This article originally appeared in The Healthy, High-Performing Cultures Issue of Performance Matters Magazine. To request a print or digital copy of the magazine, click here.
Is your organization ready for the next shift in your talent marketplace?
Much like other markets, the talent marketplace abides by the laws of supply and demand. It also encompasses a complex, unique set of dynamics based on an organization’s need for talent (demand) and the pool of current and prospective talent with matching needs (supply).
Talent dynamics are always changing. There are inherent tensions when balancing organizational needs with talent market availability as well as important culture implications. From hiring and onboarding to training and development (and so much more), organizational culture significantly impacts and is impacted by the talent marketplace.
To win in the talent marketplace, leaders are being asked to:
- Create and activate a talent strategy that reflects their organization’s talent and cultural factors.
- Understand the organization’s anticipated strengths and gaps relative to current and future talent requirements.
- Respond to changes in the talent marketplace with agility and flexibility.
Every organization can benefit from a proactive, consistent approach to talent management that focuses on preparing for eventual market shifts while also maintaining cultural alignment within the organization. While every talent plan will be unique, there are three steps you can take to help your organization win in the talent marketplace.
1. Understand talent demand
If you want a clear picture of the key roles and competencies that will activate your organization’s business strategy, first take stock of forces that are driving talent demand—such as customer needs, changing industry dynamics, or new strategic initiatives. Also, note the critical people, leadership requirements, and performance standards needed to support the organization’s strategic objectives.
To further understand talent demands, analyze the organization’s plans as well as external trends for potential impacts to future business. In alignment with your organization’s values, identify and define the types of talent needed to ensure a capable and diverse organization. Identify critical capabilities needed to execute the business plan; then, define the roles and competencies necessary to create value for the business.
With the full understanding of these talent demands, you can start matching needs with the talent available externally and within your organization—based on your workforce supply.
2. Understand workforce supply
To realize the potential of your workforce supply, first map the external factors that provide important context for talent conversations happening within your organization. Assess the labor market for employment trends, regional growth projections, educational trends, and availability of diverse talent. Industry associations are another valuable source of talent data to support your external research, though more rigorous analysis of available talent in specialized areas of expertise may be necessary.
Then, look within the organization’s existing talent pool to understand current potential and performance. Through a talent inventory process, gather data on existing competency strengths and gaps relative to strategic, diversity, and capacity needs, as well as anticipated strengths or gaps due to potential turnover, promotions, and retirements. (We help clients integrate more consistent talent review processes in their organization so that they can continually assess talent strengths and gaps.) If a full workforce analysis is required, leverage data and analytics from your talent technology platform (if applicable). Finally, mine all the data for opportunities—and focus on roles with the greatest leverage across the organization.
Informed by the internal talent inventory and external research, you can match workforce supply with the organization’s talent demands. You’re also ready to identify areas of risk related to gaps in talent availability—and then build a plan to address the gaps.
3. Address talent gaps
Promoting, developing, and hiring great people are timeless talent strategies. Yet what’s critical and often overlooked is pulling the thread from business objective to talent requirements and gaps, and then surgically focusing promotion, development, and hiring on what you really need.
Closing gaps between talent demands and workforce supply requires targeted efforts to build the talent in roles that will have the greatest impact on business outcomes. Focusing your efforts will mean the right resources are in place at the right time for future shifts in the talent marketplace.
Promotion
Healthy, high-performing leaders focus on the strengths of their teams (individually and collectively) as well as considering their unique passions, interests, and growth goals when creating talent and succession plans. It’s more than performance—it’s also about helping employees connect their sense of purpose to the organization’s purpose.
While talent planning assesses someone’s capacity or potential for future performance, succession planning looks at key role(s) and requirements. Together, they provide a comprehensive picture of your talent, showing areas of strength as well as gaps or overlaps. Use your succession plan as a key resource in making talent decisions, so that career development pathways and lattices offer leaders a variety of opportunities—ones that address individual growth goals as well as organizational needs.
Developing
Competency gaps can become foundational opportunities for your organization’s development needs. (Conversely, if career development, learning, and organization development efforts lag the business needs, it’s likely that business objectives haven’t been translated into capabilities and competencies.)
By pulling through the talent requirements thread, you can create development systems, programs, and practices that are the best use of the organization’s resources—because you’re ensuring that people will be able to develop the skills, abilities, and leadership capacity to take on new challenges. This is how you create a talent-rich organization.
Hiring
Enthusiastic, talent-attraction “spin” and high applicant rates can be tempting when organizations need to meet staffing targets or face a talent shortage. Yet once people sign on, it can be tough for the organization to live up to the marketing hype—especially if there isn’t cultural alignment between the hype and reality.
When an employee joins the organization, the two enter an employment relationship that is assessed over time:
- How does this employee fit with where the organization is going?
- How does this organization fit with my needs and values?
- Is my talent recognized?
- Is this a safe and secure environment for me to flourish?
Make sure your company narrative is authentic to your organization’s culture so that everyone has a clear picture of the relationship they are entering. (To learn more about how culture impacts the employee experience, click here.)
A winning approach for talent management
Winning in the talent marketplace is possible—but it requires building rigor into your talent management process. First, you must understand your organization’s unique dynamics for workforce supply and talent demand to surface strengths, gaps, and overlaps. Then, address those gaps by promoting, developing, and hiring the talent that your organization really needs. This way, no matter how the talent marketplace shifts next, your organization will be ready.
This article originally appeared in The Healthy, High-Performing Cultures Issue of Performance Matters Magazine. To request a print or digital copy of the magazine, click here.
