By Karyn Law, APAC Senior Consultant, atrain Limited and Angelo Puglisi, APAC Head of HR and Marketing, Benteler Automotive
Growth has become the foremost objective of most companies nowadays but over 50% of executives confess that they do not have clear measures in place to meet their growth targets. At a recent HR conference in Shanghai with over 7,000 attendees, Karyn Law, Senior Consultant, atrain Limited and Angelo Puglisi, APAC Head of HR and Marketing, Benteler Automotive came together to share their views on Talent Mapping as the first and critical step to business growth.
1. Master Plan: Understand your business needs
The first step is always to understand your future business needs and set your talent management direction. Talent management is like building a skyscraper, you need to lay down a good foundation. You cannot afford to make mistakes that cost you money and time. Benteler has recently introduced a new competency model that is applicable across affiliates and functions. The new model informs all the key Talent Management Processes. As a global solution partner, atrain tailors its services by adopting Benteler's global competency model, providing active support across recruitment and development initiatives.
Benteler is very unique in its organisational structure which has implications for the kinds of people they look for. The job description often only provides the basic information which is not enough to reflect the current and future needs for businesses entirely. Conducting a ‘needs analysis’ is essential to explore, discuss and align a promising profile with consideration of your future business objectives and challenges.
2. Acquiring: Scout the right talents for your master plan
A company's recruitment process reflects its brand—it needs to be fair, systematic and effective. As an example of such practice, Benteler has implemented customised Assessment Centres (ACs) for the interview process, which involves candidates analysing business case studies and taking part in simulated situations that reflect the challenges of the role. Through these activities, Benteler has been able to observe how the candidates react to critical situations with peers, subordinates or customers. ACs have been proven to better judge a candidate’s performance than having a job interview alone.
3. Identifying: Allocate your resources to the right people
In the new era of talent management, decisions about people are based on potential. Knowing what one is currently capable of is not sufficient, given that we are now living in an ever-changing world. Employees need to show the ability to learn quickly and adapt to changing trends. In our potential framework, we focus on five areas that have been found to predict further growth and development, for example, curiosity and drive. The five areas can be assessed through simulations and natural job observations and help organisations channel the right development resources to the right people.
4. Developing: Ensure your people are growing
Hiring the best-fit candidate with ability and potential is only the start of the talent management process— businesses then need to put emphasis on developing them. At Benteler, they developed the two-year ‘Managers of Tomorrow’ development programme and atrain has played a large part in designing and implementing Development Centres (DCs) as the initial step. By utilising DCs as a platform, the emerging leaders are able to identify their key strengths and development areas which facilitate subsequent action planning for development.
In our DCs, participants receive real-time feedback from atrain facilitators as well as their own senior leaders. The approach aims to provide feedback from multiple perspectives, foster talent engagement and maximise senior leader buy-in.
5. Engaging: The ultimate way to find meaning in an employee's career
Engaging is the last but an important component of ‘building a skyscraper’—it is a huge assumption that talents are highly engaged. If they leave, businesses will not be able to harvest the results of their investments. Career coaching supports talents in finding meaning in the workplace. atrain psychologists provide professional support in assessing employees' motivations, beliefs and values. This helps companies in increasing their employees' level of awareness. As a result, talents are more engaged and ready to drive their own career development.
Advice to HR Professionals
Perfect candidate
The important part about attracting talent is not to think about getting the perfect candidate. In fact, it is best to always look for one with a 70% best fit—the rest is up to the company to ensure they are ready to move up into more senior positions. You do not want someone who is hired and ready to move on to his/her next role—it will not create enough challenge and stimulation for that person.
How to get buy-in from business leaders?
Selling a new process to the C-suite is a common problem. However, HR’s way of functioning is no different from other business units—you need to sell your programme. It is important that key stakeholders know that this is not purely an HR initiative but a programme to ensure future business growth. In short, there needs to be a sense of a shared goal. Involve business leaders in the process, invite them to be observers in ACs and DCs. Through participation, they get to better know their people and understand the importance of ensuring an adequate and sustainable talent pipeline.
Email for inquiry: [email protected]
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
