Practical Guide For Creating A Global Talent Strategy

No need to worry if you missed out on the session.  You can watch the entire event on our YouTube Channel (video embedded above).

Here is a summary of the hour long event to help you get a basic understanding of the entire discussion.

The session was started off with a round of introduction of the esteemed panel.

Dianne Hummel, HRBP, and Talent Director at Maker Lab has worked with several new organisations to help them grow as a business. She’s currently working with Maker Lab to build an organization that is letting go of a lot of communication processes to build a system consisting of members that are ready to work and implement ideas hands on.

Manoj Parikatil, Human Resources Director at Goodera has always been a recruiter at heart. Having started off by working at a recruitment agency and then opening an agency of his own, Manoj then decided to explore the corporate world. He worked with two other companies to help them with their recruiting efforts and is now working with Goodera.

Dakshdeep Singh, AVP- Customer Onboarding at PeopleStrong started off his career as a software engineer and then moved into the recruitment industry by 2007. He initially worked with HCL Technologies for a period of 7 years before joining PeopleStrong. At HCL he was highly interested in the HR Technology field due to which he did several certification courses before joining PeopleStrong to provide HR Tech Solutions to the company.

Divikiran Kathuria, Talent Mobility, and Redeployment at Seagate Technology also began her career in coding, having done coding for products in Human Resources, she realised her love for HR. She has been in the field of HR Transformations for 15 years and is leading talent mobility, and redeployment at Seagate Technology.

After the initial set of introductions, the session moved on to discussing the topic at hand with the first question being asked by the host, Meena (HR Lead at Airmeet).

WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD BE THE TRENDS OF TALENT STRATEGY IN 2021?

Here’s what the panelists had to say:

Manoj - In 2021, companies have entered a hybrid model of working, therefore it is essential for organisations to ensure that their culture is preserved along with evaluating performance of team members both while working from home and the office. The process of onboarding new employees should also be given importance with everything going online to ensure that the right talent is recruited.

Dianne - Along with other factors, another important aspect is ensuring HR Well-being. To ensure that the HRs are looked after so that they can look after the team. In terms of talent, mental health plays a huge role,  it should be made sure that support team members are aware of the different levels of mental health well-being  so that they can understand as to why a member might not be turning up to meetings or for work. In terms of engagement, it is important to check if the existing benefits are working well for the employees or do they require any changes.

Dakshdeep - Four areas that can be focused on in terms of talent strategy are - focusing on learning and re-skilling to transform the economy, to energise the experience side by redesigning the work experience of team members for holistic wellbeing, driving more collaborations to make the company thrive and lastly, finding ways to augment Artificial Intelligence along with human intuition to give members a feeling of a augmented reality while working in hybrid mode.

Divikiran - Speaking from the marketing perspective, we need to learn to be agile as an organisation and to accept that disruption is continuous and should be accepted as a catalyst to drive talent strategies within a company. Another factor to discuss is how to make a shift from survive to thrive and the answer to that is being distinctively human at the core and by adopting certain top trends which are - building a sustainable future, ensuring holistic wellbeing, re-skilling talent, and serving the economy.

The panel then moved on to discussing the next question put forward by Meena-

WHAT ARE THE FEW INITIATIVES YOU HAVE TAKEN TO ENSURE POSITIVE EXPERIENCE FOR CANDIDATES AND EMPLOYEES WITHIN THE ORGANISATION?

Dakshdeep - We have implemented practices to address mental issues and have a team that constantly checks up on other members while they work from home. Additionally, enabling remote digital health checks so that employees do not need to leave their home along with an effective health insurance policy for the members, and providing sessions to members suffering from mental health issues. Providing all these benefits in the form of a package to make members feel like they are being taken care of.

From the experience perspective, ensuring that there is flexibility across the organization rather than being role specific, re-designing a lot of processes to enhance working experience and converting the office to a hot desk so that you need to book your seats beforehand with the use of an application in order to work from the office, so as to make the organisation more employee led. We have also tried to decentralise the workings of the office so as to improve holistic wellbeing of the employees.

Manoj - Candidate experience is of utmost importance, especially in this work from home condition, therefore we are in constant communication with them in order to inform them of the timeline of the office along with other information by conducting regular check-ins since the start.

Dianne - To start off we have replaced the term candidate with talent. We do not talk about office perks, but about what we require and the kind of talent we are looking for to see if the person is a match for the organization. Another thing is to give clear instructions and leave people in-charge of work and meetings so that they are responsible for any form of communication relating to said work.

In terms of employees, communication is really important. Asking them to reach out to us in case of any problems is vital. Asking members directly if they are struggling with work so as to help them deal with any problems they might be facing has been really helpful.

From an experience perspective letting employees use their bonus and other benefits the way they want to, in order to improve work from home experience.

Divikiran - Giving space to members to talk about issues especially HRs who have been overworked during this time. Telling members to take time off and talk about their issues. Also to limit the work to be done so that no one is overworked.

Hosting virtual coffee to help members have casual conversations with each other. Another practice is Focus Fridays where members can finish any pending work that they have from the past two weeks if they do not have any other meeting scheduled. Self-learning is also incorporated into this.

Taking off due to mental stress is also encouraged. Another idea implemented by the company Adobe is taking resources from the office to use at home since they are not being used at the office and also giving a holiday once a month as a,‘Covid thank you’. Along with this, rewards have also changed to fit the current environment better.

Meena added that Airmeet too implements the practice of hosting meetings where members just communicate with each other to encourage bonding amongst each other.

The panel then moved on to the following question -

WHAT HAS CHANGED IN CANDIDATES TALENT EXPECTATION FOR YOUR ORGANISATION?

Dianne - We look for candidates that can adjust to changes so as to function properly during times of difficulty. Another thing is to ensure clarity between them and what we can offer and to allow them to build their own paths. Another part of screening candidates is asking them what did not work for them in the role they were in and what changes they would want to bring to the industry and the company from an external point of view.

Meena agreed that it is vital to have clarity about expectations of both the candidate as well as the company.

Divikiran - We would like to look for candidates with learning agility as they make a better fit for the organisation. Secondly, having empathy is a very important factor in a candidate as it helps  to function as a team. Third is having purpose in order to motivate the candidates to work well and to ensure that the candidates' purpose is met through their work in the organisation.

Additionally, focusing on Emotional Quotient, and trying to repurpose talent within the company to make use of the available skillset is also vital. We have also launched an internal talent market to explore other directions members can explore within the organisation.

Manoj - We need to be precise on who we need to hire and be sure of the skills we need. From the candidates view, having the right set of mind and willingness to learn along with the ability to work in an ambiguous situation. In return we should try to provide candidates with unique projects and cutting edge technology to help them find their work interesting

The session was then drawn to an end with a question by Divikiran-

HOW DO YOU WORK WITH TEAM MEMBERS TO LIMIT CANDIDATE SKILL REQUIREMENTS?

Manoj - Working with members to help understand that finding a candidate with all the skills cannot be possible and focusing on a set of skills can help in such situations. The candidate can then later be introduced to other skills within the organisation with passage of time.

Dianne - Focusing on the non-negotiable aspects first so as to ensure that the candidate can meet those requirements along with focusing on the personality of the candidate to see if it fits the role well. Additionally looking into the past experience of the candidate to see if they can fit into the job with the skills they have already acquired.

Additionally Meena added that it is important to have conversations with the stakeholder and to understand the need and urgency for the employee before making the final decision of recruitment.

With this, the session was drawn to an end.

We hope you found this summary to be helpful. We look forward to seeing you in the next session.