HR Department Support
Did you know that companies with effective talent management strategies have a 40% lower turnover rate than those without? With the current talent shortage in many industries, finding and retaining top talent is more important than ever. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of talent management and how it can help your organization attract and retain the best employees.
As a business leader, you know that your employees are your most valuable asset. But attracting and retaining top talent can be a challenge, especially in today’s competitive job market. That’s where talent management comes in. By implementing effective talent management strategies, you can identify, attract, develop, and retain the best employees for your organization. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what talent management is, why it’s important, and how you can use it to give your business a competitive edge.
In this article, we’ll explore the importance of talent management and how it can help your organization attract and retain the best employees.
What is Talent Management?
Talent management is the process of identifying, developing, and retaining top employees to achieve organizational goals. It includes everything from recruiting and hiring to training, development, and succession planning. Effective talent management involves a strategic approach to workforce planning, performance management, and career development.
Why is Talent Management Important?
Talent management is important for several reasons. First, it helps organizations identify and attract the best candidates for open positions. In today’s competitve job market it is very important to do everything possible to atttract high probability hires. By having a strong employer brand and offering competitive compensation and benefits packages, you can position your company as an employer of choice. Second, talent management can help reduce turnover and improve employee retention. When employees feel valued, supported, and have opportunities for growth and development, they are more likely to stay with their current employer. Third, talent management can improve organizational performance by ensuring that you have the right people in the right roles with the right skills and experience.
Identify Key Roles
To identify the roles that are critical to your organization’s success, you can start by analyzing your business objectives and identifying the roles that are most closely aligned with those objectives. For example, if your organization’s goal is to expand into new markets, you may need to identify roles that are critical for driving that growth, such as sales or marketing roles. You can also look at roles that are currently in high demand and those that are difficult to fill to determine which roles are most critical.
Develop Competency Models
Once you’ve identified the key roles, you can create competency models that outline the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for each role. For example, for a sales role, the competency model may include skills such as prospecting, relationship-building, and closing deals. You can use these competency models to guide your recruitment efforts and ensure that you are hiring candidates who possess the necessary competencies to succeed in the role.
Implement Succession Planning
Succession planning involves identifying potential successors for key roles and developing a plan to ensure that those individuals are ready to step into those roles when needed. To implement succession planning, you can start by identifying potential successors for each key role and assessing their readiness to take on that role. You can then develop development plans for those individuals to help them build the necessary skills and competencies to succeed in the role.
Invest in Development
To invest in development, you can provide ongoing training and development opportunities for your employees. This can include on-the-job training, mentoring, coaching, and formal training programs. You can also encourage employees to take on stretch assignments or special projects to help them build new skills and gain experience.
Key Takeaways Summary
- Identify key roles that have the greatest impact on your organization’s success
- Create competency models to guide recruitment and development efforts
- Develop succession plans for key roles to ensure a pipeline of talent
- Invest in ongoing employee development to build necessary skills
- Regularly measure and evaluate the effectiveness of talent management strategies
In conclusion, effective talent management strategies are crucial for any organization looking to attract, develop, and retain top talent. By identifying key roles, creating competency models, implementing succession planning, and investing in employee development, your organization can build a strong workforce that drives business success. To learn more about how we can help your organization implement effective talent management strategies, call us at (225) 930-8300 or click here. Let us help you create a workforce that will take your business to the next level.
Communication Strategies, HR Department Support, Industry Expertise, Stress Management
Rise and shine. Kiss the kids and your partner. Feed the dog. Grab breakfast and head out the door. Jump in the car, on the bus, or subway. The sun is rising. It’s a new day. The work day is spread out before you.
Sounds wonderful, but sometimes it’s not.
When we go to work we take along an invisible backpack containing the worries of our family life (perhaps the child who didn’t sleep, the spouse who is unhappy, or the recently diagnosed mother), and a load of our own anxieties and concerns. The backpack is heavy, made heavier so by the pressures of our jobs. When we experience unhealthy amounts of stress, we physically are not at our best. Sleep is often interrupted, as is healthy eating, and good habits such as exercise. We also often self-medicate with medications or alcohol.
We all experience stress. Some stress, called eustress, is healthy. Eustress is motivating. It helps us get off the couch, get to work on time, get the report completed, or apply for the promotion. However, when we tip into distress, stress becomes unhealthy and unproductive.
It is usually pretty easy to identify an employee in distress. He or she may be anxious, moody, or unusually irritable. Why? It’s actually a physical reaction: When in distress we are only able to access a small section of our brain, the amygdala, the center for fight or flight response. When in this state, the manager’s brain cannot distinguish between real and perceived threats. This often gets in the way of relationships with colleagues. Conversations that could be collaborative negotiations instead end unproductively and harm the development of trust.
Constructive feedback is a great first step to providing assistance. Acknowledging the great work that your manager regularly produces, and that there has been a shift.
Here’s some sample dialogue that may help: “John, I hope you know how much you are valued at our firm. You are a key member of the team and we rely on your expertise. However, I’m worried about you. I noticed how you responded to Cindy in the meeting. I know her question was a bit off topic, but typically that would not have bothered you. I am wondering if there is something going on that you might be willing to share with me.”
If your manager is depressed or his/her anxiety is debilitating it may be time to refer the manager to the company’s EAP [Employee Assistance Program] or directly to a therapist for help. However, there may be other options. Executive coaching, with a qualified accredited coach, can provide objective feedback through validated diagnostics such as a 360 instrument, and one-one-one sessions to help the manager move forward towards more effective behaviors.
Katie Riker Sternberg, ACC, MSW, LMSW, MBA
About the Author: Katie Riker Sternberg, ACC, MSW, LMSW, MBA, is the Founder of Momentum Executive and Personal Coaching, LLC. Katie’s 25 years of experience is a blend of senior marketing leadership, entrepreneurship, independent consulting to business leaders, individual counseling and executive coaching. You can follow Katie on Facebook to keep up with her latest posts.
For more information on how Highflyer HR can provide you and your company with effective stress management solutions, contact us today!
HR Department Support, HR Solutions, Onboarding
An employee’s days and weeks at work can be stressful, chaotic, and overwhelming—and then there’s the new hire.Strike a confident, considerate tone by creating an employee onboarding process that is personal and positive without making it complicated. It should answer, in short order, the four main questions all new employees have:
- Who is my boss?
- What are my main responsibilities?
- Where are the breakroom and restrooms?
- Where can I put my coat?
While simple, how well your company addresses these “basic needs” questions will set the tone for how you operate throughout your new hire’s entire career. The point of a solid onboarding process is to increase employee engagement, loyalty, and tenure; without it, you’ll sink more time, energy, and money into the repeated training of new hires than you will other crucial aspects of your business—and that rarely works out well.
Here are five simple ways to make a positive impact on a new employee.
1) Make them feel at home
Your new hire should feel like they have a spot they can claim, whether it’s a physical desk or office or a place they can count on to place their coat, lunch, and personal items. It should be clean and posted with their name as if they were always meant to be there.
2) Get them connected
All technology set-up should be completed before the employee’s first day; nothing makes a new hire feel out of place than having things referred to as “John’s old laptop” or “Patrice’s extension.” All laptops, emails, peripherals, permissions, and phones should be ready for the new hire prior to her first day on the job; this makes training, troubleshooting, and everyone’s first week a little easier.
3) Give them a tour
Your new hire’s first day started with finding a parking spot in a new place; it will take him a while to get the lay of the land. Unless you show him, of course, which is exactly what you should do. Don’t just show him the break rooms and restrooms; introduce him to people as you go, especially the people with whom he’ll be working closely. Before you part ways, give him a map that is labeled with everything (and everyone) you covered.
4) Simplify the paperwork process
We can all remember our first days at work as we filled out form after form with the same repeated information. Benefits, taxes, job description, handbooks—more paper gets pushed at new hires on the first day than almost every day following. Streamline this process as much as possible with intuitive Human Resources software that allows cross-referencing, cross-checking, and no crossed eyes.
5) Swag is always a good idea
Go as crazy or as practical as you please here; even fresh office supplies bundled with a company t-shirt can go a long way to showing a new employee that you are bringing your A-game to the table, and that you are expecting the same from her.
And remember, onboarding isn’t just a one-day thing. Create schedules and strategies for follow-up, check-ins, and team meetings. Concerns and accomplishments in this period should be addressed quickly; it demonstrates awareness, responsiveness, and accountability, and lays the groundwork for employee success and satisfaction.
