Following talent management best practices can only take you so far. Top-performing companies subscribe to a set of principles that are consistent with their strategy and culture.
One of the biggest challenges facing multinational companies is building and sustaining a strong talent pipeline. To learn how leading multinational companies are facing up to the talent test, the team of authors examined both qualitative and quantitative data at leading companies from a wide range of industries. The research drew on 18 in-depth case studies, including IBM, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Siemens, IKEA, Infosys and Samsung.
The companies the authors studied held two distinct views on how best to evaluate and manage talent. One group assumed that some employees had more “value” or “potential” than others and that, as a result, companies should focus the lion’s share of corporate attention and resources on them; the second group had a more inclusive view, believing that too much emphasis on the top players could damage morale and hurt opportunities to achieve broader gains.
Although organizations must pay attention to recruiting, employee development, performance management, compensation and reward systems, and retention, the authors found that competitive advantage in talent management doesn’t just come from identifying key activities (for example, recruiting and training) and then implementing “best practices.” Rather, they found that successful companies subscribe to six key principles: 1) alignment with strategy, 2) internal consistency, 3) cultural embeddedness, 4) management involvement, 5) balance of global and local needs, and 6) employer branding through differentiation. Adopting a “set of principles” rather than “best practices” may challenge current thinking, but the authors argue that best practices are only “best” in the context for which they were designed; what works for one company may not work in another. The principles, by contrast, have broad application.
2 Comments On: Six Principles of Effective Global Talent Management
These principles indeed reflect the additional responsibility that the business community could introspect while going for the best practices. Very useful reference for the HR leads to carry out Talent alignment effectively to organizational road map. Many organizations strive to get an insight into these successful companies’ approach to General HR (Best)practices.
Often though what is not visible is the impact that business dynamics that happen at the next two levels of operational and tactical progress which majorly impact the Strategic direction that the organization decides upon.
for example, impact on compensation on Retention and Talent Management would have differing impact from geography to geography, similarly the Economic turbulence may need more than a few selected orgs.
Thanks for publishing this insightful piece. I was particularly interested in Principle 5 (Balance of Global and Local Needs). A critical and sometimes under-emphasized consideration for talent management systems– particularly in global or multi-region deployments — is the extent to which they allow organizations to pursue the optimal mix of local operating preferences and nuances along with established global standards. From a non-technology perspective, multinationals should consider diversity issues that range from factors related to their industry, operating geographies, culture, pace of growth and growth strategy, other elements of their business strategy (including all talent management aspects), sophistication of talent management practices, how people work and manage other people, workforce demographics and composition (e.g., salaried, hourly, contingent), etc.
– Nikki Newman, Lumesse