Just like management in general, talent management is still a relatively young subject. The precursors of management and talent management can be found in organisations as early as the Middle Ages. Examples are public administrations or the military. Many concepts still applied in companies, originate from this period. Terms such as recruitment, application planning or salary remind us of this. Management as its own economic discipline has only been practiced since the industrial revolution. This is quite a short period of time if compared with medicine, house building or mathematics. In addition, there have been great changes in the world of work during this time. Consequently, it is only reasonable to assume that we have not yet found out about all aspects of proper management.

The goal is to increase productivity

In the last century, that is from 1900 to 1999, the productivity of manual labour has increased by a factor of 50. Not by 50%, but by the factor of 50. So if, for example, a farmer could feed 20 people at the beginning of the century, he was able to feed 1’000 people by 1999. A shoemaker producing 20 pairs of shoes per month in 1900, was able to make 1’000 pairs at the end of the century. If this increase had been set as a target for one of the two at the beginning of the century, it would probably have been declared impossible.

In particular, this was achieved through «Scientific Management», which increased the efficiency of the existing workflows by optimising them through automation, standardisation and the respective tools. Instructive examples are consultants and experts in factory buildings measuring individual worksteps with stopwatches and then de.eloping and training improvements to these processe.

 

 

 

 

Illustration 1: Productivity increase of manual labour during the last century

The challenge facing us this century is to achieve a similar productivity increase in knowledge work. An employee now serving 20 customers per day, should be able to serve 1’000 customers by the end of the century. This might not sound very spectacular. But if we think of a doctor treating 20 patients per day and having to treat 1’000 patients by the end of the century, it makes us feel  more uncomfortable. Human resources managers processing 20 applications per day should be able to handle 1’000 applications per day by the end of the century. Superiors directly leading 20 employees should be able to directly lead 1’000 employees at the end of the century. All these facts seem impossible to us; as they would have to the farmer last century, who had to  feed 1’000 people by the end of the century.

 

 

 

 

 

Illustration 2: Productivity increase of knowledge work this century

However, it is obvious that we cannot reach this with last century’s means and methods. It makes no sense for superiors to hold employee review meetings in 5-second cycles. It’s not a matter of creating processes in a more efficient way, but, above all, in a more effective way. The goal is to put the focus on the right and important things and to benefit from self-organising methods. The «Open-Source-Community», for example, offers first outlooks on this type of management. Lets think of this community as a company. In this company, hundreds of programmers are working on things they have chosen themselves. They are working at times they have chosen themselves and in a way they have chosen themselves. They provide feedback and help each other. This company has been able to develop one the most complex pieces of software, operating systems for servers. And what makes it even more impressive, the whole company is led by only a handful of managers.

Many of us and most employees in the western world are knowledge workers; even within the production industries. We have all experienced  working the whole day and then having to ask ourselves what we have actually achieved. Equally, we can make the right decision, do the precisely right thing and thereby decisively influence company success in a comparatively short time. Our challenge is not a matter of creating, standardising and automating the existing, but, above all, to think through our own tasks, focus on the right things, create a self-organising cooperation and thereby work in a more effective way.

Talent management as a means to increase productivity

If our goal for talent management is to increase productivity, talent management suddenly takes on a totally new perspective that has great relevance for business. It is not «only» about attracting the best talents for the company, employing them in the best possible way, developing them according to individual needs and retaining them long-term. These are important components of talent management, but they are not the goal per se. Talent management must make a contribution to the company’s increased productivity. The question is, is it realistic for talent management to make such a contribution?

If understood correctly talent management does not intend to create more efficient employee recruitment processes, employee deployment, employee development and employee retention. Talent management primarily tries to provide these processes in a more effective way and make use of them in order to increase the productivity. What does this look like in the individual talent management areas?

Applicant management

Applicant management is not primarily about reducing the administrative efforts of employee recruitment and selection, but about attracting the right employees for the right tasks. It starts by questioning and thinking through the specific tasks of the person to be employed: Do certain tasks have to be changed? Which are the really relevant tasks? Which competences does a candidate really need to successfully master these tasks? Then, the question is where to find suitable candidates and how to contact them in order that they respond to a job advertisement. Which are the relevant arguments for the right candidates? Via which channels can we effectively contact these candidates? How can we make sure that we respond to suitable applications quickly and in a qualified manner? A well-written advertisement with an appealing title, published in the right media leads to better results than a  widespread advertising campaign with not properly thought through content. The focus on a few relevant selection criteria is more effective than the structured discussion of the complete curriculum vitae and all potential competencies. The focussed and fast processing of the most promising applications is more important than the efficient processing of all applications. An early integration of the line managers at key stages (e.g. when formulating the job advertisement, when advertising, when the first contact with suitable applicants takes place) is more effective than trying to relieve their workload in the early stages by not involving them and then making them carry out interviews with the wrong applicants at the end of the process.

Employee review meetings (performance management, personnel development, competence management)

The most important task of employee review meetings is to encourage employees to think through their own tasks, performance and development goals and to define them for themselves. What is my task? What is my contribution to the company? What am I paid for? Where lies the quality of my work? Which goals do I set for myself? In which areas and competencies do I want to develop? This is the only way for employees to develop an own compass that helps them make the right daily decisions in terms of priority and focus. And only by thinking things through on their own can employees continually evaluate and improve their own performance. Consultation with the respective superior is an important element of coordination and matching of mutual perceptions – but it is not an issue of orders or information that has already been decided. It is not a matter of presenting efficiently predefined profiles to employees and then automatically rewarding desired behaviour and performance, or automatically penalising poor behaviour and performance. Today, superiors cannot evaluate whether or not employees are doing their best or whether or not they are capable of better performance; even if they accompany them all the time. Only the employees themselves can do this; as long as they have thought through their tasks and goals and thereby have understood them. As long as they have defined tasks and goals for themselves,and have thereby approved them. In addition, evaluation cannot be looked at as objective measuring of performance, but as a joint «verdict» on results and progress; with the aim of continuous further development.

Education and further training

For education and further training it is not a matter of closing all identified compentence gaps as effective and cheaply as possible. The main concern is to concentrate on the really relevant and trainable competencies, as well as to make irrelevant individual employees’ existing weaknesses by means of a thought through organisation and division of labour.

Career and succession planning

In career and succession planning, the goal is not to make a plan for all positions and employees which then can be realised in only a few cases. It is much more a question of identifying critical key positions in companies with shortage of possible successors – and to groom respective internal candidates for these key positions or recruit them from outside. And it’s about presenting attractive perspectives within the company for the real high performers; both in the specialist and the leadership areas and realisable in a timely manner.

Remuneration systems

Remuneration systems do not serve to increase performance. It’s a widespread and dangerous misbelief that employees bring better performance due to the prospect of a bonus or salary increase. The actual and sustainable motivation for good performance is the understanding and perception of the own contribution within the company. Effective remuneration systems help prevent demotivation caused by unfair payment. It’s a matter of recognition and appreciation of performance and not «generation» of performance. Ultimately, it’s about «pay for performance», and not «pay to get performance».

Networks in companies and beyond

There’s another component of good talent management that has only recently reached our consciousness: The support of effective cooperation among employees both within and outside the company; that means also with former and future employees, employees of customers, partners and suppliers. Here, social networks on the Internet such as Facebook, Xing, Wikipedia or Twitter show us the possibilities of today’s technologies; as long as they are implemented in a thought through, simple and effective way.

 

The future of talent management

Today, the future areas of good talent management cannot be definitively defined. And it is even less predictable how good talent management can be successfully implemented in the already known areas. But at least there is evidence of what could work and what can’t. So that’s why we should do everything in our power to implement an effective talent management with the goal of making  a significant contribution to the increase of productivity – and not just automate existing processes and make them more efficient. In this context there are two books worth reading: «The Practice of Management» (first published 1954) and «Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices» (first published 1973) by Peter F. Drucker, the «inventor» of management as a free art.