Overcoming the talent crisis and driving high performance in the long term in the retail industry requires raising talent management to a strategic level. To create a talent-powered organization, companies must be prepared to do more than just react to short-term urgencies. They need to proactively and systematically manage their talent from a business point of view.
Shaping an overall approach to talent management begins with a workforce talent strategy—a clear articulation of how talent will enable the business to achieve its objectives. The talent strategy then feeds into the suite of activities along what we call the "talent management life cycle."
Defining Talent Needs
It is imperative for talent-powered retailers to define their talent needs in terms of their strategic contribution to the business. However, these organizations must also understand their talent needs at the level of workforce skills and competencies in order to define the specific nature of the talent that needs to be developed or recruited. Best-practice talent management processes are connected through a competency model that provides a common language to drive all talent processes, from recruitment to deployment, learning and performance management.
Discovering Talent: The Importance of New Sourcing Strategies
When it comes to sourcing the skills they need to operate effectively in challenging economic times, and to developing longer-term profitability, companies must seek out diverse talent pools and consider novel options for acquiring the talent they need. An increasing number of retailers are leveraging business partners and external providers of shared services and/or outsourced services.
Retailers are accustomed to leveraging third-party providers in logistics, supply chain services, payroll and other back-office functions, in addition to creative and marketing services. Today, external sourcing strategies are being extended to higher-end skills such as analytics, inventory planning, replenishment, pricing and promotion, as well as supporting functions such as finance, accounting, HR and learning.
Developing Talent
Developing talent and helping new employees reach competence quickly is vitally important in the retail industry, where annual employee turnover rates can exceed 100 percent. Being able to continuously improve individual and collective skills, knowledge and behaviors will become more critical in the years ahead. Creating the capability to continually develop an organization’s talent involves:
- Investing in enhancing employees’ skills, knowledge and behaviors to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives.
- Using technology-enabled learning and knowledge sharing to make learning more efficient and effective.
- Designing work roles and assignments that provide a platform for learning through relationships at work, particularly with line managers.
Deploying Talent
Talent-powered organizations deploy talent in ways that enable people to draw on their personal and professional aspirations to create value for the organization. Aligning work demands and performance expectations with employees' personal work preferences is an important way to increase employee engagement and, therefore, employees' contributions to the business.