Rethinking talent management in the new normal

Reading the PWC 14th Annual Global CEO survey, I was quite pleased to see the increased focus on talent development across the world. Business leaders were getting deeply involved in efforts to develop talent strategically, and tactically, when needed.

Yet, between the lines, I found cause for concern. According to the survey, more than half the CEO respondents were planning to use more non-financial rewards to motivate staff, deploy more staff on international assignments, and work with governments to improve skills in the talent pool. However, less than half – 46% of CEOs globally and only 31 per cent of CEOs in the US – thought they needed to incentivise younger workers differently.

Keeping in mind the changing demographic profile at our workplaces with the advent of Gen Y workers, we need to understand that this generation does not respond to the same triggers as the ones preceding it. They are dramatically different.

Having grown up as digital natives in an inter-connected websphere, they are open-minded, collaborative and exploratory by nature. They seek answers rather than directives, rendering command and control management methods ineffective. And just like the World Wide Web, they are not limited by geographical boundaries. They seek empowerment and responsibility.

As I mentioned in my own response to the survey: Generation Y expects to work in communities of mutual interest and passion, not structured hierarchies. Consequently, people management strategies will have to change so that they look more like Facebook and less like the pyramid structures that we are used to.

I believe we need to inspire today’s young employees like we do our own children; by giving them responsibility rather than enforcing orders. They are the ones in the value zone on the frontlines of the organisation. To encourage them to create higher value, we need to give them control, rather than control them – empowerment is key!

At the recent annual meetings of the World Economic Forum, we deliberated New Norms for Corporations – and, no surprises here, talent management strategy was at the core of the discussion. During the session I put forth the argument that organizations need to ‘put the human back in business’ and create an environment of "employees first" characterized by trust based on transparency.

As leaders, we cannot ignore the fact that we face a trust deficit today. We have to overcome this to prepare the soil for business transformation that is so critical to our success.

And to regain the trust of the younger generation amongst our people, a starting point would be to push the envelope of transparency. By sharing more information on business finances, by becoming more transparent about plans or changes ahead, by being obsessively communicative. We need to make managers as accountable to their teams as their teams are to them.

Most of all, we business leaders need to appreciate the transformation of our own roles from chief executives to chief enablers in the new normal. For, it is only by empowering and enthusing our people that we can spark the spirit of innovation, which will be sorely needed to tackle increasingly complex challenges ahead.