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A new age of talent management September 21, 2009

Posted by Stacey Thornberry in Author: Stacey Thornberry, Corporate responsibility, Loyalty, Office life Tags: engagement, recession, talent.

One of my many talented co-workers sent me an interesting article last week, entitled “The Talent Innovation Imperative” from strategy + business magazine. As is often the case, I put links like these aside until I have time to read them. And today, I found the time. And I found the article blog-worthy.

The essence of the article is that companies can’t stick to old models of employee management. Demographics, cultures, lifestyles, etc. are all changing, and the workplace needs to change with it or businesses will be unable to retain their best employees.

We’ve all heard someone say, “Well, at least you have a job.” Sure, this can be true during this troubling economic time, but as a friend said, “It doesn’t matter. Good employees will leave regardless if they’re unhappy.” And this article concurs, stating:

“Employees are so grateful to have their jobs, the thinking goes, that they can be relied on to deliver 100 percent. But the crisis has added urgency to the talent problem; the commitment of employees is most needed in a crunch, and that commitment is all too easy to lose…after a round of layoffs, voluntary attrition spikes by as much as 31 percent, and precisely the wrong people – those who have the strongest track records and brightest employment prospects even in a recession – are most likely to leave.”

The economic crisis not only brings difficult situations financially, but also in the leadership realm. This article brought to mind Mark Schumann’s presentation at the 2008 Research & Measurement Conference in Toronto last year. He discussed the 2007–2008 Towers Perrin Workforce Study. Some key findings that disconcerted me:

• Only 31 percent of employees thought “senior management is sincerely interested in employee well-being.”
• Again, only 31 percent of employees agreed with the statement, “senior management communicates openly and honestly.”
• A small 37 percent of employees indicated that “senior management treats us as respected, valued contributors.”
• A measly 15 percent agreed with the statement, “senior management treats us as if we matter.”

From these findings, Mark concluded that “we have a new ‘consumer of leaders’ who demands more, expects more, accepts less” – yes, even during challenging economic times.

The strategy + business article tackles many facets of the issues employers are facing – more ethnicities in the workplace, expanding achievement gap between women and men – but one that caught my interest for this blog was that of the three generations currently in the workforce.

The article tells us what we already know – Gen Y encompasses those born in 1979–1994 (at least this is their definition) and outnumbers the baby boomers (making up 60–75 percent of the workforce by 2025) – but it also emphasizes Gen Y’s desire to work somewhere that is socially responsible and encourages service-oriented breaks from work (say, to visit New Orleans to help Habitat for Humanity or travel around the world to speak on behalf of IABC as chair of the organization).

The most interesting part to me was the discussion about what all three generations are looking for in a workplace, including greater flexibility, ability to achieve desired work/life balance and belong to teams that generate “meaningful and valued results – within their companies and, if possible, in the world at large.”

While outlining the challenges facing employers, the article does give a succinct summary of what employees are now expecting:

“A more appropriate, 21st-century talent model assumes a workforce that is global, diverse, and gender-balanced, with discontinuous career progressions, in which high-potential employees may take time off or work for different types of organizations along the way. Under this model, companies value functional and leadership skills, embrace new employment structures (such as highly responsible part-time work), encourage virtual workplaces (in which people work together across long distances, communicating electronically), and offer nonmonetary rewards alongside financial rewards as a way to attract people. Family, community, and work are intertwined in a variety of ways, and the result is a more flexible, dynamic, and unpredictable workplace in which people feel they are continually building their skills and learning from the enterprise.”

Maybe your company can’t offer all of the above, but perhaps you can focus on keeping your employees engaged. “Engaged employees are far more productive and committed…But only one in four employees, on average, is ‘engaged.’”

How do you engage your employees? Focus on these four fundamental factors:

1. “whether employees feel respected, valued and recognized;
2. whether they perceive their job to be important to the success of the enterprise;
3. how much pride they feel about the company and what it stands for; and
4. how much trust and confidence they have in company leadership.”

The key to updated talent management? “Integrating the needs of the business with those of individuals.” Keep your employees happy, and they’ll keep the company running smoothly. You just have to make sure you do your part.

How has/is your company keeping you engaged during the recession?

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