Embracing 2015: A guide to managing talent in the new era

Embracing 2015: A guide to managing talent in the new era

Last week, I wrote that the global war for talent is likely to be brutally severe — companies worldwide will do whatever they can as they fight for the best available talents in the global workforce to fill critical positions.

To add fuel to the fire, advanced technology will surely intensify this war as it will allow a greater degree and a quicker flow of information. Emerging technologies and highly developed analytics techniques can serve to deliver a very powerful reminder to HR practitioners — simply put, what fact-based data finds is not always a match to what business often does.

Many fact- and data-based research studies reveal unprecedented insights about how to optimise the performance of employees — be the talents or mere workhorses —to make the utmost impact on the overall business.

Data these days come from everywhere as people leave their social or digital footprints, either knowingly or unintentionally, in so many places. Moreover, it is obvious that employee information, such as training or learning records, leaves a history as well. Thus, it is much easier to collect performance management data, which makes behavioural scientists’ work almost effortless.

The question is, when data-based insights can be applied to workforce management and have the potential to reshape the way HR normally manages talent to achieve business results, what areas can HR start tapping into first?

Personally, I think science can influence not only employee engagement, but also change management, learning and development, and performance management — to name but a few.

For example, scientific insights reveal that most people aren’t best motivated by reward and punishment systems as we have long believed. Thus, HR should instead motivate them primarily through intrinsic motivation — giving them discretion, prerogative and freedom in the way they do their jobs.

Moreover, research also shows that the human brain is deeply wired to resist negative feedback; hence, HR should provide a lot of positive feedback where possible. Or even better, given how the neutral nature of “feedback” has been slandered so badly, I’d say we might have to stop using that word and change to something like “expectations”, which is a positive, optimistic and forward-looking word instead.

Nevertheless, while using science alone to manage talent will produce results, there is more to be done. My counter-argument here is that managing to get only results will not be enough in the global war for talent; instead, you also need to emphasise behaviours.

In practice, a results-only or results-oriented approach allows people to do whatever is necessary to achieve the desired outcomes, which could include illegal or unsafe actions that could pose threats to an organisation in the long run. This is because when a result is their only goal, employees sometimes make choices to avoid failure to meet targets at all costs, even if they involve wrongdoing.

The performance management guru Aubrey Daniels once said that “managing to results alone is like managing by looking at last month’s newspaper, in which the old newspaper doesn’t tell you what is happening, only what has happened”. Consequently, when leaders or HR practitioners have no clues about what their employees are currently doing, you cannot possibly prevent the many problems that often show up later.

Instead, leaders and mangers need to realise and understand the underlying behaviours involved in achieving results — be they good or bad — so they can effectively use positive reinforcement in improving such behaviours that could lead to good performance.

Managing to results can be perceived as a shortcut to success, but you need to keep in mind that such methods can never and will never produce a viable organisation.

In sum, the advances in science and analytics can guide HR, leaders and managers in the right direction in producing greater business outcomes. However, business achievements alone do not guarantee a better performance by your people or your talents. Thus, when you apply science to human capital issues, make sure you don’t lose that “human touch” by ignoring the underlying behaviours.

For the last few months, I have been talking about the key priorities for the HR profession through 2015, covering a wide range of topics from talent management to learning and development and more. I hope that this will be helpful for all managers and HR professionals out there to better prepare for 2015 and beyond. Happy New Year!

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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

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