As we get ready for 2018, one of the critical focus areas for all organizations will be Talent. Given the dynamics driven by change in visa policies, emergence of a multi-generational workforce, impact of technology on people and many other changes which are impacting organizations globally, it’s imperative to prioritize the talent agenda for your organization. I am sharing below a few key considerations for your 2018 Talent Strategy.
Virtual Workforce – The virtual workforce is gaining traction more and more as organizations are trying to juggle cost, talent availability, infrastructure challenges, leverage technology and employee ease. The focus is on having the right people with the right skills working from anywhere coming together virtually to accomplish the organization mission. The HR Team along with the Leaders should work on creating an environment to facilitate this by building the supportive culture, policies and behaviors.
Gig Economy – Its time organizations began to capitalize on the Gig economy given the increasing number of platforms and organizations which are nurturing the gig economy. This is also supported by the changing need of the workforce to offer their services while retaining their independence. The focus should be on sourcing and leveraging the right skills for the right duration and reducing the time taken to source, select and onboard. Once the task is accomplished the resources get disbanded. So organizations can evaluate as to where the benefits of the gig economy can be harvested.
Technology – Artificial Intelligence is impacting organizations for both good and bad reasons. The impact of AI on jobs is creating a lot of fear in the minds of the workforce. So some of the key focus areas with regard to technology are how to prepare the workforce upfront for the impact of AI and this will mean helping the workforce to acquire new skills or find jobs. Another focus area will be to ensure that the right technology is available to enable excellence from employees.
Engagement – Organizations have to revisit their approach to engagement of talent. One clear writing on the wall is that feedback can’t be restricted to one conversation in a year. The impact of social media, smart phones and internet is so powerful that we seem to have developed an addiction to receiving and sharing information continuously. Just imagine the impact of not having access to internet for a few hours! So the focus should be on nurturing a culture of immediate and constant feedback to enable your talent to be their best.
Experience – If someone asks your Top Talent to share their experience in your organization, what would it be? Organizations should begin to focus on the experience of employees in the organizations and these experiences will span from joining to exit and will include the everyday experience. If the experience of the employees needs to be positive then the focus should be on aligning the culture, structure, leadership, skills and any other organizational elements to ensure that there is an integrated focus on ensuring the appropriate experience for your employees.
Cultural Alignment – Another critical factor is how embedded in the talent strategy in the organizational culture. Sometime we find a best practice and we implement that in our organization without ensuring proper alignments. So the talent strategy should be customized to your organization’s needs.
These are some of the key lens we could use while crafting the talent strategies for 2018. There could be others based on your organizational and people context. The backbone should be the ability to diagnose, design and deploy the appropriate talent intervention to suit the fast changing talent landscapes of the organization. Please do share your thoughts on any other considerations for crafting an effective talent strategy for 2018.
Ragland Thomas G
