3 pillars of talent management, explained with examples

The concept of talent has changed. It used to be synonymous with higher-level degrees from the best universities. And although educational background is still decisive in many places, it is no longer the only criterion taken into account by companies when recruiting new talent.

Today, “high potentials” are assessed on several criteria that are very diverse and sometimes even outside the professional framework. 

Like many, we believe talent can be expressed in different ways. For example through side-projects, as in the case of an employee who organizes meet ups regularly bringing together enthusiasts around a specific subject. We also can’t forget atypical pathways, demonstrating an ability to adapt and challenge. These profiles are increasingly popular with companies.

Open-mindedness, soft skills, initiative-taking and leadership are all ways for these new talents to stand out. However, this breadth of expression has made talent management a tiny bit more challenging for HR teams.

So how can we attract and manage these talents so that they can develop within the company?

This can only happen as the result of a real strategy at each stage of the employee's career: from the recruitment process to onboarding and the key stages in their internal career afterward.

Luckily, we’ll explain how to do this at three stages, all using real world examples.

• Talent recruitment
• Talent detection
• Talent retention

Then, we help you get started with tips on how to build your talent management strategy!

Talent recruitment: How FlyTheNest tests candidates’ appetites

Without making an effort to recruit and retain your talents, there will be little return on investment. Your work will pay off in the long term by implementing real talent management strategies to attract and retain the best while standing out in your market.

The French start-up FlytheNest dares to innovate to attract the most interesting profiles. As co-founder Erwann Rozier revealed in an interview, their candidates are invited to a dinner that can last more than 4 hours. But above all, they don’t just talk about work…

According to FlyTheNest, it’s the best way to detect talent, interest and recruit the best people. Furthermore, Rozier doesn’t rule out giving share options to his best assets. Of course, this is not done on a whim: Once again, it’s the result of a talent management strategy defined upstream.

While a four-hour dinner may not make sense for you or your candidates, you could rethink your interviews by including a more relaxed way to validate the cultural fit with the company. More traditional recruitment methods have less impact today.

Talent detection: Disneyland’s investment in hidden gems

American researcher John Bourdeau discovered that the park’s cast members or sweepers were just as important, if not more, than the star with the big round ears. Due to their proximity to customers and their number, they were, ironically, hidden talents. They were therefore deserving of specific talent management. Mickey is already the visitors’ idol, so you might as well invest in the other talents!

Detect talent by looking beyond appearances. Indeed, investing in sweepers or cast members made it possible to generate more value for the park. To identify high potentials, you need to look further than their academic background or professional experience alone.

You must find out what your candidate or employee is passionate about.

• In what do they invest their time and attention?
• Have they participated in particularly significant projects?
• Are they working in parallel on a project with a strong social impact?
• Are they able to create new connections between people on new projects?
• How do they behave in a team? Are they more of a leader or a follower?

Analyze. Question. Follow.

Cross-assessment tools can be useful. It is also helpful to have a platform accessible to all your HR teams, centralizing all the information of each of your employees.

7 signs of a hidden gem

To identify a talent, you need to know exactly what you are looking for. In this respect, some signs are quite evocative:

• Outstanding (and remarkable) performance in daily work
• A sense of responsibility
• Commitment beyond your expectations
• A strong team spirit involving a collective vision
• Very rapid adaptability
• A leader’s charisma (or a profile that tends to be an expert, focused on production)
• An ability to inspire the people around them

Talent retention: Facebook treats and challenges

First, don’t be afraid of going “the extra mile” with your identified talents. Be careful, of course, not to display favoritism that could create conflicts, but it helps to show your appreciation. You may want to give them some well-earned benefits based on their performance or if they achieve common goals for an entire team, you can give them an exceptional bonus. In addition to financial benefits, play with flexibility: working conditions, hours, equipment, etc.

By proving to them that you care about your talents every day, they will feel valued. Valued employees tend to perform better and are more likely to develop an emotional bond that will enable them to see a future with your company.

Unfortunately, this is not always enough. It would be too easy.

When we talk about talents, the potential for growth inevitably also comes into play. Your employees must therefore feel they are constantly improving and challenged by their managers (with all due care, of course).

As well as entrusting them with new strategic projects for the company, you could also work on coaching, mentoring, exclusive training and more detailed monitoring of their upskilling.

Boredom must be avoided at all costs. Christian Bourion, a specialist on this topic, has written a book on the subject of Bore-Out. He believes that 30% of French employees are victims of boredom at work. Some ideas to avoid this:

• Encourage your employees to train
• Monitor markets, research, read and share information
• Work on new cross-functional projects with other teams and departments

Facebook was one of the first companies to assign a monetary value to its employees. A purely capitalist and greedy idea? Not really. The company describes it as a “quantified approach to talent management.”

It all starts with a six-week long onboarding process. For one and a half months, the newly arrived employee can work on many projects before choosing the one that suits them most afterwards. This long and complete process can also create a real sense of belonging. 

And when the value of an employee reaches its peak, $1 million for some engineers, for example, Facebook hires.

Each talent then feels valued (also in the monetary sense of the term!). They work on what they love and, most importantly, they are at the center of Facebook's overall project.

How to build a talent management policy in 3 steps

Let's move on to how this rolls out on the practical level.

As you will have understood, identifying and supporting your talents requires real efforts and a fundamental strategy to be effective.

As we have mentioned, there are roughly four pillars or principles of talent management: 

• Detect the best (outside your company): Work on your employer brand.
• Attract talent: Rethink your recruitment processes to stand out from your competitors and make those processes sexier 
• Develop their skills and expertise: Skills development will necessarily involve your internal training offer, and the creation of new and strategic projects for the company, to be entrusted to your best talents. Your goal is to get your best talent to make rapid progress through practice.
• Build loyalty: Loyalty is a long-term challenge. It takes time, being the result of a multitude of actions: good internal communications, management by meaning, responsibility, highlighting of talents, etc.

1. Planning

All good strategies require preparation. Talent management policy is no exception.

Above all, you must define your talent criteria. Is it charisma? Adaptability and flexibility? Or (over)performance in their position?

There are as many criteria as there are talents. They are also strongly related to your company’s vision and how it works.

If we talk about talent outside the company, we will now have to think about the best ways to identify it: 

• What are acquisition levers need to be activated?
• How to use LinkedIn to learn how to detect potential talent
• How do you approach that talent? What kind of stance should I take?
• What arguments should be put forward?
• What form should the interview process take?
• What is your negotiating margin on this type of profile?

As to valuation and development, we need to go into more detail…

2. Promoting

Alongside your external research, the greatest value is already found in your employees. Efforts to detect them will be much lower (costs, time, etc.)

The answer to the question of valuing talent internally may not surprise you... and yet training is the key factor.

It challenges and unlocks talent potential. New skills are acquired, while others are perfected.

What your employees are looking for is ultimately quite simple:

• upskilling in new areas of expertise
• improving current achievements
• progress in soft skills.

And that is convenient as it is exactly what you also expect from your employees.

3. Developing

These opportunities include new ways of working:

• Flexible working: remote, autonomous organization of working hours, etc.
• Internal mobility and new challenges

This last point, which we discussed in one of our last articles, is a key topic for the future. Few companies have actually implemented an internal mobility strategy. And yet it is extremely popular with employees in all companies.

Turning talent management into talent experience

To manage talent effectively, managers need to become mentors rather than supervisors. You must be ready to put in the necessary efforts and challenge your talents so that they may excel.

They like challenge and difficulty, because this is where they make the most progress! But above all, you need to build a talent management strategy from which a dedicated policy emerges.

It must be part of the overall corporate objectives. Your role is also to identify the reasons why your employees remain in your company.

The answers can be excellent levers for attracting new talent.

More than ever, feeling involved and useful, while having the impression of participating in a more comprehensive project is a fundamental and vigorous trend.