Having worked in large and small companies I can clearly see the impact of technology on Talent Management practices and organizational capabilities. I tell people that the pace of change in the industry is the fastest since I’ve been in HR and for that I say “Thank goodness”.
Lots of HR people will ask me “What system should we use?” because it’s difficult to know where to start the selection process. Do we start with our payroll provider’s solution and see if they have something upstream? What about our ERP; shouldn’t we adopt their talent modules for data integration? Or should we focus on our biggest need and hope that integration can come via this “big data” thing?
The answer is, of course, “it depends” because context is everything and everything is constantly changing. My advice is to start at the top with your organization’s required and differentiating capabilities and see what forms of technology you currently leverage compared to today’s leading solutions. Technology is never the answer to developing people; it’s the icing on the cake but your culture – especially the leadership culture and its (lack of) focus on individual and organizational capability development – is what is most important.
Figuring this out is not, and should not be, the HR team’s endeavour because capabilities are the responsibility of the entire senior leadership team. Facilitating that discussion is rightly the responsibility of the People Operations / HR team but it absolutely has to be something that is approached in a very coach-like manner so that individual leader’s visions for the organization are understood, compared and contrasted, and a unified, endorsed plan is created. You’ll know you’re on the right path when leaders are excited about making this happen and are engaged with explorations of funding and vendor discovery.
Our recruiting and organizational development consultants can help you identify and develop capabilities and the supporting technology that will help you achieve amazing results.
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Adaptive Talent is a talent consultancy designed to help organizations achieve amazing results and ongoing adaptability. Founded in 2008 and based in Vancouver, Canada we offer retained search, assessments, total rewards consulting, training, leadership coaching and development programs, and culture & organizational development consulting.