Talent Management & Succession Planning

 

As Talent development mentors we offer guidance and leadership to design dynamic organisations that are agile in nature. We understand how the proliferation of technology and knowledge, as well as the thrust towards globalisation, have created the fastest changing business environment ever seen.  We understand that it is only by unleashing the full potential of their most critical asset, people, will organisations continue to thrive and earn the right to shape the future. To survive, organisations can no longer be an enclosed entity. Every organisation must be a node on a very large network, connected everywhere through a smart workforce.

 

We believe that as a dynamic  business organisation, we must be obsessed with making sure we have the right talent, we embrace change and we are constantly reinventing for tomorrow. We believe that successful enterprises change with the times. So-called “successful enterprises” only result from keeping pace with prevalent trends. It’s never been more cost effective to invest in talent management and succession planning. 

 

We prioritise the people agenda. We provide guidance, support and advice on matters relating to Human Resources Management (HRM), Talent and Strategy Development. We offer talent management guidance and leadership that CEOs can refer to, with real-world practices that make a difference to the way in which we as a team, recruit, develop and retain our best people. Our approach includes learnings from various companies: such as Blackstone on the way talent is linked to value creation; Johnson & Johnson on the optimisation of HR processes; and Haier on how they redesigned their entire operating model to speed up strategic decision-making. We help businesses teach their employees how to : 

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• Conduct effective meetings

• Practice time management

• Enhance their listening skills

• Sharpen their presentation skills

• Boost team collaboration

• Guide successful teams

 

At it s broadest level, HRM comprises the functions of staffing, development, motivation, and maintenance. In other words, hiring competent people, training them, helping them perform at high levels, and providing mechanisms for the right combination of reward elements, to ensure that these employees remain focused and committed to the organisation. Continuous learning becomes core to an organisation’s culture rather than a training or development process.

 

New, innovative, and agile approaches to talent management are urgently needed to keep up with future business needs.

 

The need to develop organisational capability through people, means that in HRM, people management strategy links to and cascades from the business strategy. It is also forward looking, focusing on making incremental changes to the current state to achieve the objectives in the annual business plan. For a business or organisation, working without an effective talent management plan and a succession plan, can invite disruption,  uncertainty and conflict, endangering future competitiveness.   All businesses must always look for ways to get better at developing tomorrow's leaders.

 

Of all the resources available to an organisation, human resources are considered the most important for attaining the objectives of the organisation. Hence, employees are now variously referred to as human capital, human assets, or human resources. Human capital refers to the collective skills and knowledge of the total workforce of an organisation that hold economic value for the organization.  It enhances the productivity and profitability of the organisation. In order to ensure that human capital generates more wealth as well as leads to value creation, it is important that human capital is utilised and managed efficiently and effectively.

 

An organisation may have huge capital and the most advanced machinery, but if it does not have capable, motivated and high performing employees, the organisation is not likely to demonstrate sustained level of performance. Since all physical and capital resources depend on people for their efficient use, maintenance and management, the quality of the people of an organisation is important in attaining competitive advantage.  

 

The composition of an organisation’s human capital is considered a key strategic business advantage that organisations possess. Notwithstanding the investments that are being placed in human capital and talent management, companies guided by human resources professionals must be creative, innovative and ingenious by deciding on non-conventional ways to recruit. The introduction of competency standards and enhanced performance management systems must be explored in an attempt to ensure that recruitment and retention efforts are successful within organisations.

 

Sharing our own experience as leaders and consultants, we help businesspeople learn to collaborate with employees to create an environment that drives performance improvement. We give business leaders tools that show how to translate their belief in the importance of investing in people into concrete actions that will improve business performance. Most important, we show executives how to collaborate better to maximise the development of their workforce, and in all cases, exercise good judgment and rely on the high moral and ethical compass we believe exists in each and every person. We ensure that the set of core principles, values, and mutual expectations that guide the behaviour of an organisation and its people, are embedded into both its talent mannagement strategy and it its talent management system.

 

Three terms are commonly used when talking about improving workforce and leadership capabilities:

 

Human Capital  is the broadest term and is often used interchangeably to mean "people" and "human resources". It is generally used in the context of "human capital strategy" or "planning", as an umbrella term for all activities to improve the value of workforce and leadership capabilities. The term capital refers to wealth, money, or property. Capital is used to generate more wealth for an organisation. When employees are referred to as capital, it is implied that they are the resources that generate more ‘wealth’. When the value of the people is enhanced, it enhances the value of the organisation. Workforce engagement is also central to supporting the development of the Human Capital strategy. An organisational climate that fosters open communication, mutual trust, respect, and transparency, is essential to workforce engagement, as is job content satisfaction, work recognition, and quality of supervisor.

 

Workforce planning historically has dealt with an operational data collection analysis run by human resources to project short-term headcount. However, "strategic workforce planning " has become a more fashionable term to describe a forecasting and planning process that connects and directs talent mangagment activities. It usually refers to frecasting activities that help executives understand what kinds of skills and capabilities they weill need in the next two to five years. 

 

Talent management can describe all manner of efforts to improve workforce and leadership capabilities. It typically refers to the process by which an organisation identifies, manages and develops its people now and for the future. It is concerned with investments or activities that include recruitment, development, and retention of employees. It may refer to all of these stages in the employment life cycle, or just one particulare area, such as leadership development or performance management. 

 

Ultimately, the organisation's culture and history with workforce issues will determine what labels best support the efforts to maximise future workforce and leadership capabilities. 

 

A talent manageyment system is a set of procedures and processes that translate an organisation's talent creed and strategy into a diagnostic and implementation programme for achieving organisation excellence. Most successful talent management systems consist of the following threee components:

 

1) assessment tools - measurement scales for performance and potential, linked to appropriately allocated training, rewards, education, assignments, and development activities (TREADs);

 

2) diagnostic tools - analytical devices an organisation uses to convert the assessment of its people into a talent management plan ; and

 

3) monitoring processes - measures to ensure that the implementation of the talent management process continues to be effective, and the return on most of the investment made by an organisation in its TREADs , adds value to the organisation.

 

To remain competitive in business and attract top talent, an organisation must provide the systems and structure that support the career development needs across all levels. A talent mangement strategy  should form an integral part of  business succession planning.    To stay on the leading edge of talent management, leaders are required to manage more strategically and work across organisational boundaries to shape the broader company agenda.  Success in today's markets, requires leaders to ask important questions. What are the organisation's critical business objectives?  What steps are being taken to ensure talent management processes, like recruiting and management development, are better coordinated or integrated? What exactly do we want employees to be engaged to - their jobs, their work groups, or the organisation as a whole? Which of my top performers might leave in the next year and what’s the cost to replace them? Which job functions or departments are at higher risk?

 

This is where analytics can help. While big data and analytics have been industry buzzwords for some time, it’s only recently that their true potential value to HR is beginning to be seen in practice. While no analytics model can be 100% perfect, placing science ahead of guesswork will give HR leaders the ability to get it right more often than not. Understanding factors such as the attributes of someone who is likely to stay with a company, how different hourly shift patterns impact employee retention rates, or why certain line managers have more sick employees than others can be hugely valuable sources of information that can be used to drive better business decisions. These insights alone can help HR lead the organisation, make smarter people decisions and become a better partner for the wider business.

 

Is your board of directors playing an appropriate oversight role in the organisation's talent management strategy ? In what ways does the leadership team treat high-potential talent ?

 

A common goal for employees is to reach the point at which they create enough income which supports their lifestyle aspirations (now and post-retirement) while maintaining balance with their personal lives. Companies, on the other hand, look to strike a balance between adequately remunerating employees in order to retain and motive them, whilst still ensuring the business financials stack up. To get the balance right employers are increasingly looking at the wider reward package and value proposition to supplement salary and to ensure they have the best and the brightest talent.

 

Today’s workforce is more agile than ever — accustomed to working anywhere at any time. And as the global work environment continues to change, so do employee needs and skills. Now is the time to get ahead of potential talent gaps and evaluate where the business is expected to grow or shrink over the next three to five years, how the composition of the workforce may change and what the implications are for sourcing new talent needs.

 

Now is the time to integrate new thinking, ignite a new talent management strategy, and infuse it into the culture of the organisaiton.  Now is the time to create sustained business growth with a talent management strategy that informs and is informed by corporate strategy. Typically, talent-minded management is concerned with:

 

• developing a strategy to determine what the organisation needs to meet the current and future demands of the business plan

 

• establishing processes to measure competence – required and available;

 

• creating a range of developmental tools and remuneration processes to provide tailored approaches depending on the individual needs of employees'

 

• identifying ways to obtain and retain those who are critical to success; and

 

• establishing suitable approaches to deal with those who no longer fit organisation requirements.

 

With the advent of the banking crisis and the subsequent world recession, organisations across the world have had to make cuts, yet like never before the retention and continued development of key people in critical roles is the key to survival. 

 

 

Succession planning is concerned with:

 

• identifying posts that are critical to success and how best to satisfy future requirements

 

• developing strategies to determine the optimum mix of internal and external recruitment.

 

 

For companies that are family-owned or controlled, the issue of succession also introduces deeply emotional personal issues and may widen the circle of stakeholders to include non-employee family members.

 

That’s why we make it our business to help you  address these important issues. We can help you build Talent Management through the development of Management Development Practices.

 

Organisations often fail to utilise managerial personnel effectively for leadership development and succession planning systems, and many execute these critical practices through separate human resource functions that shift the responsibility for leadership development away from line managers. The purpose of our talent management advisory service is to present a best practices model for optimal development of the leadership pipeline and a series of practical recommendations for organisations looking to grow. 

 

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Contact  us, we will be happy to help you improve the link between your business strategy and your human capital management. We will also help you to determine who will take over when the founders leave the stage. We can  present a best practices model for optimal development of the leadership pipeline and a series of practical recommendations for your organisation.  We can also conduct a talent management audit that would be instrumental in creating your own talent management development programme. We would be pleased to provide support to the board and executive management, in developing the talent management strategy  that ensures that the business reaches its potential.