Deloitte today publishes the results of a broad search for talent management among both employees and HR professionals. This should show to what extent our HRM organisations are already dealing with this issue today. And what do the “customers” think of HRM? Do the efforts match the complaints from management or from the employees?
The expectation of the Human Capital-practice of Deloitte is that talent management will be more and more crucial over the next few years. Some forecasts speak of an increasing shortage of staff from 2008 onwards and this will become really noticeable from 2010 onwards. Good enough reasons for Deloitte to take a look at what priorities Belgian companies are following to deploy their people efficiently by giving them the right challenges, and to see if they do in fact correctly approach these initiatives.
Over 5,000 people took part in the survey organised by Deloitte along with Vacature, Références and HRMagazine. One of the striking results of the survey was the discrepancy in perception between, on the one hand, the employees who urgently need a proactive personnel policy and on the other hand the (HR-) management that sees no reason for panic.
The results in brief
Deloitte’s research model describes talent management in a broad outline as a chain with five links: attract (attracting talent), deploy (stimulating internal job mobility and deploying the right man in the right place), develop (developing talent), connect (creating internal networks and solidarity) and retain (retaining and keeping talent). The survey showed the following for each point:
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Attract: everyone is generally satisfied with the recruitment policy. The employees are already pointing out that induction programmes leave a lot to be desired.
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Deploy: both HR and the management believe they are quite busy. The employees see things differently, and criticise the lack of performance- & career management and internal mobility. HR on the other hand states that too much energy is focussed on that labour-intensive and time-consuming policy aspect.
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Develop: this link formed the most difficult area in the research. Both the employees and the HR-managers cite various aspects that require investment, such as talent identification and -development, development of leadership and critical skills. The employees however rate the problem a lot more urgent than HR-management. What stands out most is the attitude of the management that sees very little reason for action here.
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Connect: according to HR-management there is too much focus on the sense of belonging, whereas according to the employees there is too little. In terms of knowledge management and also the evaluation and remuneration of teams, the employees expect greater efforts. One point worthy of note is that all respondents share the opinion that there is sufficient investment in diversity management.
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Retain: according to the employees, (HR-) management does not come up to scratch when it comes to the balance between work and life, incentive pay, listening to employees, long-term incentives (like contributions to a pension fund) and retirement. There is consensus on the lack of attention paid to retirement.
So in the area of talent development HR concedes that more efforts are needed. The managers on the other hand display satisfaction across the board with the talent management in their organisation. “Management in particular sees administration through short-term glasses”, says Hubert De Neve, Partner within the Human Capital-practice at Deloitte. “While the increasing shortage in the labour market, will increase from 2008 onwards when the baby boom generation disappears, the hunt for talent will increase greatly.”
The increasing hunt for talent
According to the Deloitte study, people do not apparently realise yet that it is going to get harder and harder to replace good staff. “The number of CVs coming into companies is still considerable, but it does not alter the fact that companies are searching in vain for those people who will make the difference between moderate and substantial growth, or between profit and loss” says Hubert De Neve. To make this difference, “crucial” talent is required. This means employees that have a more than average input into the creation of value for customers and shareholders.
When employees start to become scarce, organisations tend to start “hunting” for external candidates to fill their crucial positions and they do everything possible to make sure the already available talent stays. According to Hubert De Neve the first (attract) and the last link (retain) link of talent management are given the most attention, which is not only the dearest but also – and even more importantly – an inadequate solution. Fairly often people lose sight of the links in between, and it is precisely here that the difference can be made that will avoid staff turnover.
Conclusion
A major emphasis on talent management is therefore becoming more and more important when it comes to achieving a company’s aims. The Deloitte study reveals a few gaps in the HR policy. The most striking thing is the huge differences in perception between the employees on the one hand and HR and management on the other. On top of this, management and HR would rate their own performances positively in general. This means that they are not inclined in the short term to drastically change the course of their policy.
