WIN THE WAR FOR TALENT

Win the War for Talent

Win the War for Talent

Evaluation of Organisation

Organizations can develop the talent needed to execute against business strategies by using a holistic approach to realize the full value of their people. As the business environment has become more global, so has the competition for talent (Ahlrichs, 2000).

All the phases of the talent management lifecycle that come after the recruiting phase, lead to an organizations ability to successfully develop and retain their talent. While the struggle to acquire top talent is certainly not a new problem in business, the ever increasing competitive landscape, as well as increasing customer demands is making the “talent factor” a defining point in a company's ability to generate sustainable growth in revenues, profit and brand equity (Ahlrichs, 2000).

Quality human capital is a catalytic asset that can be effectively leveraged across the enterprise to generate creativity, collaboration, momentum, velocity, client loyalty, a dynamic corporate culture, and virtually every other positive influencing force in the corporate universe.  It is quality talent that designs sound business practices, creates great strategic plans, understands the value of innovation, overcomes obstacles, breaks down barriers, creates growth, and builds a lasting brand (Ahlrichs, 2000).

Winning the war for talent begins with a company's commitment to quality leadership. Quality executive leadership will attract quality management, and quality management will in turn attract quality staff. Quality talent will produce quality process and work product, which will in turn attract quality clients, investors, partners, vendors and suppliers. This quality driven value chain will produce a quality corporate culture, and a lasting brand known for, you guessed it, its association to quality (Ahlrichs, 2000).

Quality is not a characteristic well served by fractionalized application. If you have a best in class compensation plan, but a low quality product offering, you won't attract quality clients or quality talent. Rather you'll just attract mercenary employees looking to exploit a compensation plan, and who will disappoint clients that will in turn seek solace from your competitors(Ahlrichs, 2000). The golden rule is never sacrifice quality, at any level, or for any reason. The bottom line is that a commitment to quality will position an organization such that they will have little trouble competing in the war for talent. If everything about your organization is built on the foundation of quality, your culture will largely sell itself(Berger, 2002) .

Unfortunately, recruiting talent is only part of the equation. Once you recruit a talented individual you won't keep them for long unless you properly train, motivate and mentor them. Proper assimilation of talent creates a bond of trust between the employee and the company creating a sense of loyalty that is not easily broken (Berger, 2002) . Assuming that you have created a company built on a foundation of quality that will attract top talent, adhering to the following 5 best practices will help you motivate and retain talent:

Recruiting

Use best practices in your recruiting efforts. This doesn't just mean hire a top producer, but rather hire a quality individual that is a person ...