Talent management: from examples to practice
In this article, we take a close-up look at talent management, a real HR trend and the center of attention for all companies. We'll look at what it is, why this talent management phenomenon is interesting for HR onboarding, and how to put it into practice using HRIS.
What is talent management?
Talent management is a branch of Human Resources that aims to attract, develop and retain the high-potential profiles that will enable a company to significantly increase its competitive edge. Talents" are employees whose know-how (skills, expertise) and interpersonal skills (aptitudes) surpass the average of all employees.
Talent management is based on an initial planning stage, aimed at defining the company's concept of talent and its KPIs.
Why is this HR specialty so coveted?
The success of major companies in the new technologies sector has brought to light the fact that employees with exceptional skills and abilities can change the destiny of their company. By attracting, developing and retaining their high-potential employees, innovative companies outpace their competitors and set barriers to market entry for new entrants.
Indeed, it's relatively easy to copy a technology even if a patent has been filed, just as it's easy to invest a little more than your competitor. On the other hand, you can't copy an exceptional team that innovates, federates and executes better than anyone else.
Examples and best practices
It usually takes more than 10 years to build a talent management system that brings in a lot of revenue. There are exceptions, such as Google, Facebook and Apple, who have succeeded in making their Human Capital the main lever of their hyper-growth in less than 10 years.
- Facebook. This company went from a student project to a global social network to an ultra-profitable mobile platform in record time. How did they do it? By working with only the most talented people. Facebook is the first company to measure the value of each employee in dollars: an engineer is worth between $500,000 and $1 million. When the value of an employee approaches its maximum, the company recruits and increases productivity.
Whereas the integration of new arrivals lasts a day in conventional companies, Facebook's onboarding lasts 6 weeks, during which the newly recruited employee has access to all Facebook's code and works on different projects. At the end of 6 weeks, they are asked which project they enjoyed the most. This is an excellent idea, as it's impossible to know which project is right for you when you're a candidate. - Apple. The Californian company founded by Steve Jobs is the world's most valuable company. It has dominated sectors in which it didn't even exist before (music, telephony, media). Apple has built a strong culture so that everyone is ready for the next revolution. For example, if you've excelled at one task, you're immediately assigned to a new one you know nothing about.
To reach higher goals, companies invest more. The opposite is true at Apple, which has adopted the Lean philosophy of doing more with less. This method stimulates teams to innovate and reduce costly trial-and-error to a minimum. Thanks to this management approach, Apple's revenue per employee stands at a surreal €2 million.
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Implementing a talent management strategy
If you're impressed by the results achieved by these successful companies, you should know that it's entirely possible to follow in their footsteps. There are two conditions to this objective: you must consider that the greatest impact will be felt several years down the road, and you must be rigorous in your approach.
Here are the four steps to implementing talent management:
1. The planning stage
The first step is to define what talent is for the company or a particular team. Although the term has become widely used, it does not apply to the same types of individuals.
Human Resources must therefore define skills and assign them weights according to whether they are useful, indispensable or disruptive. The next step is to set up criteria for measuring the skill levels of talent. This in turn enables us to draw up KPIs that can be used as measurement tools at a later date.
Finally, the planning process leads to an audit of the existing situation, which enables us to assess individual skill levels, often by department. This often leads to the detection of Gaps i.e. levels in the hierarchy suffering from a lack of skills and leadership.
💡Whether with the help of an HR consultancy or a powerful tool like Yourcegid HR, you'll need to structure this essential step in your strategy.
2. Acquisition
The second phase consists of recruiting talent. The aim is to transmit the company's culture as widely as possible, to attract and inspire talent to apply for job vacancies or submit unsolicited applications. This works if the values at the heart of the company are strong, attractive and sufficiently imbued in the company's brand image.
👉This enables talented people to grasp the advantages of working for the company, and thus to switch to the recruitment process.
The selection process then involves several stages (test, interview, profile check). For example, Criteo (leader in targeted Internet advertising) selects its talent via 1 online test, 1 telephone interview, 2 interviews with direct collaborators, then 1 interview with the manager. Facebook and Google, on the other hand, have around ten stages.
Talent acquisition culminates in hiring (negotiating the package) and the integration process, which aims to position the newcomer on the projects that are best suited to him or her, and to pass on the fundamentals.
💡 The right HR software can help you facilitate your entire recruitment process, from acquisition to hiring, integration and employer brand development.
🛠Softy, for example, is a comprehensive, intuitive and easy-to-useATS software that saves you considerable time through comprehensive and customizable talent management features : matching algorithm that analyzes your applications according to your criteria, advanced search form to filter profiles, automatic CV library feed, and much more!
3. Development
No-one comes into a company with their full know-how and self-management skills. This is the purpose of the development process, which begins with individual preparation to ensure that the individual welcomes training, coaching, performance reviews and mentoring.
👉 The second stage is then career development and training to improve performance and skills. Talent management software like Yourcegid RH enables you to tailor training programs to make the difference between classic GPEC and talent management.
💡 On a regular basis, managers and/or HR must propose performance reviews in order to adjust support actions. These reviews are accompanied by coaching and mentoring aimed at developing skills more than expertise.
4. Retention
The longer you retain talent in your company, the better the return on investment. The key is to think "long term" with talent. For example, instead of giving an incentive bonus on December 31st, it's more a question of getting employees interested in results, or making it easier for them to become shareholders in the company. Create personalized career plans, adapting work to the employee (hours, location, methods) rather than the other way round.
Finally, it is more than necessary to work on a positive work environment, which is increasingly sought after by talent:
- pleasant offices,
- modern, respectful management,
- appreciation of the work performed,
- and respect are very important factors in retaining talent.
Conclusion
Talent Management is about acquiring high-potential employees, developing them and retaining them for as long as possible, with a view to creating competitiveness and profitability.
Real-life cases such as Facebook and Apple show that talent management is not only a vector for overall performance, but also a means of adapting rapidly to changing environments.
The major results of effective talent management come after several years, and require rigor. An HR department needs talent management software, or HR software such as Yourcegid HR, to structure its planning and measure its own results.
Article translated from French