Madhu Paudel
Employee talent is always deemed essential to the success of any business. However, the competition to get talented personnel is accelerating at present. Success depends on the adoption of talent management and harnessing the new talents. Managing a business in the digital age is challenging since one has to stay up with the rapidly changing new inventive technologies every day. The only way to ensure the business’s sustainability is through innovations and the adaptation of tried-and-true core HR procedures. Trusting the responsible staff and improving their existing skills to fight the digital invasion of the new era is quite difficult in daily HR practices. According to senior-level management officers and HR professionals discussed in our different discussion forums, upskilling the existing talent pool has now emerged as a critical HR issue in today’s business environment. This is because the majority of us are currently struggling with severe hiring issues and searching for creative retention strategies to tap the talent.
We can solve this challenge by addressing the given issues as far as practical.
Focus on Total Compensation Strategies
If we talk about compensation, most employers think of it as handing out monthly paychecks to their employees. However, this is not enough to address the financial needs of employees in the present day. In modern times, people from the new generation come to work to improve the quality of their life and not only for a hand-to-mouth existence. The concept of remuneration must be changed from paying wages for work to paying for talents. Under this, we pay for resources and not just for recruitment. It needs to be understood that compensation will never be a constant factor.
Nevertheless, change should be gradual and well-planned. The underlying principles of transition can be laid out that cater to the particular performance requirements of a company. In order to maximize the potential of an organization’s human resources, new compensation strategies include the concept of human dynamics in their designs. A crucial tactical component of the company’s strategy is behavioral psychology. In the previous issue of this magazine, I have also explained about designing the compensation.
Change in Priorities to Quality Resources
Not all of the problems that are prevalent in the corporate world today can be solved by changes in the quality of products by acquiring quality raw materials or technology advancements. Service is a key component of modern business that creates value in producing a physical product. As a result, rather than technology or raw materials, it is primarily dependent on the knowledge, character, and skills of the workforce. We generally do not give priority to human sentiments and their needs but rather unnecessarily focus on producing business goods and services. There are workers of the new generation in the workplace today and they have different expectations. Compared to earlier generations they aspire to a higher quality of living as they have different expectations along with better education. In this competitive age, most of the services and products are substitutable and have the best alternatives but we cannot create a substitute for honesty, integrity, and loyalty of the people. We must recognize the talents with those qualities and should build up the strategies to tap them in all ways.
Culture
HR professionals must be clear about the sort of organizational culture and environment that can be given to new employees. Obviously, no one works just only for the shake of culture, but, surely, people leave the company due to toxic work culture. Leaders must help employees do their work by giving examples, responding to requests as early as possible, accommodating employees’ individual needs as far as concerned, offering encouragement in possible ways, and being there as backs the solutions to every problem. Job security and a learning environment also attract talents. Building trust among the employees is a foremost weapon to expand the business as our employees are brand ambassadors. Unethical commitments from seniors towards the job, facility, service, and products create a toxic environment as a result experienced and valued talents may quit their jobs. Hence, the words of mouth must be validated within the given timeframe and must have transparency in communication and should be materialized. Leaders should address the issues as early as possible which has been raised in the course of operation without lingering the issues. In nutshell, we must be aware that the organizational culture always impacts employee retention.
Career Path
The expected clear career path of employees within the organization carries utmost importance. Everyone has a career vision while joining a new company. If we cannot able to address the same, talents will not retain in the organization. Hiring internally as far as possible is also a tapping technique. We have seen practically in some of the corporate houses and banking industry that those banks/organizations have their clear career path, where the employees are also working for long and becoming the first choice of the job seekers.
Participatory Approach to Work
These days, the letter “I” has been eliminated from the management practices and the place has been taken over by “We”. It means teamwork is preferred in organizations so as to achieve better performance. Ideas coming from different minds may produce new creative concepts that are productive and problem-solving. For this, the participation of employees in the decision-making process is important. Such practices also build up a sense of ownership in employees. They start thinking positively towards the organization from “It is YOURS to OURS”. This makes a synergetic impact on regular performance. This opportunity for employees supports tapping their talents.
Recognition and Rewards
Recognition is a post-event expression of gratitude for a contribution. The fact that the recipient performed well for factors other than the acknowledgment often comes as a surprise to them. In contrast to incentives, recognition places more emphasis on the sensations that are experienced when the requirement for positive reinforcement is met. The tangible prize, which frequently has little intrinsic worth, is a significant sign of management’s sincerity and dedication to the company’s principles. Similarly, praise can significantly affect both morale and performance. Everyone is able to observe the employees’ abilities, which boosts the organization’s overall respect for them. Sometimes, the rewards in terms of non-monetary such as thank you, appreciation, and service value letters are more useful in retaining talents.
Learning and Development Opportunities
The company needs to be aware that employees anticipate learning chances to build on their existing knowledge, so they can gain access to the most recent market information. Every level of employee does not benefit from general training procedures. There is a connection between job routes, learning, and development. They may be forced by their learning environment to excel in their careers and they will be prepared to take on new challenges. Every human has distinctive qualities, and if we can give them the best environment for learning and growth, they might become as important an asset to a company. L&D opportunities are thus a tool to discover and develop abilities.
We can use the straightforward example of the leadership training that is provided by a few organizations during the service period at a foreign institution where those organizations are becoming the first choice of the job market. On the other side, we have been experiencing that the team members are motivated to perform better if there is a culture of knowledge sharing and leaders are educating their staff on new skills.
Conclusion
In human resource management, there are not only specified pointed points here in this article that are only the tools in tapping the talents. It is because the human aspects with various dimensions may impact human psychology. In this competitive environment, HR professionals should be more careful in the hiring process to ensure that the hiring must is unbiased. We should not give focus on race, color, caste, or gender in hiring. Most talents leave the organization due to the culture of cultivating favoritism and nepotism inside the organization. Senior-level management and investors must be more professional in hiring without interrupting. In nutshell, the tools for tapping the talents may be highlighted as, i) The concept of giving remuneration must be changed from paying wages for work to paying for talents, ii). The priority rather than technology or the raw materials, it is now knowledge, character, and skills of the workforce, iii) talents people leave the company due to toxic culture, iv) employees stay in the same organization if there is a visible career path, v) participatory approach builds up a sense of ownership in employees., vi) intrinsic benefits addressing a person’s need for self-worth and belonging will be a benefit in developing their talents, and vii) learning and development opportunities support in retention. This way, we can tap the talents to cope with the 21st century business challenges.
Paudel is General Manager of Synergy Corporation. He is also former Vice President of Human Resources Society Nepal.
