Is it time to 'TA'ngo!
A quick scan of CEO, Talent or HR trends over past few years will tell you that war for talent has taken a new form. The race is now not only with others but with growing cost and growth pressures, even inter department talent war is going to intensify. More and more reports talk about up skilling of workforce, Deloitte refers to this as 'Accessing new capabilities". LinkedIn's own global talent trends refer to internal recruiting as the next big challenge. Some may call it as building leadership talent which in absence of internal talent essentially indicates towards scanning of the market for the right fit.
A few bold consulting organizations have also gone to call it out as trends that keep CEOs and CHROs awake at night. Honestly they are not far from reality.
The future-ready skills are in limited circulation and given the life cycle of any new skill, will continue to be scarce. By the time the reactive organizations respond to new skill and add them to their repertoire the market has already shifted.
McKinsey in their winning with talent playbook suggest very clear action points and a suggestion; the action points are develop talent through projects, acquire the team, cultivate the critical 2% and a very cliched suggestion " Treat HR as a strategic partner". I personally find that suggestion very amusing- Treat HR as a strategic partner. And there are reams and reams written on how CHROs can become CEOs, how HR is the most critical strategic function, how HR needs to have a seat on the table etc. It almost seems that the World HR lobby has decided to influence the big boys club to start inclusion agenda with HR(!), without taking into account whether their HR teams have developed a right to win or not in the market place. These trends having same content in almost the same tonality year after year make me wonder, that is the new CHRO essentially the Chief Talent Officer. Well you may have different names for it but clearly the CXOs want their HR colleagues to disproportionately focus on talent and perhaps are struggling with making that shift happen.
I am going to make two profound statements, not based on any research but on experience and what I am witnessing in the market. Firstly the HR generalist as a role and a skill is dead, its passé, if not already then it's going to be soon closer to extinction. Second it's actually time for "TA"ngo, HR folks seriously need to start considering having a stint in Talent at large and Talent Acquisition in particular; no I am not asking you to rely on the recruiters and assume that you will develop this functional expertise remotely, I am asking you to take a deep dive into TA. Make it one of your towering strengths if you want a great career in Human Capital.
My reasons are simple, if you are a generalist today you are over indexing only on one experience i.e. business facing role with stakeholder management, no denying it's a super critical experience to have but let me be honest- it's not a skill, it doesn't give you an expertise edge and if you haven't been exposed into multiple areas within human capital as a domain, then in today's context you are essentially a broker(there I said it!).
( It's different if you are HR business partnering leader with multiple businesses , domains, geographies and complexities thrown your way, then you are a CHRO yourself and your being generalist is secondary but your ability to navigate large complex business problems is more critical.)
My point is on folks and roles who have been HR generalist, take pride in that and look at that the role as a window to other organization capabilities and make it happen for their business. I think your stakeholders know that and are pretty close to building their own networks internally and externally to get that expertise.
There are some evolved and smart organizations who have taken the route to providing critical experiences to their human resources teams by providing rotations and a growing exposure to different expertise functions within Human Capital. This is not only done at the beginning of their careers but it's a constant exercise throughout.
I like to refer this as line and staff postings; within the corporate battle field, you need to have your warriors in line roles say HR business partnering, Talent Acquisition, Employee Relations and then you need to put the battle harden HR talent into staff roles to build their repertoire with more strategy through HR automation, Transformation, Total Rewards, Talent management etc.
Let me talk about my second point on why you need to become more talent savvy and build that as a towering strength, let's face it, as a HR leader the expectations from your role are going to involve both buying and building capabilities. From my personal experience both of these are super critical and its not something which you can outsource, well, let me correct myself, you can outsource part of it but you need to have skin in the game. With lack of having experience in talent domains you are going to need strong lieutenants in your team and even then you will rely on your 'common sense', 'curiosity' and ability to ask questions to design talent strategy of your organization. Isn't that putting your organization and your own impact- ability at risk?
I know TA is not hot, it's all mundane activities, crazy execution, the recruiters are always on the firing line and oh that business pressure, but beyond these clouds there is that heavily business engaged leader/role who lives and breathes productivity, efficiency and pure tangible business results. The TA team members of today are also your employment brand ambassadors. A great TA team can have significant impact on business( and here is the secret if you think HR talent is in scarcity, good TA leaders are further rare finds.)
Talent Development and Talent Management are the other two very deep expertise areas which will help steer your HR careers as you prepare for future. These are not develop-able by just a short stint or having done it as a part of your HRBP exposure, I strongly encourage you to keep coming back to TD and TM domains in increasing order of complexity and organization growth, it's an extremely dynamic field, takes lot to develop and is probably the most strategic role which gets you seat on the table very quickly.
Very interesting post, Sumek, thanks for sharing your perspective.?In 2001, I took a deliberate career move to a recruiter role and started working as a full time telecommuter, which for that time was very progressive.?I honestly thought giving up my generalist role would be career limiting and I couldn't have been more wrong.?In TA I found a discipline that was at the leading edge of our unprecedented growth and a team that continually wanted to advance our function.? What I think is interesting is how?many in other HR specialty roles (like Talent Management, Learning & Development, HR Operations, even Talent Marketing!)?tend to think of the HR generalists or partners as the ones who have the seat at the table, but they don't always take into account just how far-reaching their TA organization is embedded into the business.?When you think of the number of hours a large recruitment team spends on the phone with hiring managers talking strategy, business plans they are trying to accomplish and need more talent for, their internal team and who is growing vs. who needs to develop...surely the recruiter or TA professional has such an ability to articulate the true pulse of the business itself.?And, yes, many of these conversations might be transactional, but just for reach alone we should be thinking about our TA professionals as such an important channel to reach our talent pools and leaders. Just think how much more we can advance our talent agendas when we arm the people in those roles with the information needed to truly help drive change.?It is an exciting time to be in TA or any talent-related specialty area right now!
I help organisations build exceptional teams , robust infra and compliant ecosystem across the globe
4 年There have been conscious and unconscious biases pertinent to Talent Acquisition roles across small, mid or large enterprises. From being typecasted as transactional to being treated as most critical function when business need to buy talent; or from credited purely for filling positions to shaking legs with leadership, the role has had its own set of hi's and lo's. What some organizations missed out was the metamorphosis of recruitment and genesis of TA, though few players embraced the change and made this a game changer. Sumek G. - your article very well encapsulate the story of those players in the later category who not only offer a front seat to 'TA' in a ballroom full of conventionally respected functions, but offer the floor to showcase the 'TANGO' moves , specially when the floor gets slippery. This post is also a tribute to a function that brings the brightest minds to an organization, work tirelessly to ensure there is no business discontinuity despite not being appreciated enough for the efforts put in to acquire that purple squirrel.
HR
4 年Its interesting that this topic(in my article) has found resonance in another report that i came across; I quote the ChapmanCG Q3 global HR outlook by Stefanie Cross-Wilson " Talent acquisition continues to rapidly evolve. For some organizations, the talent pool has become much broader for creatively minded sourcing teams. There are already organizations which are taking advantage and being early adopters, offering talent working from home opportunities that have not been on offer before. We are also noticing a trend towards more HR business partners moving into talent acquisition. HR and business leaders are calling out for stronger and more credible partnership to help grow their markets and become more competitive. HR business partners are increasingly being sourced to lead TA functions, with the expectation that they can quickly build credibility within the business, understand key people and business drivers and link new talent to bottom-line performance. Talent acquisition leaders are adding executive recruiters to their teams. This is not only to work more closely with business leaders internally but also to foster closer relationships with search partners. This is with a longer-term approach to developing key executive talent pipelines and an understanding of how to attract these individuals." We at Optum have been adapting and absorbing what is being quoted by Chapman, I am an example of one such move and my colleagues Aalok Purohit and Megha Khanduja are examples of leaders from executive search who have joined our team. Tim Rayner Stefanie Cross-Wilson Matthew Chapman
Bridging People & Technology| HR Strategy, Talent Management
4 年Thanks for sharing your thoughts Sumek G. It's time that different HR functions collaborate more. For instance training and manpower development should sit more often with TA and business partners team to understand the perspective and challenges. TA enables individual to learn about latest technologies which in turn can become the biggest strength and key differentiator when it comes to business or other teams valuing TA team!!!
Global HR Leader | Compensation Strategy | Talent Management & Acquisition | HR Generalist | Cornell | Driving Organizational Growth & Workforce Excellence
4 年Sumek G. I so much relate to what you have written, TA has moved beyond just hiring and fulfilling numbers.... the most neglected area is evaluating talent slate holistically and ensuring both your internal and external talent landscape is taken into consideration while filling roles.... It’s time to ‘TA’ngo!