“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
–Albert Einstein
The speed, breadth, constancy, and interconnectivity of change requires business to reimagine its talent management strategy. Digital transformation and generative AI have heightened the stakes and accelerated the urgency of identifying, engaging, upskilling, advancing, and retaining an agile, digitally dexterous, purpose driven, team oriented, outcome focused workforce. PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey revealed the ability to acquire and manage talent is the second most cited critical capability for tomorrow’s CEO’s and top-of-mind for incumbents.
What is talent fit for a fluid, data-backed, AI-enabled, digital marketplace? The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report cited critical thinking, problem solving, emotional intelligence (EQ), creativity, cognitive flexibility, and collaboration as core digital competencies. These attributes apply across different sectors and business functions.
This article proffers twelve considerations for a digital talent management strategy. While not intended as a comprehensive list, they provide a framework for a strategic approach to talent management.
- Digital Talent In Context
Talent management is a critical element of enterprise strategy. That’s why CEO’s are focused on it. The talent required to drive successful digital and generative AI enterprise transformation must be data and tech savvy, proactive, curious, and agile. Digital talent thinks holistically, operates collaboratively, cross-functionally, regards change as an opportunity to implement new ways of doing things that elevate customer outcomes and experience, and has a “learner-for-life” mindset.
Technology enables digital transformation; generative AI leverages human input and synthesizes it to create humanoid output; and digital talent harnesses data, technology, knowledge management, and creativity to reduce cost, enhance quality, accelerate delivery, and provide transparency.
- The Foundations of Talent Management Strategy
The enterprise mission, leadership, innovative mindset, culture, structure (e.g. flat vs. hierarchical), brand, and customer-centricity are the foundational elements upon which a talent management strategy is built. Each is a connective tissue binding enterprise and workforce. A welcoming, humane, purpose-driven, holistically diverse culture is a magnet for talent, creativity, collaboration, cross-functionality, and innovation. It is also a favorable environment for upskilling, career advancement, retention, and organic diversity.
- Matching Talent With Business
To thrive, talent must be paired with an enterprise whose purpose, leadership, culture, creativity, and end-to-end workforce investment are aligned. Richard Branson captured the symbiotic relationship of talent and the enterprise: “Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t have to.”
- Communication, Community, And Unified Purpose
Enterprise purpose, goals, values, and ethical standards must be communicated clearly and regularly by word and action. A unified purpose, team orientation that respects individuality, and a community that is empathetic, and humane promotes community, cohesion, and collaboration. Creativity, knowledge, and ideas are shared throughout the community, as are institutional knowledge, predictive data, and a “one firm” mindset (see below) .
- Digital Talent Is A Team Sport
Digital talent functions as a team. Its collaborative, “we-not-me” mindset is self-selected and reinforced by enterprise leadership, culture and performance metrics. While individual upskilling and advancement opportunity is part of the business investment in talent, so too is there a focus on enterprise performance. This promotes cross-functionality, innovation, and “connecting the dots,” both internally and externally with customers and society.
- Investment in Talent Start-to-Finish
LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report revealed 93% of organizations have retention concerns. It also found 94% of workers responded they would be less likely to seek other opportunities if they are provided learning and development opportunities. Investment in talent is the best way to develop, leverage the potential, retain, and demonstrate to the marketplace a ”people first” culture, character, and community of the enterprise.
Investment is too often synonymous with compensation. Purpose, community, work-life balance, well-being, and mentorship (including reverse-mentorship and an integrated, multi-generational workforce) are all important elements of talent investment. This is especially so with younger talent.
- A One Firm Approach
A One-firm approach is a term often applied to high-performing organizations like Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. These organizations have highly-collaborative, team-oriented cultures and operational models. They gang-tackle challenging problems by working fluidly and cross-functionally. Their institutional loyalty and high degree of collaboration contribute significantly to their enterprise success. McKinsey studied 2,000 companies across industries and found that “one-team” organizations were 2.3 times more likely to be in the top quartile of high performers.
- Digital Dexterity
Digital dexterity describes organizations that have fluid, tech-savvy workforces that are empowered by easy-to-use technology. That enables them to pivot quickly and to make creative use of technology to design new ways for working more effectively, agilely, and impactfully. The digitally dexterous workforce is highly analytical, collaborative, and nimble. Gartner found that employees and organizations with a high degree of digital dexterity are three times more likely to launch, complete, and succeed in digital initiatives. They are adaptable, high performers, for whom change is an opportunity to improve the status quo.
- Jettisoning the Legacy Talent Siphon
Talent is too often filtered through a narrow lens. Diplomas and pedigree have long been a proxy for competence, intelligence, and social skills. This narrow view is a lost opportunityfor gifted individuals, business, and society.
Digital transformation, the Pandemic, talent wars, and technology have widened the talent funnel. A recent Salesforce survey found that among hiring leaders, 82% of those surveyed said that skills are the most important attribute when evaluating candidates. Only 18% said that relevant degrees are more important. A learning management report by Docebo found that employees learn 70% of their skills on the job and just 10% through formal training.
Harvard Business School and Accenture recently analyzed “middle-skill” jobs (e.g. some education or training beyond high school but not a four-year degree). They found no productivity change between college grads and those lacking a degree. Resilience, moxie, elevated emotional intelligence, and experiential learning, coupled with curiosity, eagerness to learn, and a modicum of intelligence are a solid foundation upon which to build digital talent.
- Talent and Knowledge Management
Knowledge management is an essential element of leveraging talent, capturing intellectual and experiential capital, and identifying existing and prospective talent needs. The ability of business functions to leverage this human capital and to share it cross-functionally is a valuable decision making and problem-solving tool.
- Collaborating With Co-Pilots
Generative AI has accelerated the pace and removed the opaque veil from digital transformation. Just as human collaboration across functions and disciplines is essential to digital success, so too is collaboration with generative AI essential. Generative AI has created a world where humans will collaborate with AI in a legion of ways, including developing Co-Pilots that are personalized to the style, personality, and voice of the individual “pilot.” This will require them to learn new skills centered around harnessing the power of AI.
The hope is that AI will elevate the role of human resources, freeing them to focus on higher-value, creative, and stimulating work. That would enhance productivity, satisfaction and retention. It’s still early days, and the impact of AI on the workforce has yet to be played out. Likewise, AI strategy, guardrails, training, and personalized Co-Pilots are still at a nascent stage. One thing is clear: generative AI is destined to be as important a workforce competency as reading and writing.
- Empathy
One of the ironies of digital and generative AI transformation is its elevation of empathy in the workplace. There are many explanations:
life’s uncertainty, the breadth and speed of change, economic insecurity, social and political polarization, social isolation (notably during the Pandemic), among other things.
Many of us yearn for community, a collective purpose, a meaningful exchange of ideas, experiences, and hope for a better, more predictable future. Set against this backdrop, it’s understandable why talent gravitates towards organizations where they are seen, heard, respected, and encouraged to retain their individuality while becoming part of a diverse, integrated community that functions as a team.
Empathy is seeing things through another’s perspective. How better to advance enterprise customer-centricity than to have empathetic talent?