Article: Talent Management in today’s age – Focusing on the way employees learn

Talent Management Social technology tools

Talent Management in today’s age – Focusing on the way employees learn

As businesses become more globalized, HR leaders need to appreciate the value that global candidates can bring in terms of cultural diversity and local market knowledge.
Talent Management in today’s age – Focusing on the way employees learn

Jumping Into The Global Talent Pool

In the industrial economy only the multinational giants could play on the global stage. In the connected economy, start-ups are becoming billion dollar companies overnight because of their access to global talent as well as global consumers. As business becomes more globalized HR leaders need to appreciate the value that global candidates can bring in terms of cultural diversity and local market knowledge.

Treating English Fluency Like Any Other Job Skill

While globally diverse teams increase innovation and creativity, as well as bringing you closer to your local markets, they can also present challenges for workforce communications.

Progressive global businesses treat English fluency like any other job skill, with English assessments becoming an integral part of the recruitment process. As with other skills, benchmarks for minimum standards should reflect the communication needs of the initial position, while integrated learning programs can broaden the potential talent pool. Candidates with inadequate English can bring their skills up to standard with on the job training.

Times have changed  - Learning Management Is Now A Boardroom Issue

In the industrial economy learning at work was an extracurricular activity that took employees away from their “real work” and disrupted the lives of colleagues around them. A classroom-dominated approach delivered abstract learning conditions, with employees often struggling to apply new skills back in the workplace. Learning programs were driven by the needs of the employer and often aimed merely to establish conformity across the workforce.

To meet the changing needs of the connected economy learning programs need to play a central role in developing an agile workforce. Blended learning approaches—where the majority of learning happens on-the-job— ensure newly-developed skills are immediately benefiting the business, as well as employees and the colleagues around them.

Making Learning A Two-Way Street

Learning programs that are driven equally by the needs of the employee and the employer can also play a major role in the retainment of talent. Today’s millennial workforce places great value on continuous learning environments.

In survey after survey, their message is clear—if they’re not learning, they’re leaving.  Aligning a learning management program closely to the recruitment process meets both the desires of millennial recruits for a continuous learning environment, and the needs of connected organizations to build and develop agile workforces.

“Our candidates today are not looking for a career… they’re looking for an experience” - Bersin by Deloitte

Technology Transforms Learning

The advances in technology that are helping drive the connected economy can also enable talent management programs to revolutionize the area of learning management. Technology can reduce costs while bringing greater personalization, flexibility and efficacy to learning programs.

But as Deloitte discovered, this is an opportunity that many organizations still need to take advantage of:

While employees now demand a personalized, digital learning experience that feels like YouTube, many companies are stuck with decades-old learning management systems that amount to little more than a registration system or course catalog.

Research shows that less than 25 percent of companies feel comfortable with today’s digital learning environment.

Peer-to-Peer Learning Still Adds Value

While technology can transform learning programs, it needs to be combined with the value of personal mentoring, coaching and teaching. Even technology-driven companies like Google ensure they unlock the value of their own experts as part of their overall learning plan with its Googler-to-Googler program. Giving employees teaching roles makes learning a natural part of the way employees work together, avoiding the potential abstraction of “HR sessions.”

Learning to Fix Your Weakest Links

In the industrial economy, power and decision-making typically lay in the hands of the few. In the connected economy, power comes from collaboration, and in an agile workforce everyone needs to be trusted to make the right decisions.

This means today’s learning programs can’t be focused around the “chosen few.” Every employee must become part of a continuous learning culture.

Excerpts from Pearson English White paper on White paper on The New Language of Talent Management. 
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Topics: Talent Management Social technology tools, #LAndDWeek

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