TALENT MANAGEMENT
Singapore - One mistake HR professionals make when they want to improve their organisation's talent management processes is purchasing software without truly defining the business requirements or talent strategy.
Harry West, director of HCM product management for SAP's ERP solution management division, says HR would often assume buying "pieces of software" such as a performance management system to automate processes would improve their talent management strategy. But it's often quite the opposite, says West, because there is no homework done to assess the fundamental demand for talent. "HR has never done the hard work of defining the organisation, deciding where the key positions are in the organisation, the key behaviours they want to see from leaders in their organisation, the skills they want to build up."
Without this information, HR wouldn't be able to help coach managers to rate and utilise talent better. That's the "danger" in talent management, says West. "There are lots of people who have their own biases and opinions on how you, as an organisation, want to rate talent."
Once the organisation's definition of talent is clear, HR can start coaching managers "very actively" on how to assess the potential of entry level hires and manage their expectations. "We need to start planning right away for their career," says West. "Because their mentality is ‘why I should stay here for five years, there are a lot of really good opportunities out there, and why do I want to be loyal to one company.'"
Bridging this gap of expectations between the company and employee requires a "more concerted effort to capture more qualitative information about their workforce, whether they are contingent staff or not", says West. Companies need to track detailed information, not just about their talent's positions and their job, but their interests and accomplishments outside work too. "It gives HR and line managers a much richer picture of the individual," says West. "It also gives the individual more incentive to contribute more information and feel a bit more attached to the organisation."
But whether over-sharing of information in the organisation would be detrimental to the individual, West believes it's a learning curve everyone has to go through. "As people become more accustomed to these types of applications, people learn the etiquette on how to share information of themselves internally."
________________________________________________________
More quality Lighthouse titles
Get your marketing department up to speed with Asia's most read marketing site
marketing-interactive.com
Want to get on the right side of the procurement department?
Direct them to Procurement Asia
