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Talent management: Getting the process right first

Aled Laugharne 24 Nov 2011
Posted by Aled Laugharne

As a Continuous Improvement professional I have a vested interest in focussing on "The Process" itself, making sure that the value to be delivered is well-defined in the first instance, and that the delivery of the value is done as simply and efficiently as possible. It's too often that I've seen organisations, when wanting to introduce new processes, skip the first step of defining value and head straight into the system and supplier selection process.
 
The lessons here apply equally to Talent Management processes as much as anything else I've experienced, particularly in the current austere climate, when trying to run before you can walk can burn money that the organisation can ill afford to do.
 
Successfully managing talent can also be a culturally daunting prospect. It might mean moving towards greater levels of transparency to support meritocracy, which means that HR and line managers will need to have uncomfortable discussions and make difficult decisions. There's little value in investing capital in an expensive talent management system if these discussions don't happen as they should (or at all), is there?
 
So what's the solution? In this day and age you're acutely aware that you absolutely must manage talent to be competitive, but don't let the sense of urgency to do so blind you to the need to firstly address the process and cultural hurdles. Start small and simple, trialling a process with the top tiers of management, or within a particular business area where you know you have key stakeholders who will engage well and support your process development - this can be managed from a desktop, even when you get up to 1000+ employees. Learn the culture change lessons from your trial, and ensure a help chain is in place to support the difficult decisions when you scale up.

So before you reach for the systems brochures, consider this approach, where you'll be sure to have confidence in the underlying process and metrics, and accountability and buy-in from stakeholders will be greatly enhanced. This way will allow you to get your future system requirements right first time, and will most likely save you some money in the long-run.

Comments

29 November 2011 17:04 Terry Shane says

I think another benefit of this approach – namely developing your process before you buy a system, by implementing a well-structured self-build approach - is that the organisation gains a much greater level of insight into their own system and reporting requirements. This will be invaluable when reviewing potential vendors and determining if the needs can be met with an off-the-shelf system with some configuration, or whether customisation is going to be needed. It also provides a network of professionals who have been working in a certain standardised way, who can more easily support the implementation and the change required to move to a new system and amended process.

15 December 2011 11:41 Sue Stevens says

I think, too, that it is equally important to define your talent strategy ahead of process and systems implementation decisions. In this way, you can ensure that the process you decide on is really fit for purpose.

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