NURTURING HIGH POTENTIAL TALENT| TALENT WAR|

In the knowledge and the digital economy, talent deficit is the biggest crisis that organizations are facing in scaling talent pool and delivering the promise. In a world where things are rapidly changing, the ability to hire and retain minds who can learn at this meteoric speed is important for business success. Discussions of talent management frequently overlook the perspectives of nurturing high-potential talent. In fact, while needs of the high potential should be prioritized, exploration of diverse workforce can support seamless delivery and client delight.

”The term “high-potential” means that an employee possesses superior or rare qualities and skills that give him a possibility of development to help the company achieve corporate objectives and be successful in the future. Therefore, the high-potential employee can develop his capacities and will be able to learn and gain experience during his career”(Lombardo& Eichinger, 2000).

Organizations today are also building academies, centre of excellence, partnering with universities to facilitate more opportunities to face the talent crunch rather than getting into a talent war. Nurturing the right talent is more than just hiring and training the best, it is a system and culture that invests in continuous honing the new-age skills and sharpening the saw. High potential employees are difficult to retain if they are not engaged in challenging projects, as they have an innate need to learn while they perform. Thus creating levels of difficulty for them to face is also something that the leaders need to strategize. Today’s gen Z’s motivation is beyond money, they need a worthy cause and purpose that fuels them to rise and recognize their inner powers.

Research and forecast say that future talent would operate independently as smaller cohorts. More than corporate designation and entrepreneurial bondage, what appeals to the new era of talent is the independence of creativity and immersive experience of life. New age futuristic organizations have made space and design to accommodate such talents.

Creating Talent Pool

Organizations are investing in various methodologies to create a Talent pool that can address their growth challenges. Efforts are being channelized to attract, develop, and retain skilled and valuable employees. Nurturing Talent and Organizational success have become two sides of the same coin. The leadership pipeline is designed to help the organization source, reward, evaluate, develop, and move employees into various roles. The pipeline bends, turns, and sometimes breaks as organizations identify who is “ready now” and who is “on track” for upcoming roles in future.

With the advent of Tech, the workspace of 2030 may look different with robots working alongside and engaging with us! Our ability to adapt to change and redesign our abilities would be the biggest skill required in times to come. Effective change leadership requires leaders to work with HR to invest in algorithms that identify skills and competencies, and modify employee profile tools to display portfolios of work rather than job titles. In this new era, constant skilling, upskilling and digital dexterity will outweigh tenure and experience.

6 Ways to Create High Potential talent:

1. Strong Competency Matrix -High potentials are more committed and engaged when they have clarity. Thus organizational charter of roles and competency alignment is a mandatory tool for aligning and nurturing talent. This also supports career pathing and potential diversity in work and creating a challenging career path. High potentials want to understand the next steps in terms of development, experience, and movement. Engaging talent is sometimes the biggest roadblock that needs to be demystified to create -retain-engage and grow them.
2. Diverse Hybrid Flexible Workspace -High potential talent also needs larger flexibility while they operate. It is common in digital business, built on vast networks and ecosystems, to work across communities of people and businesses globally. In a flat world with avatar and tech support, language -geography barriers are blurred and so has leveraging global talent. This has enabled talent to work with each other across boundaries.
3. Greater Authority -By giving greater authority in projects, high potential individuals can be empowered to take up larger responsibilities. Special assignments are described as high-profile work, participation on a task force team, as well as role rotations, can also create an environment of nurturing talent. While it may seem that organizations just reward their high-potential talent with more work, the assignments are often viewed by the recipients as opportunities, not burdens. As high potentials receive greater responsibility, they are also looking for greater authority to make decisions that have a significant impact on the organization. High potentials are often given more visibility and access to senior managers than other employees.
4. More Air Time for Feedforward – To create -retain -grow high potential talent organizations also need more communication -coaching -mentoring, feedforward sessions, and workshops. It is more like coaching an Olympian for the final performance. Thus regular interaction is important for building organizational top talent.
5. Transparency in selection – The degree of transparency and formality in your process of identifying high potentials impacts how employees see themselves and the organization. Organizations should understand the implications of their approach and weigh the tradeoffs.
6. Mutually beneficial relationship-A mutually beneficial relationship between organization and talent means addressing the benefits individuals receive as employees and explicitly stating the benefits the organization receives from its employees. High potentials receive the investment in development they want from their organization, and organizations receive not only a more committed and engaged group of leaders but also stronger performance and bottom-line results. High potentials can also be leveraged to develop and coach other upcoming talents within the organization.

How are you creating your talent pool as an organization? Whats your leadership strategy to attract best talent? Do you think you want to explore the new age hybrid of machine (robots) and man as your workforce? How do you want to redesign your workforce to stay relevant?

To reinvent your talent pool explore the following resources –

1. Man & Machine as workforce
2. Sustainable Workplace
3. 2030 Workplace Scenarios