Is Talent Management Suddenly a Business Priority? _{8 September 2009}

We all know that quality leadership is an essential aspect of business performance especially if businesses are to survive and thrive during turbulent times. It therefore seems so obvious that there is an imperative need to focus on identifying and developing future leaders, especially if we are to keep our heads above water and avoid a downturn in performance. We all want to ensure that the all important P&L statement stays out of the danger zone yet many of us aren’t doing much more than reacting to problems to do this.

The current recession has led to much restructuring leaving employees sitting quietly and wondering what the future holds for them. Every email and meeting is surrounded by some trepidation. “What will the message say when I open it?” “Why is my boss calling a meeting on Friday afternoon?” “I know what he said but reading between the lines this is what he meant?” How much longer will you be able to guarantee that employee engagement, motivation and morale will have a positive weighting? For many of us this has been understandably lost amongst the number crunching, headcount reductions and recruitment freezes. At a logical level we all know that looking after our people is critical in the current economic climate as workloads, stress levels and uncertainty increase to levels that many organisations will have not experienced before.

The key to dealing with the current situation is to ensure that we balance immediate critical business needs (e.g. reduce costs) with longer-term strategic goals. It seems so easy to get bogged down in the minutia of today and lose sight of the fact that businesses have strategic plans that should be driving the business into the future. This can pale into insignificance when the wolf is at the door, but there has to be more thought to our business plans than survival. We need our employees to give their best today and to want to keep on doing that tomorrow, to do this we need good quality leadership throughout the organisation.

We know that many good people are ‘riding the storm’ whilst the job market is challenged and ‘keeping their heads down’ until the ideal job comes along. They recognise that it may take time but they are prepared to wait and give you average productivity in the meantime.

What would it take to engage these good people so that they give you their best and want to stay and develop their careers with you? So that they do the right things that mean that you can survive the current challenges and come out stronger at the other end. The answer is probably not a lot, the key is to value and develop them. This may take a small amount of investment but ultimately it can be achieved by good communication, good processes and a lot of recognition. The question is ‘are you really doing enough’?

Sally Rixon specialises in Organisational Development and has 20 years experience working for and with organisations who have felt the impact that is caused by loosing their best employees. She manages the UK based Talent Pool which helps help business leaders to tackle this important and challenging issue.