Table 1 People Challenge

What does your company need to do to develop and retrain your top Talent?

At the table: David Dunne, James Herbert, John Cheevers, Stephen Griffin, Cianna Reilly, Kevin Woulfe, Olivia Boyce

Summary of the conversations

The business needs to be understood and they need to frame up the why and link it with the personal why – when these are linked its “Win” scenario

Why only focus on Top Talent – should be a focus on un tapped talent in the organisation

If they are Top Talent nudge them and let them take control over their own training development plan. They are normally in a position to drive this.

Business drivers linked to personal area of interests deliver the best outcomes.

Need to be carefully not to push someone in a certain direction just because there is a business need as it could demotivate the individual.

Need to set the person up for success – Needs to stretch them for success not for failure.

Support the individual between Peer to Peer support is an effective bridge when individual as stepping back into the retrain world. Understanding where people are at from a personal point of view and developing a tailored support plan can be a key to a successful outcome.

Force movement of talent is there a place?  Consensus that this is not normally a recipe for success.

Link in with external providers of training to make content relevant. – This creates the right environment to support your talent.

Ensure there is commitment from the organisation that there is something at the end of the investment for the individual. This can’t always be the case but should be the norm.

Recognition by management and the organisation for the achievement of individuals needs to be seen.

Dynamics within the organisation, that you can go from product builder to Senior – It’s the norm that development occurs at all levels.

Ensure courses are keep relevant and ensure the course stay current and linked to business needs.

5 Point Plan for success

  • Re-train to retain. Need to continually invest
  • What your talent pool is – Understand your current profile constantly keep it updated
  • Current vs Future needs – Id the Gap to be closed.
  • Understanding how adaptable are people to ensure the right people are invested in
  • It’s not all about the top talent – Is all about investing in all talent.

Understand that some of the business conditions can be a hindrance to retaining people. Need to understand both internal and external conditions as changes in these can impact flow out and in of talent.

Balance when going thru huge change cycle – Sometimes is make sense to keep people in the same role for stability-

Developing and promoting just internal candidates can create a stall different thinking within and organisation.

Need to be strategic around bringing in outside talent and that the organisation sees this as a normal activity. This has the ability to on board new idea and but be careful not to acclimated them into the way of doing things.

A culture of benchmarking when done right can also be an avenue to bring in fresh idea’s into an organisation.

External environment can also drive movement – need to be able to protect against this

Opportunity around developing a training targeted on segment of the workforce that have being out of the loop for a while and have key skills but are apprehensive about returning due to lack of confidence and certain skills e.g. stay at home parents.

Key Takeaways

  • Delivering on both the business and the individual needs are required to win retrain goal
  • Understanding where to invest in training is key- Defining where the future needs are is a key element which needs to be defined
  • Need to have the opportunities available for people who invest in their training as they will grow frustrated if no opportunities exist
  • You need to constantly assess the effectiveness of training offerings, as the needs can change and you need to keep the material/delivery method fresh
  • It’s not just about developing “Top Talent” but harnessing “All Talent” potential within the organisation