The fight for talent, maximising your chances of a win

Today, many growing SMEs face the constant challenge of attracting, retaining, as well as developing top talent in a competitive business landscape. And probably as a HR professional you are facing the same challenges, of course complicated in larger organisations by having to manage a broader talent pool, navigating more complicated organisational structures and handling often growing global operations.

Although a single article cannot offer a thorough solution to these complicated challenges, we present some high-effect coaching questions for HR professionals to use with their executive leadership teams or to drop into the ‘water-cooler’ moments or the ‘lunch and learn events’.  You could probably class them as coaching questions to ensure all leaders understand the pressure and challenges of talent management as well as how to be part of the solution...it's not just the role of HR.

You will probably have to pick one or two of the questions..or if you are up for it, use all of them to structure a quick workshop on talent management in your organisation. Don’t forget to edit/update the selected questions to match your style and objectives for asking them. Here goes…

1. How effectively do we use our global brand as well as our resources to attract top talent in different markets? (Prompts leaders to consider the special advantages that larger organisations have in talent acquisition.)

   
   

2. How can we actively create many agile career paths in our organisation to effectively retain high-potential employees? (Internal mobility as well as career development opportunities special to larger companies are prompted to be thought about.)

   
   

3. How are we actively measuring, and improving employee engagement across multiple departments, locations and levels of the organisation? (This actively draws attention to the complications involved in managing engagement within a large, diverse workforce.)

   
   

4. How are we are identifying the many emerging skills and competencies that will be important for our organisation's success in the next 5-10 years? Are we are actively cultivating them internally? (Encouraging strategic thinking when it comes to talent management)

   
   

5. How might we actively use our wide-ranging employee networks and alumni connections to improve our talent pipeline? (The potential of large-scale employee referral and alumni engagement programmes is explored.)

   
   

6. What aspects of our organisational culture resonate most with our top performers? Can we increase these aspects as well as attract similar talent? (Encouraging leaders to consider employer branding on a broader scale, not sure how much this is explored...but I do think a fast win opportunity)

   
   

7. What steps can we take to actively create more opportunities for cross-functional, cross-regional, as well as cross-industry collaboration in order to effectively develop our talent? (This question encourages leaders to think about how you can leverage your scale, and diversity for talent development.)

As a result of gathering some of this insight, or not, which will be insightful in itself! You might find you or your team looking to:

• Create a strong global employer value proposition that truly resonates across multiple markets as well as demographics and to the type of talent you are trying to find or retain

  
  

• Develop a thorough, long-term onboarding programme (beyond the first 6 weeks!) that helps new hires change to the organisation's scale, culture, as well as global operations.

  
  

• Create cross-divisional mentorship along with rotation programmes to broaden employees' perspectives as well as skill sets. This could also be something external with complimentary organisations or charities.

  
  

• Conduct regular pulse surveys along with analytics to track engagement trends throughout the organisation as well as guide targeted interventions.

  
  

• Actively improving the company's digital presence, possibly aligned to the type of talent you are looking to attract focusing on the 'why' you do what you do, rather than the how or the what.

Obviously the fight for talent is not an easy one, but in your corner is your growing size and probably flexibility advantage regarding resources, opportunities. So, it might also be the perfect opportunity to get some of the ‘big hitting’ leaders on your side as well (questions above which we hope help) to ensure you have that competitive edge when it comes to talent acquisition and retention.