It’s already the last week of October and 2015 is just two months away. It’s not too early to start reflecting on the past year and to make some New Year’s resolutions. If you’re a human resources professional, now is a good time to gain a better understanding of the human capital challenges that confront many organisations today in order to set priorities for the next year.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) recently released its key trends for the HR profession through 2015, and talent management topped the list, chosen by half of the respondents, followed leadership development and managing diversity. In this article, I will focus mainly on talent management.
The main question is whether you are ready for it. Talent management has always been at the forefront of human capital issues, but it is not an area of strength for many organisations. In fact, failures in talent management are an ongoing source of pain for many companies, which tend to wobble from surpluses of talent to shortfalls. When the SHRM asked respondents how good their organisation was at talent management, the majority of responses were neutral whereas 30% were unfavourable and only 6% were favourable.
The current climate of global expansion and the anticipated market changes as a result of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) will have a huge impact on Thailand’s labour market and economy. Employers in regional countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong have already taken steps to increase remuneration packages for their staff in an attempt to attract new talent, while retaining their existing base of skilled workers.
Meanwhile, Thailand will suddenly face an influx of skilled workers — putting pressure on the government and business to deal with new competition, while Thailand’s skilled workforce might be attracted to other regional markets by better career opportunities, working conditions and remuneration. Consequently, this could leave Thai employers with a serious shortage of skilled labour in certain specialised areas.
Managing talent, as defined by APMGroup, involves discovering the best direction, acquiring the right people, developing and retaining them to make sure they perform in those critical positions to ensure the organisation’s success in both the short and long term.
In preparation for the AEC, some Thai companies have already adopted a new people-management approach by taking into account the opportunity arising from a more diverse workforce as well as other environmental factors and trends. For example, balancing a healthy working environment with a quality lifestyle could lead to a greater commitment, more productivity and a loyalty toward the company. In other words, salary is still the main priority when considering a job but a happy workplace matters as well, especially for younger people from the new generation.
Another vital aspect of managing talent is that you cannot simply pay attention to your stars or top performers (typically 10-15%) while ignoring the workhorses or mid-level performers that make up the majority within organisations. You need the latter to get the bulk of the work done, and insufficient support and development could lead them to resign.
The reality is, it is impossible for the top performers alone to drive the business without the work of the majority in the organisation; thus, constantly complimenting talents and overlooking workhorses will only drive the two groups apart instead of encouraging them to collaborate.
To understand this better, let’s take a look at the animated film Cars released back in 2006. The movie offers more than just entertainment value as it is a great example of talent management. The film begins with the last race of the Piston Cup championship, which ends in a three-way tie between retiring veteran Strip “The King” Weathers, infamous runner-up Chick Hicks, and talented rookie Lightning McQueen.
Lightning McQueen, as the main character, declares at the beginning of the film that he’s a one-man show. He doesn’t need a crew of helpers. He doesn’t need advice. He is determined to make it to the top without help from anyone so that he can leave the unglamorous sponsorship of Rust-Eze, a rust treatment for old cars, and allow him to take The King’s place as the sponsored car of the lucrative Dinoco team. For the rising star, that idea is great in theory but it doesn’t work in real life. Later in the movie, he learns a hard lesson and finds out that individual talent alone cannot lead him to success or happiness.
In conclusion, the “war for talent” requires HR professionals to be aware of an increasingly diverse, competitive and shrinking labour market in order to make the best use of the distributed workforce and find creative ways to recruit, retain and develop talent. At the same time, opportunities must be given to workhorses and average performers to be part of any critical projects so they can learn from the best, i.e. the top performers, experience the moment of success and feel inspired to develop themselves to become top talents one day.
Talent management will remain the key priority for the coming year. In order to prepare for the potential opportunities and obstacles ahead, organisations should formulate their HR strategic plans by adopting a holistic approach to optimise human capital. This involves building a culture, engagement, capabilities and capacity through an integrated talent acquisition, development and deployment process that is aligned with their own business goals. This is simply because talent is considered a strategic asset that can make the company become unbeatable, but it can only be used to maximum effect when you are prepared for it.
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Arinya Talerngsri is Group Managing Director at APMGroup, Thailand’s leading Organisational and People Development Consultancy. For more information, write an e-mail to arinya_t@apm.co.th or visit www.apm.co.th