Staff churn is a continuous nightmare for many organisations. However, knowing how to manage talent successfully becomes particularly vital in the face of worrying global skill shortages in some sectors.
There are occasions when struggling to replace a business leader, technician or other specialist leads to business interruption and customer defection, alongside the additional costs involved in niche recruiting.
It all makes a talent management strategy crucial.
This article explores what talent management involves in contemporary workplaces, and how to take a systematic approach to staff recruitment, development and retention.
Talent mapping and forecasting
One of the fundaments of managing talent is taking a long-term stance on building and sustaining a well-balanced and appropriately skilled workforce. A good starting point is a gap analysis, to uncover existing skill deficits or issues. This can then inform your Talent Map.
Talent mapping involves carefully evaluating not only your current staff resources but also the types of skills you are likely to need in the coming months and years. What are the potential obstacles and challenges you may face and how can you start dismantling them in advance?
This could include looking at some of the benefits you offer to certain types of employees, to ensure your ‘package’ is realistic, competitive and attractive.
Succession planning
Detailed human resource planning must consider what would happen if vital personnel such as executives become unavailable due to illness, resignation or retirement.
You can’t always predict when a key member of your team will leave. However, international recruitment becomes more responsive if you can instantly draw a profile of their roles and responsibilities, and the ideal characteristics of a replacement.
Succession planning can also be as simple as having a preplanned policy for interim management that covers all key decision-making roles.
Human resource policies and procedures
This too is a basic aspect of talent management, but one that you need to revisit and refresh regularly. Top candidates are attracted to employers for a diverse range of reasons, not just salaries.
For example, contemporary companies need to offer versatile work patterns, and this may involve a combination of office, remote and hybrid workers. Job applicants may have a preference on how much time they spend in physical offices, and how they split their contracted hours, for example.
Companies operating across large geographical areas often need mobile workers too. The way your HR function supports them with technology, excellent communication and clear line management may be what tips the balance for some existing or potential team members.
Interview/induction/onboarding strategies
It is worth mentioning that first impressions count. Not just in terms of the steps you take to attract the top candidates to work for you, but also in how you integrate them into your organisation.
This is especially pertinent when building talent in skill areas with global supply issues. You have to be ready to ‘sell’ your organisation in a compelling and attractive way at every stage of your talent acquisition.
It’s highly recommended that your onboarding process includes a clear indication of how the recruit fits within your corporate vision. To retain and grow your talent you must inspire your team to achieve common goals.
Strong corporate culture
This core principle of how to manage talent follows logically from the above point. The process of recruiting, developing and retaining skilled staff must be underpinned by the right corporate culture.
Contemporary employers need to be able to demonstrate that they practise inclusivity, emotionally intelligent leadership and reliable performance management, for example.
Your culture should particularly focus on being consistent and visible in employee reward and recognition. Feeling underappreciated appears high on many lists of reasons why people leave their jobs. A report from a US research body concluded that though pay issues led to many career changes in 2021, around 57% of respondents changed jobs due to ‘feeling disrespected at work’.
That’s something any company can tackle by taking steps to improve their employee support and communications.
Having the right corporate culture – particularly recognising achievements properly – doesn’t just improve staff loyalty and recruitment either. By boosting employee engagement and job satisfaction you also increase willingness to take on new responsibilities.
Put it this way; a key team member is more likely to embrace change and learn new skills if their previous contributions have been acknowledged and rewarded.
How to manage talent under pressure
Thanks to a global pandemic and other world events, can any organisation claim to have no pressures and changes to juggle? So, a central pillar of any talent management strategy must be ways to motivate and nurture your workforce in a holistic manner.
Reference has already been made to emotionally intelligent leadership. To attract, develop and retain key members of your team, your organisation must have robust systems to acknowledge their differing needs and goals.
Create clear career paths
According to both the research body mentioned above and a post-pandemic recruitment survey quoted in Forbes, a substantial number of people planning a career change cite lack of advancement in their career as a deciding factor.
Every member of your team should know what they need to do to achieve progression. That same standard needs to be applied to potential recruits too. Particularly in highly skilled areas such as candidates for STEM or executive roles. It should be standard practice in your specialist recruitment strategy to demonstrate how your organization supports learning, development and career advancement.
Use the best technical and executive search solutions
Bringing in international recruitment services who know how to manage talent on behalf of global clients is – of course – the ultimate solution.
One of the ways this can make your workforce more resilient is by not only filling key vacancies swiftly and successfully but also by creating pools of talent ready for both sudden or expected staff exits.
CNA International is a highly responsive global recruitment company that uses insightful executive search methods to fill high-level positions within client organisations worldwide.
To explore how to manage talent in your workforce, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our own highly valued and talented experts!
