The only constant in this World is Change.
In today’s world of work this is truer than ever before, and it presents a significant challenge for organisations when managing their most important resource: their people.
To survive and thrive in this volatile climate it is more important than ever to get the right people with the right skills into the right roles. Talent Management professionals have a key role to play to ensure both the current and future success of the organisation. And yet when talent managers’ survey the landscape of thought pieces, models and tools around helping talent thrive, it is more confused than ever.
There are those shouting about the future of work, the need for digital skills and an agile workforce. It’s out with the old and in with the new. Embrace the future because it’s here now. Get on board or get left behind.
Meanwhile, the discussion around evidence-based practice continues to be of critical importance. There are plenty of theories about what the future will look like, but it remains unknowable and uncertain. The skills being promoted as critical for tomorrow’s workforce aren’t necessarily new, and research is steadily investigating whether their increased attention is warranted and supported by data.
And other voices in the mix are reminding us about the people in the middle, the applicants and employees, whose lives are affected by decisions made about their potential to perform. Whatever approach to understanding talent is ultimately adopted, it must be managed fairly, person-centred, and ultimately rewarding – whatever the outcome – to the individuals involved.
It is no wonder then that many organisations struggle with their people strategy. Trying to get a workforce in place which is effective right now and future-ready is hard enough without the confusion of how it should best be done. For the last ten years IHR have assisted with finding those key observations and correlate them with available solutions through long term partnerships with focused organisations.
IHR have had a range of competency-based conferences since April, and since our last Insights content last month, we have learnt the following, which are very popular with Talent Acquisition professionals, we share just some of those:
- Neuroinclusive onboarding – A new perspective on neurodiversity which got the audience thinking from a very different perspective and the impact it can have. This event was presented by Theo at our Meet & Engage event which highlighted some fantastic points which our attendees scored highly on the speaker feedback.
- At our recent D&I conference – What remains a huge topic. Age, presented by Stuart at Restless really highlighted how age is still a big stigma, TJ’s research on Black and South Asian women gave some shocking stats and Kier Construction’s case study on Prisoner programmes was a progressive initiative. Are we doing enough to include the right demographics?
- At the Employer Branding Conference – Authenticity was the theme for the day! And employee advocacy a key component of conversations and how organisations can promote themselves
- Competencies – A common theme throughout our recent sessions, we find the building blocks of talent measurement that can be used across the employee lifecycle in different contexts: recruitment, selection, performance management, development, career progression, and talent analytics. This Summer we have had a range of speakers and organisations shine light on understanding this further.
Competencies refer to groups of specific and related behaviours which are observable and important for people to perform successfully in their role. Work outputs and results tell you what people need to deliver in a role to be successful; competencies describe how they can do this.
They are influenced by underlying characteristics of an individual such as their personality, ability, motivation, values, knowledge, and skills. While these can be considered individually, they come together in the behaviour we observe and classify in competencies. As a community are we doing more to monitor and enhance these Competencies? At IHR we have gained plenty of feedback on key areas from all our events, that would be useful for organisations looking to provide focused solutions in the near future.
At IHR we want to make sure we put the right content to the right audience, which is why we constantly conduct research with our members, to keep on top of their main topics of focus and interests.
This year we continue to see a switch away from Diversity and Inclusion, with more and more teams embracing far reaching solutions to change the culture within their company, and we see a higher demand for Candidate Experience, with D&I now second, followed by Employer Branding, and then Data and Insights.
We are looking for solutions for our Talent Management membership and that if you think you have content that will be interest to our community, do get in touch.
