You may be asking yourself, what if anything should I do with talent management in uncertain times? The answer is the opposite of what you may expect. At a moment like that more than ever will leading companies emerge and separate themselves from the losers. Being on top of your company’s talent and organizational drive means being part of the winners emerging out of an economic crisis. So the bottom line here is to remain steadfast and committed in investing in human capital.
Invest in Talent
Through performance reviews you will stimulate a performance driven culture within the organization. Through management performance review processes or 360 degree employee feedback reviews, employees will be stimulated by individual development opportunities. Accumulated results also provide management with the right set of tools to keep everyone on their feet, through motivation and leveraging strengths and addressing challenges.
Invest in Company Goals
In times of crisis, companies can no longer ponder around with business as usual. This means setting goals for your company, getting the best out of your talent base and knowing how or whether your people are aligned with your company’s goals and strategies. Market analysts have speculated that many companies will in one way or another be adversely affected by a financial crisis. All the more reason to fine tune your talent base.
The necessity for companies to be proactive with talent in good times and bad is therefore inevitable. To remain competitive and keep productivity high, you will also need checks and balances on company and individual employee level performance. Now seizing the moment to introduce these online tools or enhance your current strategy will allow you to reap the benefits in the short and long term, staying ahead of the competition.
Some pointers that may help:
- Come up with proper goals and strategies that fit and focus on your people and the current external environment.
- Get to the point. Without getting harsh with the reality of the current environment and what that could mean for your people; you have to allow good performers to excel and be aware of the low performers.
- Be able to focus on your performing talent base. Make sure you provide the proper tools to invest in this base. Be cognizant of the fact that these true performers remain on your radar.
- Transparency. In trying times it is up to you to communicate and be transparent in order to avoid rumors. In a Watson & Wyatt study, companies with high trust outperform companies with low trust by 168% , (source Watson Wyatt).
