Talent management: best practices.

According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, talent management represents a budget of nearly 40 billion dollars annually worldwide.

This HR practice, previously reserved for the company's highest potentials, is now a strategic asset in increasingly competitive organizations. Some companies such as Facebook or Apple have shown that practices dedicated specifically to talent are a vector of overall performance. ANDRH, through its Director, Audrey RICHARD, talk about a democratization in French companies while raising new challenges.

How to make talent management a differentiating factor? What best practices should be implemented?

The ambitions of talent management

Before detailing the goals, let's start by defining the concept of “talent” within your company.

What is a talent?

Talent is not only a distinctive skill, but an asset that can be developed to make a significant contribution to the organization. We often associate “talent” with the individual who shows this extraordinary ability, but it can only be expressed with the assistance of a structure that promotes its daily expression.

What are the goals of talent management?

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This practice began in 1997, talent management has 8 main objectives:

1. Identifying rare resources within the company and those of its complete ecosystem
2. Objectifying the programs the development of expertise
3. Develop skills in a context of business transformations
4. Foster engagement and retain employees
5. Contribute to development individual and collective, innovation and teamwork
6. Reduce turnover, absenteeism and psychosocial risks
7. Define opportunities of internal mobility
8. Maintaining employability and guarantee the performance of the company over time.

This practice of Talent Management has evolved from activities centered on the “People Review - High Potential - Succession Plan” cycle to a reflection on strategic know-how. The main objective is to recognize the specific abilities of each individual and not only high potentials.

Talent: the combination of competence and potential.

Competence

Originally, competence was a legal concept that evolved into a central HR concept after the economic crisis of the 1970s. Now qualification management is considered to be central to company performance, we talk about “skills shortage”, “skills obsolescence” as the main priorities of HR teams. These skills data can be visible or immersed, the talent of HR activity will be to make use of all of them in the service of performance.

The potential

This is a presumption of high future performance, the potential is only virtual.

So how do you assess an employee's potential?

Here is an example of 3 characteristics used by a customer in the energy sector:

1. Capabilities to Questioning yourself pTo learn quickly: humility, curiosity, desire to learn...
2. A good stress management and emotional stability,
3. From the faculties to pTake initiatives and get on board to decide quickly

Talent management therefore involves the identification and development of 2 things: competence and the development of potential.

This practice will therefore ensure the creation of internal conditions favorable to the synergy of these two aspects with particular attention paid to the aspirations and values of each person in a homogeneous whole.

Now let's ask ourselves the following question: What are the best talent management practices that will give you a competitive advantage?

The 4 Talent Management Best Practices

Building a sustainable HR policy

Building an attractive HR offer is therefore based on knowledge and know-how. The tool that constitutes the mapping of key competencies and its measurement criteria is a must. From all of this data, the KPIs are determined (performance indicators) and differences in levels with what is desirable. A policy worth paying attention to, called “sustainable”, is the combination of 2 approaches:

• Communication on proven career paths.
• Flexibility in creating individualized trajectories.

As a former recruiter, I had the opportunity to learn how to work alongside large companies in new technologies that have made human capital a success factor. Their level of demand on resources has always been relevant, by focusing on the exceptional skills of their new recruits they fuel a culture of excellence. How to detect and make these 5-legged sheep come in?

Identifying, attracting, and onboarding new talent

The HR strategy is based on the analysis of “gaps”, that is to say expertise that is missing today or that is anticipated to be essential tomorrow. Attracting and recruiting new talent is a strategic challenge for HR managers, it is the meeting point for company values, due to its employer brand, on the one hand, and its ability to find innovative and authentic answers to expectations of its target population.

Another key element: the onboarding phase.

Various studies point to the lack of interest of companies in this integration phase, Mercuri Urval even speaks of 65% of companies that simply do not have an integration path. At Facebook, the onboarding phase lasts 6 weeks. This is the period necessary for the employee to become familiar with the corporate culture, work tools and ongoing innovation projects. Then, he chooses the project he wants to invest in, a good way to be sure of his motivation. During this period, and even more so since the generalization of teleworking, the concept of Conversation continues plays a major role in the success of recruitment

Engaging your talent pool

Offering career paths that meet their expectations, a solution to talent retention ? 81% of HR managers think that internal mobility is one of the answers. Moreover, the Global Talent Trends 2020 study conducted by LinkedIn shows it: employees of a company that has developed a strong internal mobility policy stay on average 41% longer.

Talent retention also involves 6 factors that we identified during a study with 80 HR managers with the HR Lab:

Here are the 6 levers of engagement:

• Recognition or “symmetry of attention”
• The collective dimension, sometimes forgotten by hybrid work
• Relationships at work, face-to-face and the culture it creates
• The mechanisms to encourage employees in their development
• The daily measurement of these various levers and the analysis of their evolution

These mechanisms are deployed for all employees, and, according to the president of ANDRH, The differences between talent management and employee management tend to get erased. However, there are still some processes dedicated solely to the company's talent population: the talent review or”People review”.

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Have a real measurable development objective

If some employees suffer from a lack of motivation linked to the content of their missions, the majority of employees expect their company to have the means to develop their skills. The current challenge is not simply to offer these adapted development supports but to anchor these tools in a mobility perspective.

2 out of 3 managers are considering internal or external mobility in the next 3 years.

By visualizing the bridges between professions, an employee takes the initiative to build his own progress plan. Neobrain has been recognized for its ability to connect all of these activities.

Talent Management is a long-term policy, its results can be perceived after several years, which makes it a fund for HR teams. Talent management, employee engagement and performance are directly linked: a company that implements a talent management policy sees its profits multiplied by two, in a period 50% shorter than another (BCG study).The Global Leadership and Talent Index“).

In conclusion: our tips for fueling successful talent management.

1. Identify the company's expertise needs : it is important to know what are the key skills that the company needs to achieve its goals.
2. Promoting internal mobility : it can be interesting to allow employees to change positions or departments within the company, in order to offer them new professional experiences and to help them enrich their know-how.
3. Set clear career goals : it is important to communicate to employees the opportunities for growth within the company and to help them define their career goals.
4. Set up mentoring programs : mentoring can be an effective way to transfer knowledge and expertise from the most experienced employees to the youngest.
5. Regularly assess the performance and skills of employees : it is important to monitor the evolution of the skills of employees and to provide them with regular feedback to help them develop professionally.