Truth to be told, the most important asset in an organisation isn’t something you can put your hands on. It isn’t equipment or the physical plant, nor data or technology. It is your human capital.
People are the key driving forces to move the company toward the desired direction. Talents, in particular, contribute disproportionate value to the organisation, yet they are the group that has the easiest time finding other employment.
As a result, identifying, rewarding, nurturing and retaining your organisation’s good employees and top performers is an organisational imperative simply because of the value these individuals contribute.
Given the global megatrends including technological disruption, demographic change and urbanisation, businesses are changing tremendously and so is the workplace as well as the talent landscape.
With this constant change, business leaders are facing critical challenges when it comes to sourcing and retaining talent. The question is, what can businesses do to confront the talent challenges and ensure they remain a competitive and desirable workplace in the eyes of talented performers?
First, let’s look at some of the factors that have caused challenges in talent management to allow us to understand the shifting talent landscape better.
The advancement of technology: With methods such as blended-learning techniques, technological change will continue to make its way into the practice of talent development. More and more we will see digital learning and networking tools becoming mainstream mechanisms for achieving any talent development initiatives. Moreover, gamification and other fun and inspiring learning methodologies will emerge as normal learning activities.
Talent pipeline challenge: With the rise of the ageing workforce and the widening of the skills gap as existing leaders retire, the challenge of filling the talent pipeline will be excruciating. Also, this will be compounded by demographic changes in the current workforce and dispersed talents.
New skills and new talents needed: As globalisation and digital disruption continue to evolve, chances are we will need new sets of skills as well as new talents to tackle never-before-seen problems. This will require innovative thinking and agility as the global economy continues to expand and the main focus of work moves from things that are regulated and quantifiable to truly innovative activities.
As a result, it will become more important for organisations to design effective talent development programmes. Hiring will need to be restructured to include global capabilities, training will need to change to include diversity and innovation, and leadership perspectives will evolve to embrace empathy and authenticity to reflect this ongoing change in the workforce.
What’s more, organisations will need to wholeheartedly embrace flexibility. Part of the reason is because the skills shortages still affecting many industries and the competition for top talent has never been higher; thus, companies will need to embrace flexibility in terms of how they source and manage talents in order to match demand with supply.
In fact, I’d say that only recruiting locally will not be enough to keep companies moving in the market. Thanks to digital disruption, employers can widen their talent search by sourcing from further afield by introducing new types of contracts and working styles from remote working to flexi-hours.
Also, they will need to be flexible in terms of accepting diverse generations, including younger people, in order to fill potential talent pools. By 2020, Millennials will make up 46% of the workforce and all smart business owners with forward thinking know they need to be attracting younger, tech-savvy employees to be successful in the future. Even when many companies are still having doubts when it comes to hiring Millennials or even Generation Z, you can’t simply ignore the benefits that they can offer you.
Furthermore, sound approaches to re-skilling and up-skilling talents will be ever more critical. Today there are many jobs that are in great danger of extinction because of technological advances. Therefore, if most of your talents are in this area, now is the time to consider their potential and plan how you might re-skill or up-skill them so that they remain relevant in your company.
Last but not least, I’d say the best approach to tackle the talent challenge is for leaders to really take action. Simply paying lip service to talent management will get you nowhere. Research shows that while 93% of CEOs recognise there is a need to change their strategy for attracting and retaining talent, 61% of CEOs who still haven’t taken action. Hence, only when leaders are willing to take action to meet the talent challenge can they and their organisations remain competitive.
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Arinya Talerngsri is Chief Capability Officer and Managing Director at SEAsia Center (formerly APMGroup) Southeast Asia's leading executive, leadership and innovation capability development centre. She can be reached by email at arinya_t@seasiacenter.com or www.linkedin.com/in/arinya-talerngsri-53b81aa
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