Director Of Talent

Talent management addresses two main types of risks: “My star employees abandon me” and “the empty bench”.

The first risk, “My star employees abandon me,” is where they receive or even proactively seek job offers from other organizations, and when they find an appropriate offer they leave.

There is also the phenomenon of emotional desertion of the workplace, where the employee has no plans to leave, but neither does he make an exceptional effort to use his talents to benefit the organization.

In this case the organization should manage the talent, that is, examine what motivates employees, what is important to them, and what gaps must be filled to develop the processes of talent nurturing and retention.

The second risk, “the empty bench,” refers to insufficient successors to key positions in the organization, where an employee quits or is promoted to another job, but there is no one to fill his place.

Even if it seems that there is a suitable successor for the position, it may take him a long time to become effective in the new job. A position that is not staffed may lead to loss of revenue and to a failure to achieve company objectives.

In this case, the organization should manage the skills and competencies, –map the critical positions and the skills required to fill them, and identify employees with the right qualifications.

Depending on the mapping results, the organization should then create a pool of “potential successors for all the key positions (succession planning), addressing the skills and readiness of the employees.

Although some skills are needed in every organization, such as IQ, EQ (emotional intelligence) and others, one must remember that the definition of talent is not clear-cut.

Talent is always estimated relative to the current and future needs of a particular organization, the nature of the organization, and the specific situation. It is possible, therefore, that an employee considered a talent in organization A will not be considered as such in organization B, and vice versa.

If the recruitment process is carried out according to the specific and rigid requirements of a hiring professional manager, there may be applicants with great talent who could fill the position who will not be engaged because they do not precisely meet the defined profile.

At the same time, one should keep in mind that the hiring managers sometimes may have a genuine difficulty accepting a candidate who does not meet the criteria, from their point of view.

Therefore, it is important to distinguish between the skills and capabilities necessary based on the job description and those that are no more than a matter of habit.

The understanding that diversity can help the organization achieve its business goals should percolate to the hiring managers. To this end, HR managers should provide the hiring manager with the tools and means to expand diversity.

This can be accomplished through various interview options. You can add another step of an interview with another manager to evaluate the candidate, or even expand the variety of the recruitment resources beyond those currently used for recruitment.

The connection between talent management and diversity, besides being value-related, enables the entry of new populations into the organization, which is important to the vitality of the organization and increases its chances of success.

A good example is the call center, which in the past was populated only by students.

In light of the high turnover in the field, an attempt was made, which proved to be successful, to incorporate different populations, such as women after maternity leave, senior citizens, the ultra-Orthodox, and people with disabilities and train them as call center representatives.

When introducing talent management into the organization, the communication policy is always an issue on which management must decide. Any decision will have its pros and cons.

Full communication of the subject can cause discontent among employees who are excluded from the project. However, if the communication refers to the possibility of employees joining the process in the future, it establishes for them prospects of development and promotion.

In general, the degree of transparency on this issue will probably be similar to the level of transparency on other issues, since it depends on the corporate culture.

In any case, bear in mind that creating a distinction between different groups of employees in the organization is in direct conflict with the principles of equality and social justice.

A way to reduce tension on this issue is for the organization to practice transparency and to enact a strategy for talent management that clearly specifies the employee characteristics that are recognized as talent.

When policies are clear and transparent, you are more able to address the feelings of dissatisfaction among the employees who are not included in the plan, and the issue becomes less emotional.

In any case, the company should be prepared for such a process to cause a degree of discontent, and HR managers should be ready to deal with these feelings when the project is launched.

Based on experience, when a top talent management plan is launched, you should also be ready to address other groups of employees, such as employees and managers in core and key positions whom the organization is interested in retaining.

Expanding the number of participants in the plan appeases somewhat the feelings of dissatisfaction and places emphasis on motivating employees as part of an overall strategy of the company.

There’s no need to spend too much time looking for the hiring manager’s name.

And sometimes, I get packages with resumes, raised font, and brochures after they’ve applied for a job. I can’t even look at it. I have to toss it. They did a lot of work to put that together, but because of the legality giving preference to someone doing work above and beyond what most job seekers might be able to do, I have to put it aside. For an organization of our size, it’s a waste of time. Spend your time on conveying your personal brand through a cover letter, resume, and by networking.

Go above and beyond when you’re an actual candidate. If you are brought in for an interview, and you want to bring something in like a project, presentation or other visuals to demonstrate your ability to do the job, I highly recommend that.

Ostensibly, employee representatives are supposed to oppose the process because it creates inequality and possibly a conflict of interests. In practice however, there are many organizations in which employee representatives often cooperate and participate in the implementation of talent management plans.

Before launching the plan, it is important to maintain a dialogue with employee representatives and emphasize that such a plan leads to the promotion of employees from within the organization, as opposed to recruiting new workers. This is naturally in the interest of the worker committees.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that a business is not socialism at its best but a balance between whatever can produce value to the shareholders, employees, and the community in which the organization operates.

Inclusion of an employee in the talent management process is usually based on their managers’ recommendation (department managers, senior management, etc.). The employee then undergoes a more comprehensive and objective evaluation, such as the 360 degree feedback. At times, at this phase “mistakes” are found. In this case the employee remains in the process for the current year, but does not continue the next year.

In addition, there are employees who leave the process because of changes in work patterns. The decisions as to who the talent is are made based on capabilities such as performance, strategic planning, collaboration with co-workers, and more.

If in the course of the year there is a decline in the performance of an employee included in the process, usually the organization will remove him from long-term nurturing and development, and will focus on restoring better performance in his current position.

Lumesse ETWeb is a comprehensive and integrative system based on a modular approach, which provides the organization with a partial or complete Talent Management solutions that the organization is interested in implementing.

The system includes:

HR Core – to collect and consolidate employee and job data across modules, such as learning management and performance management, providing accurate and timely information without the need for duplicate data entry, and reducing the number of errors significantly.

Performance Management – to create a correlation between employees’ individual goals and the strategic objectives of the organization. Managers and employees work together to define, test, measure, and update the objectives, with the help of intuitive web-based self-service tools.

Compensation Management – allows HR personnel, professional managers, and management to work together to develop an encouraging and competitive approach based on salary, bonuses, incentive plans, and benefits – an approach that is simple, flexible, transparent, and easy to compare with current market rates.

Skills and Competence Management – helps you identify the employees with the skills, training, knowledge, and personal qualities you need, and plan their course of development in accordance with your organizational goals.

360Degree Feedback – allows creating personal and balanced employees assessment to determine their potential, strengths, and weaknesses. Feedback is provided anonymously by a large number of relevant sources, including supervisors, peers, subordinates, partners and customers.

Career and Succession Planning – helps you handle the issue of missing skills, manage the talent pool of the company identify successors, plan their development course, and identify opportunities for internal mobility of employees.

Learning Management – allows you to create and manage an effective learning culture in the workplace based on determining and matching the individual learning needs of employees with organizational needs.

Surely it is possible and advisable to manage talent in a small organization.

A small organization faces challenges that are similar to those of a large organization, such as the need for succession planning (bench players) and responding to situations when talent leaves the organization, often because of limited opportunities for development and promotion.

When talent leaves, a small organization is exposed to greater risk than a large one, since the volume of activity supported by the talent is much higher.

The damage that could be caused to the organization by not maximizing employee potential, the wrong placement of an employee, or top talent quitting, represents a high risk factor.

The main difference between small and large organizations is in the implementation of the plan and its adjustment to the size of the organization.

A talent management plan in a small company usually includes “leaner” processes based on “best practices,” as well as restricted mapping processes, to enable a quick course of action that meets the needs of the organization.

The technological system needed to support the process should therefore be modular and adapt to processes the organization needs at the current stage, but with an option for future expansion based on the changing needs of the organization and on its growth.

☛ How do you build a talent pipeline?

☛ What sourcing techniques do you prefer?

☛ Have you used any ATS systems?

☛ What is your experience with internet recruiting?

☛ What are key elements that affect an employment brand?

☛ How important do you think networking is? What are your preferred networking methods?

☛ Walk me through the hiring process for the position of [example]

☛ What are you looking for while CV screening?

☛ How do you ensure a positive candidate experience?

☛ How do you prepare for interviews? What are the most important things to consider?

☛ What KPIs have you found useful in the past? What have you done to improve them?

☛ How do you assess current employees to discover fits to open positions?

☛ What’s important to consider when creating succession plans?

☛ How do you stay current with hiring trends?

☛ Imagine there is a disagreement between hiring managers for a candidate. How do you approach this?

☛ You are asked to fill twice as many positions in the next year than in the last. How do you maintain quality in sourcing and recruiting?

☛ What do you find motivating about this job?

☛ What does a healthy work environment mean to you?

☛ How do you source passive candidates?

☛ What would you change in your recruitment process to increase team diversity?

☛ Walk me through the process of building an employee development plan.

☛ What are the most common mistakes during the onboarding process?

☛ How do you motivate your team to increase engagement?

☛ What would you include in a compensations package to attract and retain younger talent?

☛ Are you familiar with ATSs? Mention any candidate management software you have experience working with.

☛ What are the main culture aspects you would like our company to have?

☛ How do you identify talent within internal teams?

☛ In what ways is succession planning useful? How would you ensure its effectiveness?

One person we recently hired had great self-awareness of what her strengths were and what she needed to develop. Usually when we ask someone, “What are your strengths and areas for development?” they say they take on too much work or that they are a perfectionist. This doesn’t really demonstrate self-awareness. I want to hear specifically what areas you are strong, what areas you aren’t, and how you hold yourself accountable for your personal development.

This person in particular noted that she was a harmonizer and great at helping defuse conflict. Her areas of development were strategic thinking and decision quality. She had specific examples of how she tries to improve this.

I would start by making the content for a page on the company website that reaches out by advertising our open positions. I would make sure the page gave clear details as to the requirements to apply for the position as well as a description of what would be involved in the job. I would extend the search by emailing potential sources of candidates, such as college professors who could reach out to students and alumni. I would show up at job fairs to talk to people in person and see who is interested. The interview questions would be focused on identifying which candidates are the most knowledgeable about this company’s industry, and also to identify their primary strengths and weaknesses.

A successful employee development plan must address three issues: personal development, group development, and career development.

Personal development is based on the profile of the employee’s specific capabilities. The employee’s strengths and weaknesses are identified as part of the performance assessment process, and together with the employee a plan is tailored for him to close gaps and fill in missing skills. Such a plan is usually built from a “menu” of options that include coaching, courses, organizational experiences, mentoring etc.

Group development is intended to meet the common talent needs of a group, such as developing long-term strategic thinking, bringing about change, and more. There are organizations that send such employees for training, for example, to Harvard or INSEAD. Others stretch the process over an extended period of time, during which managers from other organizations visit and describe their experiences, and so on.