“It’s the age of Talentism”, the new talentism approach will fuel the new economic growth across the globe, jobs will be got to people and people will be got to jobs to drive economic growth and globalization. Globalization in this context is both globalization of revenues and globalization of talent.
Revenue is the main piece of driving economic growth for most companies and if you look at annual publishing’s of most companies they are saying that the companies are looking to be successful by expanding their business into go to markets or emerging markets or target markets outside their homeland, hence identifying talent for these roles which are both local and non-local is key and it’s for us to go figure out how to find talent that is suitable.
That makes talent mobility the centerpiece of delivery of our business objective and that is a big strategic shift.
1- Talent Mobility Vs Career Mobility
So it’s talent mobility for company and Career mobility for employees! For organizations talent mobility is about how to enhance their organizations for growth, productivity, success and enable them to think effectively about the movement of key talent across roles, locations, functions and projects which in line with business goals that drive revenue growth. For employees, it’s about their movement for career development in line with their aspirations.
2- Boundaries are Fast Diminishing!
One thing that emerging clearly is that the boundaries of various functions, roles are fast diminishing, the expectation today is to go out of the box, collaborate, learn, build expertise that is end to end and be ready to take up large roles and this has accelerated talent to be more mobile. Historically organizations have focused on hiring talent externally to find people for new roles but with the talent shortage, this is just not enough. So as talent markets get leaner and as the world becomes more connected, organizations have to work on identifying talent internally within their workforce and move talent across. They have to build the required infrastructure and programs around it to make it a success. This will not only enable talent mobility but also create a culture of motivation, engagement, and performance.
3- Value Alignment
There are different types of assignments, in the past, it was only expat roles and this was one size that was fitting all. Mobility today is greatly expanded, it’s not only handling short, long term rotations, permanent transfers, international, domestic hires, remote working, so on. Now assignments would mean many roles, it could be technical need, knowledge transfer, career development role, succession planning role, transition role, and many such diversified roles. It is important that the value of each of these is aligned, measured and the programs are diversified based on need, simply because they are very expensive and this alignment will help.
4- People Strategist
Organizations should start thinking about having a people strategist role. This would roll into a talent management role and would tie up to finding the right person to the right job, foster talent, create value to the business, create frameworks that allow for coaching and look at long term benefits. This people strategist will understand the priority, develop employees to boost their potential and build a solid company. Invest more and more in talent management!
5- Plug and Play!
Future organizations will be defined on how highly digital, agile, adaptable and learning they are. There will be greater focus on experience with a goal to attract and retain the right talent, which will drive stronger customer experience.Redesigning of the HR programs, to leverage digital and mobile tools and be the leader in driving the organizations would be key. Most talent will not be mobile tomorrow; they will want to work with no relocation. This is manifesting into reality and we have to leap into the next orbit of growth, hence allowing them to plug and play from their locations and enable them to playing the larger roles for organizations!
6- Zoom in and Zoom out!
When you zoom in, it is about working with the business to understand the need and helping the business to determine if the talent movement is the best fit solution. When you zoom out, the approach of talent mobility should begin early at the planning stage itself and have that strategic plan attached to it and collaborate with all the other stakeholders and functions both local and global to prepare a blueprint of approach. Overall Talent Mobility is not about moving people from point A to B, it is more complex, it is about seeing the talent gaps, mapping on how talent mobility can solve for it and thus creating business value through measurable outcomes. The perfect picture is captured when you bring the right balance of zoom in and zoom out, with no blur.
7- Mandated Talent Mobilism?
Should there be mandated talent mobility in the company? Today we have mobility as a critical component that exists, but should the companies not create a strong leadership pipeline , by allowing the right set of employees perform in multiple roles, use insights to identify the leaders and build their skills as future talent. The career pathing frameworks should have an integrated component of mobility and that should allow for employees to shape themselves up.
As a summary, let’s look at the golden circle. Simon Sinek mentions through his theory, that every organization should look at the why of the program, it determines the purpose and the cause. People don’t buy what you do, people buy why you do it, the same applies to our theory of talent mobility, employees will not have the buy-in on what we are doing, and they would have a bigger buy-in when they see why we are doing it. Talent mobility should be a cause for the organization rather than being just a process. The cause to unleash the true potential of our talent and clearly, our top talent lies within!