Hr Library

Talent…Next?

Source | LinkedIn | Dave Ulrich | Speaker, Author, Professor, Thought Partner on HR, Leadership, and Organization

The focus on talent (workforce, individual competence, employee) continues to gain attention. In the last year, there have been some talent-related themes that shape how people think, act, and feel within their organization, including unconscious bias (evolution of diversity agenda), types of workers (evolution of full time vs. part-time/contractor employees agenda), use of digital technology (talent apps) to innovate employee interactions within the firm, and employee analytics to predict employee behaviors.

Many have and will comment on these, and other talent-related innovations.

My bias is to look forward and envision the next talent agenda. 

1.    Employee guidance.  

Many of the talent initiatives listed above focus on employees to help them have a better experience in their organization. We have found that a key to talent sustainable experience comes from thinking about talent from the outside/in to better justify talent investments. Talent choices, practices, and activities deliver value to customers and investors or seeing talent from the outside/in. Some of this outside/in logic correlates employee experience with customer experience (usually in the .6 to .8 range) and investor confidence (intangible market value).

This outside-in logic should lead to better employee guidance. Guidance is a fascinating concept for many groups: For students wanting career guidance, families wanting investment guidance, or investors seeking corporate guidance. In these and other settings, guidance implies setting a direction (career goal, financial independence, or corporate performance), then building a pathway (or pathways) in that direction. 

Going forward, I envision more focus on employee guidance than activity. In this scenario, HR might propose a host of talent-related investments (staffing, training, career planning, communication, performance management, and so forth), then an assessment can be made as to the relative impact of these investments on stakeholders who matter (customers, investors). This combines digital HR and HR analytics into a forward-looking, outside-in perspective on talent. When HR has limited resources to invest in talent, they should focus on those talent-related activities that deliver the most value to key stakeholders through a talent guidance logic.

2.   Employee experience

Employee experience has become the new mantra for how employees respond to work.  While it builds on previous work on employee motives, motivation, commitment, and engagement, there are a few trends for employee experience that should emerge going forward.

Click here to read the full article

Source
LinkedIn
Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button