Don’t be fooled into thinking that the ideas presented in this article only apply to “big” companies. For most small businesses, payroll is their largest expense. The concept of re-thinking how we manage our most important resource can provide an ROI for large and small companies alike.
The Talent Innovation Imperative
Too many companies are wasting their resources— their people and their financial leverage — by perpetuating outdated approaches to talent management. They structure jobs rigidly, forcing many people to work a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, workweek. They focus their training on functional skills, not on aligning employees’ capabilities with the strategic objectives of the business…
…It’s not that talent is unimportant to corporate leaders. Many of them see that people are the only asset that innovates, and that innovation is the only path to sustained breakthrough performance…
…But they are held back by an old model of talent management. This model, which is so pervasive it is almost unseen, is grounded in 20th-century assumptions about people and the workplace. It hasn’t adapted to demographic changes, to shifting attitudes among employees (knowledge workers in particular), or to the new priorities of global corporations. It needs to be changed, and the needed reform will come about only through deliberate changes in policies and practices.
