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Once I asked a VP of HR who has 100s of HR people under her care to tell me what % of them have qualifications in HR. The silence was greater than in the Vatican!
How do we run companies without talent inventory? How do we run companies without knowing what skills, expertise, knowledge, or experience we have within the organisation? How do we manage talent without a talent database? How do we run businesses without having any data on the thing that generates the money i.e. competencies? Imagine running your business without knowing what's on your P&L or balance sheet.
Imagine running your bar without knowing the level of stock.
Imagine running your hospital without knowing whether or not you have a qualified doctor.
Imagine going to the shop without knowing how much money you have.
We say, our people are important to us and we constantly develop talent. Ok, but when I ask HR and talent professionals about talent inventory, they stare at me. How important are they when you don't know what they bring to the organisation?
How do you develop talent when you don't have any data on it? If you don't know what you have within your organisation you will end up:
- constantly looking for new hires
- overlooking the existing talent
- developing competencies you may already have
- implementing anything and everything just because others are doing it.
Not having a talent database system is like not looking in the cabinet before grocery shopping. As a result, you will buy things you already have and won't buy things you need because you believe you have them.
Maybe it is time to move away from the not-so-useful KPI of 'number of training/hours' completed, measure competencies, and take stock of things that make money. That's where talent management and development starts.
How? Here is one way of doing it:
In this book, you will find a whole chapter about managing your talent: The Blind Leading the Disengaged - Designing Employee Experiences:
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