A new emphasis on the creation of an upwardly mobile workforce is sweeping through just about every field of business. Leaders need to be able to accurately identify and nurture talent within their organizations in order to encourage such a workforce. Here are four essential tips for leaders looking to identify the next wave of talent within their employee base.
Identify Skill Gaps
Before identifying the talent within an organization that needs to be nurtured, a business leader must first identify what kind of talent is missing or might be missing in the future. Thinking strategically about the skill gaps that are due to appear in an organization can help you to create an ‘ideal’ set of skills and traits for any future leader. Skill gaps can be caused by resignations, promotions, and even expansions of an organization’s remit. The first step towards identifying the best personnel is to find out what exactly constitutes your organization’s individual definition of ‘the best’. All businesses should gauge their ability to reach strategic goals in part by assessing Key Performance Indicators. These KPIs can also indicate where there are skill gaps in a business.
Profile Employees
Once the ideal person profile is completed, a business will have an idea of what they are looking for in a talented person to nurture and perhaps promote. It is then necessary to profile individual staff members in order to ascertain how well they fit the conceived ‘ideal’ person. Profile individual employees based on their strengths, weaknesses, and their successes in areas of work. Data analysis is important when generating staff profiles. All staff create useful data as they work that indicates their aptitude and effectiveness. Modern Human Resources practice is extremely data driven.
Use The 9 Box Grid
The 9-box grid is an extremely useful method of employee profiling that weighs their performance against their potential for future improvement and development. It was first developed in the 1970s for General Electric – who wanted to effectively rank current and future investment opportunities. Since then, the 9-box grid has been adopted by the HR community for the profiling of individuals.
The 9-box grid has two axes – potential and performance. By carefully considering these aspects, a visual indication of talent and potential can be produced. The 9-box grid should never be the only method used to identify talent for nurturing. Instead, it should be an initial visual guide to the state of a company’s personnel.
Invest In Education And Development
The only real way of making use of talent in the workplace is to actively develop it. Companies should invest heavily in education and development programs and in-person classes to get the most out of the talent they have. These programs create an upwardly mobile workforce and also help leaders to identify talent through individuals’ performance within an educational setting. Most businesses collect important data about the performance and potential of their employees through the provision of a blended learning program.
