Creating a Top Talent Focused Organization

Our business world today is increasingly competitive and global. Attracting and keeping talented people is the key to being a successful company, law or accountancy firm. Organizations are increasingly challenged to recruit top talent and improve the company culture and environment.

People want meaning and purpose in their work. Assuring a great fit between an employee and his/her employer is critical for both to be happy. The right fit increases the probability of full engagement. But how should leaders design organizations to ensure that talent is the highest priority?

I just finished reading a seminal book by Ed Lawler Talent - Making People Your Competitive Advantage. Ed Lawler is director of the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California (USC). Talent offers a remarkable blueprint that clearly maps out an understandable approach to organizing and leading an organization focused on talent. The book is practical incorporating case examples that make some of the learning and lessons come alive. The book pays special attention to:

• Leadership
• Performance Evaluation
• Managing Change
• Reinventing Human Resources
• Corporate Boards
• Strategic Talent Management

I found especially fascinating the outlining of the Star Model which identifies the features that help create an organization focused on human capital. Human capital focused organizations need to be known as places that value and grow inspiring leaders. The Star Model begins with strategy. Strategy defines which products, services, and markets an organization will focus on and how it will compete Determining the right competencies and capabilities is core to strategy execution.

At the center of the Star Model is identity. Identity is differentiated from culture. Culture is defined as the internal values and norms of an organization that defines how things are done and what is important. In contrast, identity is described as the fundamental personality of the organization with respect to how it treats people, what it values, what the right way to do things are, and what are acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.

Talent is a great resource for leaders who want to determine which strategic talent management approach best fits their business. The choices are a full engagement approach that has long-term employee relationships as a goal or a global-competitor approach where there is a constant need for new talent and technological capability.

Are you a leader with a mindset obsessed with talent. Reading and implementing some of the key strategies described in Talent may just be your ticket to success.