During a recent meeting of CEOs on talent planning, there was an extended conversation about how the employee shortage issues are impacting all of them.
We talked about how in the past when the economy was booming, you could easily find talent for open positions, although that talent might not be exactly what you were looking for. Now, you can’t even fill the positions, which significantly limits sales growth. For leaders it feels like it’s out of their control. But is it?
Early in my career, I was like a lot of leaders. I perceived that our employee shortage issue was out of my control. That was until I ran a contract manufacturing food company where I realized an ironic truth.
We put plans in place for challenges/opportunities we face in our professional and personal life. (e.g., 401k plan, marketing plan). I have over 20 plans in my life alone. Yet, we don’t put a plan around the one thing—people issues—that limit company growth. We don’t put a talent strategy or plan in place.
Even if you already have an effective strategy in place, you still need to create a strategy for your talent to ensure your vision becomes a reality.
Talent strategy provides clarity on your greatest people issues resulting in focused execution
A talent strategy proactively solves your people shortage issues for your organization. Your Talent Strategy addresses your biggest talent weaknesses (among other things), allowing you to focus on solving your top people issues. This shifts your organization from reactive (getting hit with issues as they come) to proactive (solving issues before they impact the business).
Talent strategy reduces turnover
Solving your people shortages requires motivating and engaging the talent you have. Your Talent Strategy engages you in candid conversations with your team members before it’s “too late.”
Whether in development or reboarding conversations, you understand where each team member is at, where they hope to go, and how you can help them get there. And because you are working upstream, you get the opportunity to resolve any issues that may be motivating them to leave your organization.
Reactive organizations never have those conversations as the person has already left, resulting in wasting time and money. But organizations that use a Talent Strategy have those conversations proactively and regularly.
Talent strategy enables you to create effective development plans
When you create your Talent Strategy, a core piece of the process is to create development plans for each of your direct reports. Talent planning solves your employee shortage issues through Total Person Development. Years ago, leaders were focused only on an employee’s professional life. They’re development plans concentrated just on the hard skills and were not focused on the total person.
Today, that’s changed. Younger employees especially, expect their development plans to encompass their life at work and home (like illnesses or aging parents). Using behavioral science enables you to have conversations you usually would not be able to have to address all issues/opportunities they are facing.
Through total person development, because you were there for them, they, in turn, are there for you. But it’s not set it and forget it. You stay connected through one-on-ones to consistently discuss and update their development plan.
Talent strategy helps you make the right hire the first time
Harvard Business Review discovered that 80% of employee turnover is due to a wrong hire.
When you use behavioral science in your hiring process, you’re able to make the right hire the first time, avoiding people issues down the road. You do this by defining what an optimum performer looks like in the position (a job benchmark). Then, you have your final candidates take the behavioral science assessments and compare their results to the job benchmark through a gap report.
Those gaps are addressed in your interview. We call this customized interviewing, which leads to hiring the right person the first time.
All the information from the hiring process is used to create their first development plan to accelerate your new hire’s ramp-up. Once an organization holistically integrates behavioral science into their hiring process, they typically never make a hire again without it.
While you can’t solve the employee shortage issue for our entire country, you can solve it for your organization through a Talent Strategy.
As a leader, you control the impact people issues and shortages have on your organization. A Talent Strategy solves your people-related challenges to accelerate growth. To dominate your industry with the right people and strategy.
