Talent scarcity is a growing trend.
What is the battle of talent?
The current challenge that organizations are facing in the face of the shortage of qualified talent is named “Battle for Talent”. Initially, it was suggested that this scarcity mostly occurred in technical positions in industrial turns.
However,Talent scarcity is happening globally, including strategic positions in services, technology, banking, etc.
The lack of qualified talent generates millionaire affectations in organizations.
When an organization grows, it requires hiring more collaborators to meet the new demand of its market andif they cannot incorporate this talent; Its growth and expansion are in danger.
Why is the shortage of talent happening?
The factors that are promoting this situation are very varied, so much so that they can be different for companies that reside in the same locality.
The causes that we will mention below are those that we have identified in our career as a consulting with clients, mainly in North America (Mexico, United States of America and Canada):
1. Companies focus on hiring external talent for specialized positions.
2. Inadequate authorization that causes lack of hooking and sense of belonging.
1. Companies focus on external talent, neglecting to enable and develop current talent.
Currently, a large number of organizations want to find qualified and specialized talent in their turn outside their ranks. paying little or no attention to internal talent to make it specialized and highly qualified.
It could be thought that it is faster to achieve productivity by hiring a person with the certifications and/or studies that prove them as specialized talent, however, this new income needs to cross a learning and adaptation curve to be able to perform their functions successfully.
In the event that the organization does not have an adequate model to preserve and transfer the know-how, the adaptation curve (of the new member) could be considerably extended.
Developing qualified talent internally may sound like a simple solution.
but it can become complex if you do not have a suitable model to do it.
When in organizations it is sought that the critical processes are attended exclusively by talent that has formal accreditations, it could generate that the current talent and complexities are stopped being perceived, enabled and promoted to current talent, people who have a deep understanding of the dynamics of the business, its particularity and complexities.
We have realized that on multiple occasions specialized talent is sought abroad due to hiring policies that were established years ago, or for fear of promoting a collaborator who is currently satisfactorily fulfilling his function, since this would imply carrying out 2 authorization processes; the first for your replacement letter and the second to enable you in your new features.
Although it may seem difficult to believe, a large number of organizations do not know how to manage and transfer knowledge to carry out a succession process of functions, affecting the upskillin and reskilling among their work teams.
This situation generates a flight of talent that affects its employer brand, since the collaborators who leave the organization will comment on their experience and that negative reputation will cause a lower application in their future vacancies.
Some of our recommendations to deal with this cause from the transfer of knowledge are:
- Clearly identify the critical processes in which qualified talent is required.
- Locate people considered experts who (currently) have privileged knowledge and skills (know-how).
- Accurately determine the specific knowledge and skills that allow them to perform the functions of high specialization successfully.
- Form specialized work teams to build and transfer knowledge on a continuous basis.
- Determine when internal authorization requires reinforcement of external certifications for matters related to regulations, policies or regulations.
- Select the current talent who has received the knowledge, who has demonstrated high performance and is willing to take the necessary certifications to profile themselves in a highly specialized position.
- Develop succession strategies and apply them as a continuous practice in the organization.
We recommend you to consult theEDDIT® model for knowledge management and transfer.
2. Inadequate authorization that causes lack of hooking and sense of belonging.
When the demand is high and the time limited, the pressure intensifies and the collaborators suffer it.
The current market pressure and demand demand greater speed and immediate response time. Ironically, less staff are enabled, but they are required to perform high performance in less time.
These factors generate a breeding ground that causes a feeling of exhaustion, which can lead collaborators to suffer chronic fatigue on a physical and emotional level. impacting your productivity.
Collaborators want to be part of a purpose, they want to contribute to the achievement of their company’s objectives. However, when their objectives are not clear and they are not adequately enabled to fulfill their functions, they will constantly receive claims for their performance, which causes a decrease in their commitment and hooking.
In recent months we conducted a study in 10 organizations of different turns (all with at least 15,000 employees) in which we identified a relevant finding:
Above 70% of individual contribution employees and more than 60% of the leadership positions showed levels of dissatisfaction due to the lack of clarity in the execution of their functions.
This perception occurred despite the fact that the work environment in the organizations we analyzed was good, the commitment to achieving results was high and the documentary processes existed.
This and another dozen findings allowed us to conclude that:
“The collaborators want to fulfill their functions, but they lack the knowledge (not necessarily documentary) to carry them out as the business requires”.
Training/enabling talent to fulfill its functions could effectively sound like an action that every organization performs regularly, however, this is not the case.
The information obsolescence factor plays a critical role and often pushes inexperienced leaders towards inadequate postures of the type:“It is the job of my collaborators to investigate how to do their job”or“Why invest in training them if the processes change constantly.”
Some of our recommendations to ensure that the leaders (of your organization) implement knowledge management as a strategy to enhance engagement in their collaborators are:
- Concientizar a los líderes sobre su responsabilidad para acelerar la curva de aprendizaje en el talento de nuevo ingreso y mantener actualizados al equipo actual.
- Accompany the areas to develop specific onboarding process on the functions of the area.
It is important to distinguish between an institutional onboarding and a specific one in the area in which they will perform their function. It is not necessary to generate written manuals, you can innovate in the way of generating repositories or information banks, such as short videos that explain the “how” of the tasks. Thus, it is possible to generate a model where the know-how evolves with each collaborator.
- Develop work cells where collaborators can assume roles of enablers among themselves, avoiding assigning only this task to expert positions or of greater hierarchy.(You could be interested in the article “20 retirements” where we address how to create work cells).
- Invitar a las áreas a democratizar su know-how, para que puedan compartir mejores prácticas con otras áreas similares en distintas regiones, logrando así que maximicen los resultados y generando una cultura de preservar el conocimiento para aportar valor a la competitividad del negocio.
- The key is and will be perseverance. The task of enabling will never end, it is a continuous and evolving process.
Enabling work that is done today will be obsolete in the near future.
It is our task as an organization to train leaders who continually implement the transfer of knowledge as a strategy to guarantee the permanence of its best collaborators and the competitiveness of its area in charge.
3. The desire for co-creation by leaders and collaborators is not attended.
Employer brands are being evaluated for their ability to generate collaborative environments. We identify that “feeling that their proposals are heard and generate value”, is one of the most valued aspects by collaborators.
People have the desire to co-create for the benefit of the organization and feel that they design their future as a team, “they want to feel that they are valued beyond fulfilling a function”.
To achieve these levels of contributions in teams, leaders with the ability to manage, democratize and evolve the know-how of the area and business are required.
It is common to witness that leaders avoid promoting co-creative scenarios for fear of losing authority.
a culture of co-creation generates Maturity in business evolution and competitiveness strategies.
Some of our recommendations to deal with this cause from the transfer of knowledge are:
- Generate awareness in the leaders of the organization that “today they compete for talent with organizations that are anywhere in the world”.
- To make leaders aware that today talent can generate income from different forms and that a formal job is no longer their only option.
- Strengthen the culture of co-creation through practices where collaborators in an area capitalize on the knowledge of people who are part of other areas that do not have a direct relationship. That is, strengthen a culture of creative-critical thinking. where the result will be to enhance knowledge in a multidimensional way.
To put it in clearer terms, we will use the following example.-
Suppose we are located in a corporate where the Finance area meets with the New Business Design area to understand how it develops its ideation and planning process.
Although the finance area does not have as much freedom because it is governed by regulations established by regulatory entities, it could probably identify new ways in how to provide service to its internal clients.
By adopting best practices in its functional processes, it will contribute to the capitalization of knowledge, building a new know-how and providing direct value to the competitiveness of the area and the organization.
Conclusion
Organizations can implement knowledge transfer as a strategic tool to face the battle for talent.
We recommend implementing theEDDIT® model for knowledge management and transfer.
Organizations that have adopted the EDDIT® model as part of their work culture in their various.They have managed to create spaces for collaboration that increase commitment and engagement in their current teams, also accelerating productivity in their new hires. Obtaining an important benefit in their reputation and prestige as an employer brand, they are also achieving a significant competitive advantage by preserving and enhancing their knowledge.
I wish more information on how to implement the EDDIT® model in my organization.
Explanation of some concepts used.
Difference between “training and development” and “knowledge transfer authorization”.
In our trajectory we realize that there is a powerful difference between the concepts“Training and development” and “Knowledge transfer authorization”.
When we use the term “Training and Development”We refer to providing the necessary skills and strategic knowledge for the collaborator to make FIT (match) with the culture of the organization. This can even be applied as a career planfor the strengthening of the mindset and adequacy of the behavior model required in the organization.
Training and development can be provided by central areas.
When we use the term“Knowledge transfer authorization”We refer to the act of providing the specific knowledge required to perform a function, responsibility and/or task successfully.
Enabling through knowledge transferIt must be continuous to face the changes in the market and achieve the competitiveness of the area and its teams.
Knowledge management and transfer is something that falls to each area or department. This is the essence of Knowledge Management and it is for this reason that it should be implemented in all areas of the organization.
