehow top firms manage to attract the best of the lot. We are presently going through what can be considered the ‘golden age’ of recruiting. This has been led by multiple forces driven by people, market and technology. The amount of information available today due to our online engagements is massive and this gives organizations a goldmine of data to dig before recruiting. Also due to the number of freelancers working across industries, the requirements are such that certain specialists need to be sourced at a particular time frame at a particular place. Millennials who are among the largest segment of those recruited happen to be extremely choosy over their jobs. Management consulting giant McKinsey predicts that business worth 2.7 trillion US $ can be concluded with better recruitment. Thus companies are tracking aspirants at various stages of their recruitment journey. This spans from awareness to consideration to preference and finally apply or hire phase. Engaged alumni are quite often the ideal speakers for the organization being a model workplace.

Smart products, smart Makers

More and more products are nowadays being developed with microchips inbuilt to them. This is making the products smarter and easier for the manufacturers to track them and their rightful usage. Even mundane products like fizzy drinks and washing detergents are set to have microchips built in. In fact market research giant Gartner suggests that smart products will rise from the 5 billion of today to a staggering twenty one billion by the year 2020. Thus high end brands can vouch for their own authenticity. The post usage disposal can also be led by the product itself and billions can be recovered from supply chain losses. Yet more than such measures, there is something else which this revolution aims at and that is connecting to the final customers. This is something which retailers have done for decades but manufacturers have been left behind. Now a cultural change at workplace is needed with more IT professionals staffing them. Data management instead of getting outsourced to IT enablers, must now be done in house by full time employees who will crunch this useful data for business analysis purposes.

Are Toxic workers more cost effective than Superstars?

Most organizations would rather try to hire superstar employees and avoiding toxic workers. However, business research conducted clearly proves that instead of chasing the top performers, firms will be better served by converting the toxic workers into average performers. Around 5% of toxic workers even get terminated eventually. In cases where workers were lost due to toxicity, replacing the same and the opportunity cost of work days lost results in losses worth more than twelve thousand US dollars. On the other hand a figure of a mere five thousand odd dollars get saved when superstar employees get hired. Thus it is essential to hire the right candidates and screen them for toxicity during the interview process. Over-confidence and self regard are traits typically present among such candidates and they must be avoided for final selection.

Machines are better than Humans at hiring the best Employees 

Talent management teams are increasingly grappling with the oddity of reducing employee attrition across industries. For this a business research project was commissioned and executed by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to look into ways to improve the equation. It was found that contrary to popular perception, computers are better at hiring employees than humans. A sophisticated algorithm has been designed which judges applicants based on numerous parameters and ranks them. Indeed the ones adjudged to be better as per the algorithm proved better hires. This is especially true for low-skill jobs such as data entry or tele-calling.

3 lessons on building a great company from Air Asia’s CEO Tony Fernandes

Air Asia built its corporate strategy on the cornerstones of an open corporate culture, talent management and harnessing data. Tony Fernandes turned around a traditional, loss making airline by introducing a flat corporate culture and improving communication. He emphasized internal branding and creating an organization which the employees can identify with which will reflect in their dealings with the external world.  He believes that talented people are the best assets of a Company and looks for raw talent who can be polished to become their star employees. He encourages employees fulfill their dreams and aspirations which also ensures loyalty to Air Asia. Air Asia has extensively used data and technology to differentiate itself in the market and they believe it to be the airline’s future.  These are then the secrets behind the turnaround of Air Asia from a loss making small airline to the ‘best airline’ in Asia!

Organization Culture: Key to Attracting and Retaining top Talent  

Talent management is now considered of key importance to most organization and it is an organization’s culture that is key to the same. It includes beliefs, values and norms shared across the organization, which ultimately aid in retaining talent. A good work culture must involve a clear corporate strategy including mission and vision. The tom management must exhibit genuine compassion towards employees. The company policies must be guided by a clear and strong value system. Two communications both vertical as well as horizontal must be constant. A three sixty degree feedback mechanism must be initiated. Also the operations of the firm must run smoothly. There must exist complete transparency in dealings.