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Thankfully more and more organisations are recognising the value of ongoing talent management and have pushed aside the notion that a yearly review was going to suffice. Finding a meeting planner in your inbox with the title ‘Annual Performance’ was quite frankly the most fearful of times.
Large corporations may have departments committed to delivering talent management but smaller businesses need to invest in this strategy too. These large companies can absorb the loss of productivity should a member of staff leave for pastures new, lose interest in their role or take the occasional absence – but this is not the reality for smaller companies.
Talent management should be a key priority for all organisations to build loyal, high performance teams. Businesses which manage and nurture their talent strategically retain, develop, reward and encourage all individuals through effective feedback – engaging overperformers and setting clear improvement plans for underperformers. Linking the strategy directly to your business goals and targets provides everyone with a clear insight into how they are performing against their own objectives and that of the company.
What is Talent Management?
Before we can answer this question, let’s look at Performance Management. This is the discipline used to assess how well individuals are performing against their set objectives, which in turn drives revenue and supports the organisation’s goals. Talent Management offers this plus some broader perspectives including recruitment, learning and development, workforce planning and succession management. Talent Management prepares employees to be part of the company’s growth.
It is crucial to understand the strengths of your workforce. Understanding the knowledge and desires of an individual will help you place them in projects where their skill-set is best suited. Through regular discussions you will be able to identify and implement development plans to enable them to take on more responsibilities, and perhaps consider a more senior role.
The strategy should be shared with all levels of management to ensure the objectives of the organisation are communicated consistently with all employers. Cascading a clear message provides all individuals with transparent objectives and an understanding of what their expected contribution is towards the business goals.
The discussions between employer and manager should take place throughout the year and centre around performance, skills, potential, improvement plans, development and behaviour.
It’s Review Time – Are You Ready?
We all love surprises, right? Maybe at Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries; but now is not the time to spring the unknown onto an individual. If your organisation holds annual performance reviews it’s a good idea to give plenty of advance warning to let the employee know when this one to one discussion will be, allowing them time to reflect on their performance and bring evidence to the meeting.
During the review, issues will be raised regarding achievements, areas of development, the reviewal of objectives and setting measures of success.
To gain an accurate picture of an individual’s performance it may be beneficial to consider carrying out 360 degree feedback. This method gathers feedback from a number of sources as opposed to just on a manager’s assessment. Using a 360 degree questionnaire to gather extra feedback provides both the employer and the manager with precise information about skills and performance, as well as working relationships with others.
Now, Let’s Look At The Results
Investing time in your workforce is essential to bring the best out of them – to know where their strengths and weaknesses lie, which project is best suited to them and enable you to recognise when training is needed, maximising the potential of all individuals.
Driven employers who are equipped to fulfill their roles, and can see a career path ahead of them, are a business’s most valuable resource. Through effective management, your workforce will enhance the future success of your organisation.
Continual performance management motivates your workforce to perform well throughout the year with commitment to achieving their objectives to help support the values and mission of the company. Individuals will want to achieve targets and performance goals when they have a deep sense of purpose.
With positive feedback, the relationship between individuals and their manager will strengthen, gaining trust. This is a sure way of building a solid basis for a healthy and happy business. Under these conditions, your talented workforce will keep growing and are more likely to stick around. We believe that a strong, talented workforce is the backbone of all successful businesses.
How we can help you
If you’d like to discuss any of the issues detailed in this blog, get in touch with us today. We’re here to help.
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