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There is a problem with talent management systems. They have commonly been promoted by management consultants to the top management teams of client companies. Moreover, a principal selling point is that talent management systems provide a mechanism to implement the strategic management intentions of those companies. As a result, career owners’ preferences for their own career futures are often pushed aside.
For example, Mercer Consulting asserts “We develop strategies that allow organizations to align their talent functions with their overall business objectives.” Accenture highlights “Driving transformation change management outcomes for the C-Suite.” A book by talent management experts Ram Charan, Dominic Barton and Dennis Carey claims that the fluidity of the contemporary marketplace calls for a new approach, then urges “every CEO who intends to succeed…to take charge of talent.” These sentiments suggest that, at best, career ownership is a secondary concern.
There is a deeper opportunity. What mainstream assertions about talent management miss is that both parties to the employment contract are dealing with a rapidly changing world. As a result, a one-sided view of talent management risks alienating the very people it is seeking to retain. In contrast, a cyclical approach to talent management not only calls for regular input from career owners, but also draws on their feedback for future strategic management efforts. Such a cyclical approach calls for deeper career conversations.
How though, can those deeper career conversations be encouraged for the benefit of both an employer and its employees? One way to think about this is to envision a virtuous cycle among three parties: top management, line management and the career owners themselves, with line management included twice to capture both upward and downward communications, as shown in Figure 1. It is important to consider a full cycle of communication, so that the implications of employees’ career ownership on the employer can be captured. This virtuous cycle can be compared to its counterpart a vicious cycle—where communication lines are dysfunctional or broken.
Source:
Michael Arthur
Top Management
If you are a member of a top management team much depends on your CEO. If you have what the Harvard Business Review describes as a “narcissistic CEO,” it will be hard for your team to take advantage of your own and other members’ insights. Your team’s overall ability to contribute to the strategic management of your company (Link A in the figure) will be compromised. In contrast, an appreciative CEO and an effective top management team will more clearly see the implications of a mainstream talent management proposal (Link A) and that it ought to serve strategic management objectives (Link B). That can provide a helpful platform for the team’s further learning.
The further learning opportunity, and one that can complete a virtuous cycle, is for you to see that both the employer and its employees face the same competitive marketplace. Moreover employees—and especially the coveted “best and brightest” among them—will already be engaged with that marketplace on their own behalf. In going beyond a one-way view of talent management you can understand your employees better, see more mutually rewarding internal job matches, and better appreciate your employees’ collective understanding about the competitive marketplace (Links C and D). An example of these links comes from Prudential Financial, which insists to employees “It’s your career!” while also seeking “to offer a first-rate career program” to attract world-class talent.
Line Management
If you are a line manager, a major obligation is to be accountable to the top management team, but how can this work in practice? One scenario involves you receiving no direction at all on talent management, but still conducting career conversations to support your workers (Link B). This is the approach taken, for example, in Salesforce Trailhead’s “Facilitate Career Conversations” training module. It calls for a line manager to have both oneself and the employee prepare for a career conversation, and then use that conversation to provide feedback, explore career options, help in the development of the employee’s action plan, and to keep developing that action plan over future conversations.
A second scenario involves you being responsible for a traditional talent management program (Link A). It can involve similar coverage to the Salesforce training module (Link B). However, the direction of the conversation will predictably be limited by your company’s call to implement a predetermined talent strategy, without regard to each employee’s separate career interests. You can exercise discretion and listen…
