EkaLore has been releasing notes on talent management in challenging times. This release focuses on picking and choosing amongst talent to fit the needs of an enterprise.
Global enterprises matured with the competency to select and apply talent. Sustaining market share and profitability requires continually growing this competency. Enterprises with reputations for ‘abusing’, ‘overworking’, or ‘exploiting’ talent (at different levels) see even more pressure throughout the talent process in challenging times.
High growth creates a premium to find talent (identify), select (picking and onboarding), and apply (choosing and allocating). Low growth creates a premium to retain talent (across many skills) and apply talent with the best problem-solving skills, even as cutbacks or competitive pressures grow.
Global enterprises are forced to make contradictory talent choices. Cost cutting and changes in revenue markets indicate a reduction in the in-house pool of talent. New products and services demand new talent capabilities and problem sizes demand capacity (quantity).
Selecting and retaining talent in an enterprise is also conflicted in many societies and jurisdictions. Labor mobility (between enterprises and geographies) is limited in many countries and markets. Legacy patterns of continued learning and talent investment also reflect the rate of technological change. Entry into talent markets reflects legacy patterns where demographics created patterns of delaying and deferring talent entry with extended academic education/apprenticeships, entry-level jobs forcing career changes, and training under national service. Conflicts continue at retirement and departures from the workforce (including ‘mommy tracks’ in many societies) with talent retention (and keeping domain knowledge) becoming an increasing problem. The global competition for talent will change entry, development, continued investment, and retention of talent pools.
Cost cutting pressures are affecting some enterprises for the first time in a significant way. Messages from enterprise leaders (as EkaLore has released https://bit.ly/3VbSKSj are shocking to talent used to high wages, social working patterns, and high mobility. Cost cutting leading to reduced wages and career changes are shocks to upward social mobility and demographic spending. Just as the factory/production workers were affected by job displacement/import displacement the automation and displacement of white collar (process/knowledge) workers will be extremely disruptive. Housing patterns in Asia and developing countries has been driven by increased wages in ‘office’ (knowledge) workers. Slowdowns in demographic and social upward mobility have global consequences impacting raw materials (concrete, metals), infrastructure (transportation, energy, communication), goods (households, apparel, electronics), and services (health care, social services for elderly, education). Each large-scale shift in talent pools affects global economies and interconnected societies.
A key competency is the assessment and evaluation of talent. The need for this competency is at all levels of an enterprise. Unfortunately, this competency is hard to find at many levels of most enterprises. A good supervisory/manager development training sequence is going to help many things and disproportionately benefit an enterprise as managers grow from supervisor to senior manager. Each part of the process (collecting assessment data thru career path evaluation) requires overhead people time, solid HR process, compliance, and willingness to deal with individuals and their contexts. If there is no appreciation of this process and competency in the enterprise, bad results will still find us.
New global challenges are creating demands for uncommon talent pools. Government and multinational subsidies for green energy, semiconductors, and finances are creating new patterns of demand. Just as every jurisdiction wanted a ‘Silicon Valley’ competition has transformed investment and sustained work in ‘Solar Valleys'. Failed investments in ‘green energy’ and fuels (German solar, USA wind, Canadian tar sands, south Asian petroleum) have only been intensified by urgent climate change and rising fuel costs (coal imports/exports, LNG transport, energy transport). Subsidies for large construction projects and infrastructure are controversial in Asia (China high-speed rail, Belt-and-Road Initiative/development), EU (offset/development funds), USA (Build Back), and EMEA (Saudi/UAE/Qatar/Turkey projects). Interests of governments in applying pools of talent (EU initiatives in tech/semiconductors, USA funding for research and development in health care, UK funding for academic research) are often coupled with perceived talent pool needs in the middle-term of years. The demand for uncommon talent pools has led to demands for new education/training (deployment of new solar or battery technologies), new jobs (gig work in transportation), and new talent development (health care, production/logistics). Enterprises adapting to new markets are trying to find good ways to adapt talent as needs are uncommon.
Enterprises are faced with conflicting demands for talent, conflicted social pressures, and conflicted demands for future talent. Global migration of talent is a continuing factor as are enterprise pressures to select strategies and talent pools based on local conditions.
Our next post in the series will talk about cutting to profits, which might be an oxymoron from an enterprise talent perspective. You’ll be able to find it and other posts at www.ekalore.com/blog-1
We’d love to hear your comments or thoughts. Please leave them below.
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