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The Next-Generation Talent Operating Model

Forbes Human Resources Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Kelley Steven-Waiss

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Enterprises need to adapt quickly to fluctuating markets and rapidly changing technology. Groundbreaking products change the workforce landscape, and executives are challenged to not only stay ahead, but thrive in today’s quick-moving industries. Reskilling and upskilling your workforce to maintain productivity has become the cornerstone of many companies’ success. But maintaining visibility into your workforce’s skills and career goals is a paramount challenge.

How do enterprises innovate fast enough to keep up with changing markets? When product innovation relies heavily on skill innovation, how do companies keep up with both? New products and services require new skills from your workforce to drive success, and these skills need to be fostered prior to a surge in demand for them.

Talent Mobility As Core Competency Of Transformation

The talent operating models that have been used for decades are becoming obsolete because they are slow to track workforce skills and predict talent bench strength. A new era of talent management is upon us, and it is agile, open and transparent. If an organization wants to function at full operating capacity, it has to maintain a talent marketplace and share skills across departments.

That's where talent mobility comes in. Talent mobility allows your workforce to self-promote the skills they are most proud of, and it provides opportunity transparency across your organization. This transparency breaks silos and makes it possible to catalog your talent by skills and understand who within your organization is best qualified to respond to emerging projects. The new mantra among human resources professionals is all about talent mobility, agile transformation and career progression.

Modern human resources executives are thinking more about their enterprise’s talent supply chain than ever before. This pipeline of skills needs to be transparent, easy to access and mapped to the right work opportunities. With this nimble list of skills diversified throughout an enterprise, HR executives can begin to assemble the right talent for now and for upcoming, mission-critical tasks. These fluid project teams are a win-win: Companies benefit from faster team innovation, and both productivity and morale soar as the workforce feels more in control of their career paths.

Imagine filling positions in weeks instead of months and significantly reducing recruiting and onboarding costs while employee engagement and career-building have energized your workforce. These are only a few of the results talent mobility brings to an enterprise.

Faster Innovation Is The Key To Staying Successful

Having a sense of control of your career path is important, especially when McKinsey Global Institute predicts that as many as 800 million workers — about a fifth of the global workforce — could lose their jobs to automation by 2030. Workers in the U.S. were singled out in the report as being among the most impacted by these automated changes. However, changes, including losing jobs to automation, also represent new opportunities for the workforce.

As jobs are lost, new jobs are formed, and new skills are required to accomplish these jobs. Again, faster innovation is the key to staying successful, and by innovation, we are referring to upskilling and reskilling of your current workforce in a strategic and agile manner. A growth mindset in today’s markets is more about being open to new operating models and ways to best mobilize and optimize the full value of the skills inside your organization.

Visibility into the hidden skills, capabilities and aspirations of your workforce means you can more rapidly and cost-effectively assign the right talent to the right project. A highly engaged workforce allows employees to work on the projects that best match their skills and interests. When this happens, the possibilities are endless because real-time challenges can be solved. Transforming an enterprise takes time and effort, but the results equate to a workforce ready to take on future challenges. In uncertain times, an agile workforce is a key to an organization's success.

Connecting people with opportunities for micro-learning and personal growth lead to more fulfilling careers that allow companies to maximize their investment in talent. Fostering a culture of continuous learning and mentorship improves productivity so your enterprise functions at full capacity. Enterprises that recognize the hidden talents of their workforce can work in an agile manner and achieve great success. When the market changes, will you be ready?

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