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Bidding for Talent
Posted Date: 17 Apr 2008 Resource Type: Articles/Knowledge Sharing Category: Jobs & Interviews
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Posted By: SajithkumarS Member Level: Diamond
Rating:  Points: 5
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Talent, though abundant, is ironically becoming hard to get. Here is how organisations can win the talent bid and leverage the same to their advantage...
Bidding for Talent
Talent, though abundant, is ironically becoming hard to get. Here is how organisations can win the talent bid and leverage the same to their advantage...
Key learnings:
* Talent management has become an expensive proposition with the demand for talent being the highest ever
* In order to meet the demand, organisations need to exploit internal talent as this option is not only financially viable but also greatly rewarding
With more than one lakh management graduates passing out last year, the dearth of talent seems rather illusory. However, it is not so. The talent skirmish is for real as more than seventy five percent of companies surveyed agree to a significant shortfall of managerial bench strength in their respective set ups. Experts say that MBAs do not teach people the art of developing people . It is the experience that a company gives to its employees that finally helps managers develop the art of people management.
Most organisations are made of ordinary people. There is no corporate entity that has a "star talent" majority. It is in fact not possible. It is only after years of hard work that ordinary people get transformed to star talent. Understanding this basic concept about "talent" will help companies get a better perspective to talent management. While talent is inborn, it can also be nurtured and developed. Therefore, organisations should not get stuck on getting "star talent" in, as not only is it an expensive proposition but also slightly far-fetched, as the percentage of inborn star talent is far less as compared to the availability percentage of "potential star talent". Hence, the aim should be to hire people who look promising and can produce stellar results on getting the adequate experience and training. This is a more realistic and viable talent management option.
Home-grown talent
The pace of business growth is indeed unnerving. To catch up with this pace, organisations are finding it rather difficult to maintain a constant supply of managerial talent. Hence, the only viable option left is that of making leaders at home! Developing internal talent looks like a promising talent management option. Organisations contemplating fighting against head-hunting or spending a fortune to get an established star performer can well benefit from this option and hence devise strategies to develop their own management pipeline.
Developing already-employed talent serves two purposes. First, it saves the company of all the effort and money that the organisation would have otherwise spent on talent hunting. Secondly, it makes a very effective employee motivation strategy. Developing internal talent is extremely inspiring and hence can help get below average performers too to the level of an average performer. Jack Welch has been known for his adeptness at developing home-grown leaders. He spent more than seventy percent of his time and resources on developing internal talent.
The responsibility of managers can be categorised into two broad functions-getting superior business results and developing people. Interestingly, the two are interdependent. When leaders focus on the latter, the former automatically gets taken care of. Hence, talent management is a business imperative. Therefore putting the onus of delivering successful talent management strategies on HR leaders is not only unfair but also less effective. Leaders need to believe and understand that they cannot have the best talent across functions.
Blaming the organisation for not having sufficient funds to afford star talent is a loser's attitude and hence would hardly fetch any benefits. Instead, leaders should acknowledge the fact that they have a bunch of ordinary people, who if guided properly can produce extraordinary results. Southwest Airlines makes an interesting example of how organisations can leverage their ordinary employees to produce extraordinary results. The company, as a policy, refrains from hiring management graduates. Though it is not completely averse to hiring management graduates, the percentage is deliberately restricted as a means to cut costs and keep employees motivated.
A rewarding experience
Talent can be developed and nurtured by exposing people to the right experience. It is therefore imperative for leaders to provide their subordinates with enriching and rewarding workplace experiences. In order to do so, leaders should aim at accelerating the pace of experiential learning. This can be achieved by implementing certain deliberate measures. These include:
* Focus on tactical and operation problem-solving experiences by empowering employees to tackle them independently
* Delegate even if you are unsure of the outcome. Delegating work instils immense confidence in people, thereby motivating them to perform better
* Frame a clear accountability status of team members
* Focus on the outcome and not the process
The aforementioned measures can help leaders develop more leaders within the organisation. While they sound easy, putting them into practice is difficult as the tendency to succumb to human weaknesses like inability to let go of authority, micro managing and getting overtly involved in all problems is huge. Nonetheless, leaders deeply committed to the cause of talent development can and should aim at implementing these measures as the satisfaction of helping people grow is a bigger ego massager than the pleasure of holding on to authority.
Related Reading:
1. "Winning the talent war by growing people...management's biggest job," by Michael, P.Laddin
2. "Catch a rising star," by Geoffery Colvin
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