There’s no doubt that talent management is gaining importance in all sectors of the business world.

Demographic changes, to include four generations working together, and the increasing difficulty of finding qualified people for specialized positions, have turned this HR strategy into its own important process.

Now more than ever, it’s critical to recognize, promote, and retain talent within a company. In this post, we will summarize the best practices a leader can implement in order to successfully take on today’s challenges.

What is talent management?

Talent management is an HR strategy for planning for the career of individual talent in a company.

To this end, a leader must determine which competencies and skills are especially important to the company’s success, identify those employees that possess them, and manage their development.

Why is talent management so important?

There are several reasons why talent management has emerged as one of a company’s most important indicators of success:

  • Demographic change, which translates to increasing scarcity of specialists and administrators in industrialized Western countries.
  • Boost in the knowledge society with an increase in demand for qualified and creative employees.
  • Innovative capacity, a decisive factor in competitiveness that requires innovative professionals.
  • New digital channels like the internet increase the transparency in the labor market and intensifies competition for talented employees.
  • Consequences of globalization, which has increased the supply of workers, but also provides more opportunities for emigration. In a word: fluctuation.

Changes in how companies manage talent

Clearly, both conditions and needs have changed. Years ago, talent management consisted in developing a few employees through predetermined programs.

Such processes often lasted years. A training here, a course there, and this was enough at a time when the organizational clock ticked forward at linear and understood speed.

But companies can no longer count on those certainties. Industry changes occur so quickly that skills have to be developed in the short term, for projects that are often already underway.

Keys to a successful retention strategy

The fact that career profiles change so quickly requires a great deal of flexibility on the part of business leaders, and empathy, too. Leaders must know how to interpret the needs of their most valuable professionals at all times. This is the only way they can create a valid strategy that will allow them to avoid losing talent to the competition.

Modern talent management has to be focused on the short term and be based on a foundation that adapts to situations in accordance with 5 key principles:

  • Careful identification: the process requires a careful accounting of the skills and abilities of all employees, at which point a plan can be developed to support the professional growth of each individual.
  • Personalization: today’s professionals shrink from standardized programs that pigeonhole them. In fact, they increasingly demand a part in their owns plans for development and education. A company that wants to retain its best employees must put together an offer that can be personalized to provide employees with something of value. Investing in committed and motivated employees is a way for both parties to win.
  • Open-mindedness:employee development means more than simply organizing their training. Mentorship, individual coaching, and specialized programs for managers or other target groups should form part of all development plans.
  • Ongoing evaluation: the investment made in training must be evaluated by both the company and the employee in order to determine the program’s usefulness and correct any shortcomings if necessary.
  • Development of brand ambassadors: good talent management not only seeks to strengthen internal ties and retain the best employees, but also improve recruitment. In a crowded labor market with new and attractive companies, building a brand as a good employer through the Communication and Marketing strategy plays a critical role. Bear in mind that the best communication strategy is the one that employees themselves carry out as brand ambassadors. And if you need professional assistance, at Thinking Heads we develop influencer platforms so that individuals and organizations can present and position themselves successfully.

Conclusion

Talent management has always been critical to companies, but in today’s market its strategic role can make the difference between a company with a future and one without.

Talent management can no longer be considered an “HR question” and must be firmly anchored in the corporate strategy, under the leadership of CEOs and directors of the organization.