Talent’s a hot topic of late (again). There’s a lot of books, articles, consultants and other men and assorted dogs all out there beating their drum about how to secure the best and brightest talent. I don’t dispute that there’s a strong need for this
by Craig Donaldson
Talent’s a hot topic of late. There’s plenty of books, articles, consultants and other men, women and assorted dogs all out there beating their drum about how to secure the best and brightest talent. I don’t dispute that there’s a strong need for this.
Good managers have long recognised the value of employing talented workers, and it wasn’t really until McKinsey’s landmark study that this value was quantified. All of a sudden ‘talent’ was seen in an entirely new light in the pursuit of profit and maximising productivity. Consulting firms popped up all over the place, executives were buzzing about how they could secure the best talent and most HR professionals were probably a bit bewildered about how they could actually come up with a meaningful and practical solution for their organisations.
What’s missing in this whole equation, however, is that we don’t see much about the concept of talent itself. Exactly what is it? How can you identify dormant talent? And more importantly, what is it exactly that makes talent tick?
A US consulting firm specialising in this area puts talent down to being able to match work with ‘embedded life interests’. By the time people reach early adulthood, the firm argues, their interest patterns are set for life. Most people have two or three that apply to work, and when organisations are able to match a role’s work with one of these interest patterns – bingo. People naturally take to their work with enthusiasm because they have a more natural aptitude for the role. As a result, they’re also happier, more productive and satisfied – both at work and outside.
This is a simplistic example, but I believe many HR and recruitment professionals – as well as the tools and processes they use for matching people with roles – are missing the above point. Given the colliding worlds of labour shortages, shareholder demands, generational conflicts at work and productivity challenges, the importance of identifying talent cannot be understated. If organisations truly wish to tap into that El Dorado of talent and productivity that McKinsey’s study showcased, then it would seem we still have a long way to go.
