Planning ahead for future needs - especially when labor markets begin to tighten up - is not an easy proposition. What follows are some practical ideas to establish a long-term, yet flexible, talent management program with the goal of putting the right people in the right jobs at the right time.
Few would disagree with the statement that employers are better off managing, rather than reacting to, changes in their organisation (or changes in markets) that dictate demand for a certain type of talent.
Be on the proverbial "same page" about the importance of talent planning
While painful, a powerful way to accomplish this is through a post-mortem of a recent downsizing or hiring initiative and asking difficult questions about what worked, what didn't and what the costs associated with the mistakes were. One mortgage banking business, upon completing this exercise, realised that they could have saved substantial dollars by establishing a pool of experienced "on-call" contract workers to handle an up-turn in re-financing. Instead, they spent lots of resources (both time and money) to hire less experienced "fresh" talent and train that talent only to complete that process as interest rates increased and business started to dry up.
Use recruiting to complement internal talent management activities
Companies who are most successful at managing their talent integrate their recruiting efforts with other talent processes, whether training, career-pathing, succession planning, mobility programs, etc. With these efforts centered on preparing internal talent to fill key positions, external hiring programs can be used to fill in gaps where internal talent is not available. While this clearly makes good common sense, it can be difficult to coordinate, particularly in organisations with decentralised HR functions. As one divisional HR director put it, "I was thrilled to be able to find an internal candidate for a mid-level marketing position with the right experience and readiness to be promoted from within our operations group. But the match was a fluke and would have never happened if I hadn't chatted with the Operations HR VP at a social event. The incident just underscores the need for a better co-ordination process."
Align recruiting investments to the unique conditions of specific roles
Recognise that different roles in your organisation will require a different level and type of investment in recruiting. Don't try to plan for talent needs in the same way for all roles. Realise that recruiting priorities are driven by a number of role-specific factors (e.g., volume of anticipated turnover, criticality of the role, training or development required to become productive in the role, availability of ready talent in the labor market).