What is Talent Management Strategy

Talent Management Strategy – Developing a Magnetic Plan

Kelly Barcelos on April 2, 2022 in Applicant Tracking System

What Is Talent Management Strategy?

Talent management refers to the methodological and strategic processes that HR use to attract, onboard, organize, engage and retain the best performing employees. It aims to improve a company’s performance and is an ultimate HR practice to position it well in the marketplace. Hence, talent management strategy refers to the plan of action required to optimize your employee’s performance. This plan includes:

  • Optimizing people’s speed for maximum productivity
  • Being able to identify lacking skills and job resources
  • Actively train people who lack skills
  • Engage and retain employees

What Is Talent Management Process?

The talent management process begins with acknowledging the need for talent, which further fills the gap, optimizes, and grows your new and old employees’ skills, traits, and expertise. Once you acknowledge what is needed, you have to form a rather cynical progression plan that contains the following steps:

  1. Plan

    The first step, planning, involves identifying where the gaps lie. In this case, it is the human capital requirement, formulating job descriptions to help in sourcing and selecting, and developing a workforce for recruitment initiatives.

  2. Attract

    This step includes applying appropriate recruitment strategies to attract a healthy flow of applicants to fill in the talent requirements. You have to utilize external sources such as job portals, referrals, and social networking sites for an advanced search. This is also where your employer branding comes to play because it will decide what quality of applicants will come in.

  3. Select

    Written tests, interviews, group discussions, and in-depth analysis of applicants are done at this stage. Nowadays, this does not have to be done manually. Various AI-driven software and tools can go through several CVs and pick out ones that fit your criteria perfectly.

  4. Develop

    Today, many organizations hire on the principle of “hiring for attitude and training for skills” because it is the person you will have to work with and not their CV. Moreover, skillsets can be developed later with training, coaching, or mentoring. Hence, if you want loyal and top-performing employees, you must establish a strong onboarding program.

  5. Retain

    Employee retention is one of the fundamentals of running a successful organization. To retain the best talent, offer promotions, increments, growth opportunities, rewards, and involvement in important projects.

  6. Transition

    Your talent management process is incomplete without transitioning your organization through the growth of every employee. Provide retirement benefits and conduct exit interviews to make each employee feel like a part of the organization.

How to Develop Talent Management Strategy?

While everything starts with hiring the right people, talent management further extends to developing strategic goals to retain them and keep them productive. It is not simply a checklist that you need to stick to – the strategy requires proper implementation, checks, and improvements.

The following serves as the primary talent management strategies required for a properly functioning organization:

  1. Detailed Job Descriptions

    Detailed job descriptions help everyone – the hiring manager, the sourcing software, and the candidate to understand the job role better. It should include the following:

    • Job title and location
    • Skills required
    • Overall duties and requirements
    • Tools and equipment knowledge
    • Salary and additional benefits

    Once job seeker knows what the role requires, they can decide based on it.

  2. Proper Onboarding Process

    This builds the first impression of the company culture for most employees. Hence, you need to take proper care of this step. Help your employees immerse themselves in your organization’s culture by designing workshops, shadowing days, or connecting them with their mentors. Overall, make it a smooth process and let them ease into the culture.

  3. Training and Development

    Based on individual employee goals, map out a structured training program to boost their development and experience. Training has the massive potential of delivering higher competence and better business results.

  4. Organizational Goals

    A talent management strategy is incomplete without stating clear company goals. These objectives help you evaluate existing staff and assess new roles, as you will develop a sense of what matters to your company and where you are headed forward.

  5. Work Culture

    If an employee is not fit in your work culture, they can neither be happy nor sustainably productive. Without a proper person-organization fit, the employee won’t feel at home, and it will only result in a loss of time, effort, and energy. You need to hire the right candidate who fits your work culture perfectly. You can also strengthen the work culture by conducting regular team-building activities.

  6. Employee Feedback

    Provide positive employee feedback to help employees evolve their skills and expertise and become more valuable for your organization. This also prepares them to be ready for any changes in the future and be able to rely on their team members.

  7. Recognition and Rewards

    Motivate, engage and manage employees effectively by recognizing and rewarding them right. This goes far beyond monetary benefits. There are several other types of employee rewards, such as including them in important projects and making them an integral part of the organization.

  8. Growth Opportunities

    Employees need to be equipped with the right tools to maximize their potential and continuously improve the organization.  Moreover, enhancing their work environment and job satisfaction through provisions like VoIP systems, collaborative software, and modern office equipment contributes to tangible support, reinforcing dedication to fostering a thriving team. You need to envision the organization’s future by giving adequate growth opportunities to your employees.

  9. Succession Planning

    Many companies fail to realize that their employees will retire or resign at any moment of their careers. Hence, you need to prepare the organization with a succession plan through mentoring and coaching them to achieve beyond their skill level.

  10. Exit Interviews

    Just like onboarding interviews, exit interviews are equally important. A part of an effective talent management process includes understanding the reasons for a voluntary turnover and finding ways to fix the problem. Conduct exit interviews and ask your employees about the barriers faced during their duration.

Conclusion

An effective talent management strategy improves your organization’s retention score since your employees know what they have to work towards. Moreover, understanding the dynamics has become easier with the onset of technology.

An ATS like Jobsoid is filled with features like candidate management, analytics, and many more, which helps you streamline and implement these talent management strategies with ultimate success.

Kelly Barcelos

Kelly Barcelos is a progressive digital marketing manager specializing in HR and is responsible for leading Jobsoid’s content and social media team. When Kelly is not building campaigns, she is busy creating content and preparing PR topics. She started with Jobsoid as a social media strategist and eventually took over the entire digital marketing team with her innovative approach and technical expertise.