Talent Management 101: Implementing a Talent Management Strategy

Developing an effective talent management strategy begins with implementing a talent management process. Making your strategy as effective as possible requires understanding what is working, what is not, and where improvements can be made.

The first step. Make improvements to the hiring and onboarding processes of your company.

In an increasingly competitive hiring market, your hiring process can significantly impact your ability to build a high-performing team, highly influenced by how lengthy or disorganized your company’s hiring process is. Once hired, onboarding for applicants is also critical; your organization should ensure that new team members are brought up to speed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

When analyzing your current hiring and onboarding processes to identify improvements where needed, it’s helpful to consider some of the following:

With hiring

  • How long does the hiring process take?
  • Are there areas of opportunity to accelerate hiring?
  • What is the dropout rate during the hiring process? At what stage is this occurring frequently?
  • Are newly hired applicants offering feedback on the hiring process? If so, what are they?

With onboarding

  • Do applicants have the adequate resources they need to succeed during onboarding?
  • How can onboarding be more efficient?

With communication

  • What message is your career page conveying to prospective applicants?
  • How can candidate communication be improved, if applicable?

Consider tracking and analyzing performance.

Performance metrics should be regularly tracked and the data analyzed; this ensures that the right people are in place to drive business results. In addition, this allows your organization to identify ways to improve metrics that must be on track with company goals. It also enables team members to continue and strengthen the working processes.

Performance metrics you should consider tracking include:

  • Cost per hire and time to hire
  • Quality applicants over the total number of applicants
  • ROI from recruitment channels and talent management technology
  • Time spent onboarding, turnover, and retention rates
  • Worker satisfaction and engagement
  • Individual team member performance metrics
  • Overall team and company performance based on business goals

As an organization, be open to providing and receiving feedback. 

Organizations’ feedback and communication should be open and offered as a two-way street: the input provided from different levels to foster trust and engagement from your workforce. As a result, peers and managers can exchange feedback for improved performance and output. It can also create a space for individual growth – allowing workers to understand their strengths and areas for improvement.

Not only is it imperative to give feedback, but organizations should also be open to receiving feedback from team members. Feedback from peers to their managers can highlight ineffective systems that need improvement and share systems that are working effectively. In addition, by understanding their strengths, team members can discuss projects they are better at or more aligned with.

A very effective channel to receive feedback is through engagement surveys. This data will offer anonymous and valuable feedback about what is currently motivating your team and areas of opportunity for the company to improve the employee experience.

Motivating your team should be the focus.

With feedback coming from your team, your company will have ways to improve worker motivation while avoiding burnout. Burnout is more than just about working long days. Employees who are too involved in their daily activities with a long list of tasks and are not allowed to focus on higher-level strategic work may find themselves burning out faster than those who can.

Fostering a company culture that values and reacts to feedback, your organization will help teams produce strong output.

Create a clear road to success.

Career development will undoubtedly keep top workers in place. Top performers will want a clear description and understanding of what’s necessary to be successful in their current role.

Your team member’s development plan should include career paths for specific roles and data-driven goals to grow in their current positions. Having clear guidelines on what it takes to be successful in a role will ensure that the following levels are achievable. It is also possible to offer a detailed project description and well-defined milestones. As a result, teams will have an opportunity to have something to look forward to and motivation to work towards their professional goals.

Recognition may be king for many team members.

It goes without saying that mentioning, highlighting, or thanking team members for their efforts and achievements can exponentially increase motivation and engagement. It can be as simple as thanking them for their actions or results, which can be in a team meeting, other communication channels, awards, and ensuring workers are being paid fairly for their work.

We’re here to help with all your Talent Management Needs.

Talent management is always a priority for HR leaders, but it can take time to understand it fully, evolve systems, and improve them. Having over 100 years of combined experience, we know how to attract, engage, develop, and retain top talent and make the most of your strategy. Let us help with your talent management needs. Don’t wait- contact us to see how.

 

This is 3-part series. Find out what is talent management and how to approach it

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