The Realities of Talent Management in a Recession

In the last week, I’ve come across two great articles related to talent management in a recession that I wanted to pass along. They both make some compelling points and provide some insight into the realities of dealing with the recession from an HR perspective.

Louise Hopper’s article in Fresh Business Thinking, Talent Management in a Recession, takes a practical look at the practice of talent management in tough economic times. She walks through the reasons why organizations shouldn’t be overlooking talent management in the current climate, including driving employee engagement and goal alignment. One of the strongest points Hopper makes is that it is your “people that will ensure the ongoing success of your business, and if you fail to get the best of those people, it’s the business that will suffer.”

What’s interesting about Hopper’s piece is how succinctly it summarizes a major challenge for many companies when it comes to talent management right now, when their natural inclination may be to reduce or entirely ignore talent management. Additionally, there’s a discussion on creating employee loyalty that does a great job of explaining how organizations that manage their employees effectively now, will be able to create loyal employees in the long term.

On a related note, a Canadian-based newspaper, the Calgary Herald, ran an article on succession planning earlier this week. The article, by Derek Sankey, looks at how many boomers are not retiring as planned, and how this is impacting succession plans. The article points out that many organizations don’t have formal succession plans in place, and now is a great time to get started! With the economy, an increasing number of senior leaders have delayed retirement, but when people in key positions do retire, organizations often do not have individuals with the right skills and experience ready to take over. Succession planning has just become critical and a lot more complicated. Organizations need to hear this as a wakeup call, and incorporate succession planning into their talent management programs as a strategic business activity today, and not wait for this to happen to them.

Sankey’s article also points out another emerging challenge when it comes to succession planning – that many Gen X and Y employees simply aren’t interested. These generations expect work-life balance, and “don’t always want to be on the fast track to a leadership role.” For HR professionals, this point is something they need to seriously consider from a cultural and practical perspective. If the majority of those in line for management/executive positions aren’t interested, there’s going to be a very limited pool of talent to select from in a few years. Organizations need to take a hard look at what they expect from their managers and find ways to make these positions more compatible with the younger generations’ values about work-life balance.

From a practical point of view, there needs to be a greater emphasis on creating a pool of talent that will have the skills and preparation to take over these positions. Organizations need to steer clear of using org chart based succession planning that grooms a specific employee for a specific position. An org-chart based succession planning model is doomed to fail when people decide they aren’t interested, the executive in the position decides not to retire, or the person selected for a specific position decides to leave the organization. By using a talent pool based approach to succession planning, organizations will have multiple individuals ready to take on new challenges, and be better equipped to deal with bumps in the road.

Have you come across any good articles on these topics? Send them my way!