Acquire, hire, and retain; it’s that easy, right?
Not anymore. An effective talent management plan is no longer defined by an organization’s ability to isolate three steps. To achieve success in today’s global economy, a plan must integrate new factors into the mix: workforce engagement, goal alignment, and internal collaboration.
The integration of talent management best practices with the company’s business strategy leads to growth opportunities across the business. Specifically, managers can prepare for future challenges by planning their talent needs, which increases the efficiency of teams and boosts performance. And the progressive cultivation of skills shifts the corporate mindset from a reactive state to one that’s proactive.
The Benefits of Workforce Engagement
Through the lens of talent management professionals, companies experience higher levels of success when both the leadership team and functional employees are committed to their work through feelings of ownership and achievement. A highly engaged team is poised to operate with a purpose and capitalize on new opportunities that arise.
The infamous tech giants of Silicon Valley serve as stewards for creating engaged teams. Here, a handful of companies are competing at extremely high levels for market leadership on a global scale. In order for these employees to continuously perform at such high levels, they need to be completely engaged with their work and leadership team.
When comparing tech giants such as Facebook, Google, and Apple to their smaller competition in the region, it’s no surprise that many organizations feel they can’t compete for top talent any longer. However, what these companies may be lacking is an equally effective talent management plan that focuses on keeping workers engaged, growing as one team and one company with effective information sharing.
Benefits of workforce engagement
- Transforms a company into a proactive mindset from a reactive state
- Identifies developmental areas within a company culture
- Identifies industry competencies for employees
- Develops a culture based on ownership of company success
Goal Alignment is Critical to Your Talent Management Strategy
Another factor involved in revitalizing a talent management plan is to promote goal alignment. The bond between employee growth strategies and fundamental business needs must be seamless. Most often, this is accomplished by facilitating employee engagement and empowering goal achievement.
Successful companies know: it’s crucial that they identify and attract leaders that understand why goal alignment is a constructive management tool. With this understanding, well-equipped managers deploy tactics to demonstrate the continuous value that employees bring to the entire organization. Over time, the value of having a workforce that’s aligned with their leadership manifests into both personal and group achievement, resulting in a higher performing workforce.
Hiring leaders that are experienced in building engaged teams is a company’s greatest asset, one that positively impacts retention rates across the organization. And when a well-aligned team achieves growth goals, the team learns to be adaptable to meet future challenges as well.
By subscribing to a mindset that suppress goal alignment for all employees, a company gains even more perspective on what it means to be proactive rather than reactive within the marketplace. Establishing and working towards shared objectives isn’t only more efficient but also rewarding for employees and managers alike. The end result is a much higher performing company.
Why Develop Internal Collaboration
Leveraging talent management to improve internal collaboration is equal parts employee engagement and goal alignment. However, organizational silos, or the containment of department knowledge, is the one detriment that must be strictly managed — and broken down when necessary.
As external resources become more scarce in any given market, companies must look deep within for new ways to innovate and outperform the competition. For example, big data is valuable to individual teams, but the combined company-wide knowledge of this data has a much greater value in terms of cross-functional production.
Understanding who to share information with, and how, and when, is a skill that a talent management plan helps to uncover; it identifies experienced leaders who use specific tools to uncover workforce assets. In other words, when a product or service innovation is needed the solution is often deep within the organization; it just needs to be discovered and provided to the correct individuals/teams for development.
Another driver for collaboration is the implementation of rich data a.k.a. human data. A talent management plan places value on this employee information and uses it to educate management on the working assets of the organization. Imagine if you knew about the skills, interests, and experiences of each employee. With this powerful data in hand it’s much easier to make quick and effective management decisions that have a direct impact on performance.
Workforce Flexibility and Talent Management
Determining where and how employees work is a factor that further strengthens a talent management plan. Many employment decisions across a variety of industries are based heavily on this topic — according to a recent discussion with a panel of CIO’s in the San Diego healthcare industry.
Achieving success by attracting and retaining valuable employees requires a new level of flexibility — a mindset shift from the sterile, white-walled environment of the past. Especially with the younger generation of tech leaders, remote work or telecommuting is required to some degree.
A sign of flexibility from leadership, telecommuting privileges reinforce that work/life balance is important to the organization — even if it’s only perceived that way. In reality, completely engaged employees don’t leave the job when the clock strikes five. Instead, they carry their work with them, open to finding new insights along the way.
Integrating workforce flexibility into your talent management plan also provides strategic growth to the organization, whether the company wants to recognize it as an employee benefit or not. Companies that show forward thinking — a flexible mindset — are more likely to attract and retain forward-thinking talent, the foundation of a progressive culture. Shifting the corporate mindset to align with these flexible policies differentiates your organization’s value to a prospective employee.
The Takeaway on Talent Management Plans
Businesses that consistently outperform their competition understand the importance of having a talent management plan that meets their functional and operational needs. Additionally, they identify when this plan needs to be updated to meet changes in the workforce. The development of an engaged workforce, focus on goal alignment, and emphasis on collaboration all play a crucial role in the success of any talent management plan. In unison, these factors drive business success and allow a company to perform at a much higher level, the secret to long-term growth.
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