Step 1 of S.H.A.P.E. requires goal-setting, assessment, and effective communication
S.H.A.P.E. is a five-step talent management tool designed to help companies rethink hiring and people development during the pandemic and beyond. To build healthy, equitable workplaces that can survive today and thrive tomorrow, companies must SEE, HAVE, ALIGN, PURSUE, AND EMPOWER. The first step of any talent management plan requires leaders to SEE who’s currently on their team and use data analytics to retain top talent and organize team members in the most functional, efficient, and impactful way. Seeing effectively requires company leaders and executives to use their time and resources wisely.
Identify Deliverables
Before you move a single employee or ramp up your recruiting efforts, you must understand what you’re working toward. What outcomes does the company need? What forces are driving your talent management efforts? Are you scrambling to fill a few openings or are you creating a pipeline for the future? To answer these questions, you should consider a few key components.
Traits
What traits make an internal employee promotable or an external candidate hirable? And how will you identify the right traits in the right people? This will vary by company and industry but think beyond a resume or a past performance rating. Instead, think about soft skills and adaptability, which are both in demand as the professional world undergoes a massive shift to remote work.
Internal vs. External
What makes the most sense for your organization – inside promotions or external hires? Keep in mind that external hires take much longer to adapt to company culture and learn the ropes. Additionally, they’re less committed which means higher flight risk, and they almost always demand higher salaries than what internal employees are making.
Inclusivity
As you begin to identify opportunities and the right talent to fill those roles, are you keeping diversity top of mind? Is everyone being considered? The country, and by proxy, many corporations, is facing a reckoning about racial injustice. Many companies that have spoken out in support of the Black community either have no people of color in leadership positions or have failed to improve their diverse hiring. When you SEE your workplace, who’s in the upper ranks? What’s the distribution of talent? Overhauling your talent management process is a chance to bring equity to your organization and dismantle the existing roadblocks to prosperity for people of color.
Data
The data will show you how people have performed and the volume and quality of work they’ve produced. This can clue you in to top performers who can fill critical vacancies.
In short, this assessment of your workplace is an opportunity to create a culture of performance that’s also open and fair.
Use process improvement tools
As much as talent management is a people function, it’s also a logistical function, and you need the right tools to track and facilitate your plan. Know your options – there’s a lot of talent management software out there (e.g., Greenhouse, PerformYard, etc.), with each one tailored to specific needs like recruiting or performance management. Choose the platform that best serves your workplace requirements.
Engage and communicate with your stakeholders
Essentially, you need to use organizational communication to your advantage, to ensure all relevant stakeholders understand what you’re trying to accomplish. For your talent management revamp to work, you need their buy-in.
There are several different ways to communicate your revised expectations and new processes – handbooks, newsletters, town halls, emails, face-to-face meetings, phone calls, surveys and polls, stories, social media, messaging apps, virtual team meetings, and even the “grapevine”. You need to consider the size and skill level of your workforce and then employ the most effective delivery method to get the word out.
Case study: How SEE Works
At my organization, we ran into a huge issue once the pandemic began – we needed more than 4,000 employees to continue learning and collaborating remotely. But we didn’t have the tools in place, and we had to figure out a solve quickly. The solution? Virtual talent management.
I personally oversaw the company’s shift to remote learning, which completely changed our approach to people development. First, I took time to SEE our staff and realize the sheer magnitude of workers that we needed to serve. Then, I worked with my business partners to develop a Continuity of Training Operations Plan, and we implemented a countywide remote work schedule, to ensure the safety of our employees.
After, we successfully employed the Six Sigma process improvement methodology to evaluate our existing learning programs and implement right size online platforms that could be used for employee development and the delivery of training.
The results were overwhelmingly positive. Within an incredibly tight timeframe, more than 2,000 employees began participating in virtual instructor-led and eLearning programs developed by the Learning & Development team. The company is on track to expand these services to the full workforce (more than 4,000 employees!) in a matter of weeks. Despite the massive workplace changes we’ve undergone, our employees are engaging with each other, sharing stories, learning together safely, and innovating at a higher level more frequently.
Conclusion
Given the reality of the pandemic, virtual talent management is the future of work. Being away from your team isn’t a reason not to SEE each and every employee. You just need to rethink the strategy and the tools that you use to develop, manage, and reach them. If you take the time to SEE your workplace as it is, and you’re open to change, you can achieve stellar results.