Retaining the talent of quality people is a key challenge in South African organisations, now and in the future. A leading mobile telephone company has recognised this challenge and is proactively engaging in an initiative to address the issue before it creates a financial problem.
Part of the solution is knowing what talent there is and how to develop it in order to retain it. For this one needs a sophisticated tool and a reliable process. After researching the market, the organisation discovered a system that would provide such a tool and process. The tool, named Talent Manager, is an internet-enabled system developed by Skillbase Technologies that works in a similar way to the stock exchange. In this case, the shares are employees and the investors are managers who are looking for specific combinations of skills, experiences and competencies in order to achieve their business objectives. Only this time the value remains within the organisation and contributes to the growth of its biggest asset, its people.
Talent Manager creates a mechanism for developing and managing a mobile workforce. People can actively manage their careers by matching their capabilities to potential positions and be visible to prospective customers. Personal profiles of each employee are captured onto the system providing an instant snapshot of the talent bench available for managers to access. Once the profiles are captured, managers map their people into various categories and identify high potential candidates for succession planning purposes. The results of this process lead to the generation of a human capital balance sheet, an accurate real-time synopsis of the status of talent in the organisation.
The Talent Manager system also has a built-in performance management and development element to it in the form of an electronic 360 degree feedback system. The feedback that people receive from others provides invaluable insights for the construction of their individual development plans.
The mobile telephone company is a state-of-the-art service provider that is proving that it is not only serving the needs of the public but of its employees as well. This is critical as no matter how sophisticated the tools and processes are, being an employer of choice is still one of the most powerful means of retaining key people in the long term.
The project enjoys top management support from the CEO. "I am very excited by the prospect of actively managing our talent and making more effective staffing decisions. Our leadership team will be able to focus strategically on the people in the organization. Our employees will be able to compare their competencies to those of the top performers across the organization and take a more active stand in managing their careers and visibility. This is going to be a real win-win project for everyone."
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