Hi there,
A ‘Talent-To-Go’ company is characterised as being good at attracting and recruiting talents via a great company name and high-quality employer branding. Then, after maybe a good onboarding experience and the excitement of being part of a winning company with professional colleagues, it all rubs off and the talent, like a great cup of coffee, is ready to go.
She or he moves on to another organisation after having experienced broken promises, poor talent management and weak leadership from an immediate manager. Every time this happens, the cost is enormous in terms of new hire costs, wasted onboarding investment, loss of potential growth and the indirect cost of losing a potential future superstar.
Therefore, this article introduces you to a seven steps which can help your organisation get out of that demoralising and draining ‘Talent-To-Go’ culture.
7 steps towards a ‘No More Talent-To-Go’ culture
1. Ensure top management ownership. Get your top managers to role model leader-led talent management incl. decisions on how to define, scope and select talents: pools, criteria, numbers, nomination processes, selection accountability etc.
2. Use externally-validated assessment tools. Choose the right talent assessment package and tools to suit your data-informed decision needs. Ensure the correct timing in relation to selection and development timelines.
3. Embed a regular feedback culture. Link expectations and feedback tightly together to motivate and engage talents on their journey. Train their immediate managers to regularly and actively link the feedback to performance management, leadership & cultural infusion.
4. Customize on-the-job development. Focus on developing your talents on-the-job through stretch assignments, short-term role placements, training others etc. Mix this with training modules, learning in networks and development project sprints. You can do this in pool-customized talent progress programs.
5. Learn through others. Set up external coaching or internal mentoring support being very careful when matching people.
6. Make the managers’ manager accountable. You can best support and manage the progression of talents in certain segments by ensuring the full attention and accountability at the manager’s manager level (otherwise called MOR or manager-once-removed).
7. Track and review. Arrange live tracking and dashboards so that management can follow progression and act on relevant data insights.
What next?
If you are looking to improve your talents’ experience and to successfully avoid the damaging ‘Talent-To-Go’ culture in your organisation, your next step is more than likely to set up some preliminary Talent Progress Advisory Workshops. Here you can achieve greater clarification on how to continue your talent work from where you are today – including valuable input from internal sources and external professionals.