Let’s talk talent management. And management development, talent development, and succession management. A mouth full for different, but interconnected and crucial pieces in the employer’s toolbox.
The purpose is clear: talent is scarce, and it is a critical resource to ensure the company’s positive, competitive edge. For your company to continue to thrive, you need to have the right employees in the right spots at the right time. And if that is not challenging enough, you also need to prepare today for the organization of tomorrow.
If you want to implement a complete and successful development program, you need the following:
- A Vision
- An Understanding of the Status Quo
- A Succession Plan
- A Set of Goals
- A Team that Wants to Learn
Let’s dive into each of these points.
A Vision
Your organization needs an answer to the question – why you develop your employees. Your development program has a goal – it is clear and it is tied to your organization’s overall goals and objectives.
An Understanding of the Status Quo
Next, you establish an understanding of where the organization stands, and where you plan the organization to be in the future. You do this by running an analysis of current employees, current and future needs, and talent gaps.
A Succession Plan
Creating a succession plan will:
- Enable you to identify the key roles in the organization. This will help you identify and plan for ways to make sure the organization has the right employees with the right experience, skills, capabilities, and competencies, all at the right time.
- Ensure you identify the talent for these key roles in your organization, focusing on leadership potential, specialists, and up-and-comers in your organization.
- Allow you to organize your training and development efforts so employees are ready for the next steps as soon as they arrive.
The succession plan is periodically checked to make sure you track developments and updates, and it is constantly up to date. This helps react to unexpected situations that will inevitably happen.
A Set of Goals
As you understand both why you have a development plan and who you will need to develop, you draft the goals for your development efforts – translating the development vision and the needs of the organization into achievable goals. Just like your employees’ goals and objectives, they need to be SMART, and they need to tie into the overall goals for the organization. This is when you plan for training initiatives, courses, assignments, and projects. Focus on the elements that directly address your talent and any skills gaps that you have identified in your succession management exercise.
A Team that Wants to Learn
Your team needs to be willing and able to learn, from experience, from training, and from others. The employees that have a drive to seek out and learn new and unfamiliar things, applying them in appropriate situations are more likely to be successful. And with that, the organization as a whole. It is captured in a skill called “learning agility”, which is the ability and willingness to learn new things, and un-learn things that may have worked in the past. Although this trait hinges on the employee’s level of comfort with change, thinking on their feet, and risk-taking, the behavioral components can be taught.
Wrapping up
Your talent management efforts need to be deliberate and consistent. It should become a fixed, periodic exercise, because the strength of this program truly lies in repetition, and it becoming part of your company’s DNA.
Soaring + Company supports organizations to perform better through the performance of their employees and internal processes. We can help create your company’s learning and development philosophy and culture, and help you prepare a sustainable development platform and succession plan. Reach out to us if you want to learn more about how we can help attract, develop, and retain your employees. Find this, and more, on www.soaringandcompany.com/.
