Ochre Talk

I’ve always been intrigued by what goes on behind the doors of Westminster and “Number 10” and it appears – if the news is to be believed – that the Prime Minister’s methods of “talent management” leaves something to be desired. Assuming the reports are correct (and it could a be very large assumption) it would appear to be another case that demonstrates that political parties are an exception to the rule that unless you engage, develop and work hard to retain your staff, they will walk out the door.    
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Businesses like ours spend years working with clients to formulate compelling employee value propositions (EVP) for our clients and how to get an unfair share of top talent through their doors. And then you get the UK authorities who are able to stick a spanner in the works with just a couple of poorly thought through pieces of tax legislation. 
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KnowledgePool have a very interesting article on workplace training, which struck a chord with me. It made me think how a much more fluid workforce, the availability of specialist outsourced providers and the ready supply of contractors had changed the ‘requirement for training’ dynamic for organisations in 2010.
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Being a fan of global explorers and tales of great expeditions, I am always on the look out for commentary or articles that refer to such leadership but in a business context.  I found this article briefly captured the essence of Shackleton’s leadership during the great Antarctic “survival” of 1914-16.  I found it specifically pertinent as I read so much about how to retain staff over the coming months.
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I supported England against Wales in the 6 Nations rugby championship on Saturday and saw a once great team now down on its luck and playing with very little confidence. And it struck me that our rugby team share a lot of challenges with business today.  
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Put the words ‘talent retention’ into google trends. What do you see?

The declining use of the search term over the past few years is no surprise. Through the recession, organisations have been quite happy to let a few employees slip off the payroll. Some have actively had to manage it through workforce management and redundancy programmes.
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This was the title of an article that was shared with me the other week. The basic premise was that in a web 2.0 world, where user generated content dominates, employer branding can no longer be viewed as a monologue dictated by the corporate. Instead, focus should be on managing (or should that be influencing?) the messages shared about an organisation in the market. I wanted to look deeper…
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I spend most of my time talking to HR professionals, usually in the arena of Talent Management and Resourcing and Recruitment. One trend that’s becoming ever stronger is the link between these functions or the entire integration of them.
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At one of our recent think tank events we discussed four talent management trends to look out for in 2010. In no particular order….

Talent Management technology

After a slow start, we’re starting to see working technology that can support and drive talent decisions. By providing integrated HR data analytics about all aspects of the employee lifecycle, organisations are on the cusp of gaining a clear picture on their people capability, the gaps and risks; at a global level.
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Whether to approach strategic resourcing on a global, regional or local basis seems to be a hot topic for almost every HR professional involved in talent management.  Equally, RPO providers are working hard to tie up alliances or even acquire businesses in other parts of the world to ensure a credible regional or international capability. 
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