Written by Professor and Director of the Institute of Human Resource Management, Chung-Ang University/Zheng Jinchang
How organizations are facing the challenge of developing key talents
The effective management and use of key talents in the organization will help the competitive advantage of enterprises, including product research and development, the improvement of production and manufacturing levels, and the expansion of business and customer relationships, so the cultivation and development of key talents is an important means that enterprises must take in today's fiercely competitive industrial environment. However, nurturing and developing key talent can present many challenges in an organization. The cultivation of key talents and the construction of talent echelon must first obtain the support and participation of senior leaders of the enterprise, so as to continue to invest resources and implement the implementation of the plan. We can see from many examples of successful business leaders, such as GE's Jack Wilsh, Lenovo's Liu Chuanzhi, and Alibaba's Jack Ma, who have personally served as mentors to develop key talent. On the other hand, the organization must also develop a good talent cultivation and development system, which is connected to the overall development strategy of the enterprise upwards, and can lead the implementation of the construction of key talent echelons downward, and determine whether relevant activities can be carried out effectively.
Thinking and strategies for cultivating key talents
The author has several suggestions on what aspects should be considered in the cultivation and development of key talents. First of all, from the perspective of overall organizational management, enterprises must think about and identify which positions are the key talents that the organization must cultivate. That is, from the aspects of corporate strategy, organizational culture and business development, etc., through the impact on the value chain and the ease of substitution of the skills required for the position, which are the key talents. In addition, another important task in the cultivation of key talents is to plan the cultivation and development of key talents from the organization's talent inventory and demand analysis. Third, a very important premise for the cultivation of key talents is to plan the career development path of key talents. The design of the career development path of key talents is to make succession arrangements for current talents and reserve talents in key positions. By planning and clarifying the career development path of key talents, the personal development of key talents is effectively connected with the sustainable development of the enterprise. That is, to combine key talents with the needs, goals and value realization of enterprises, and reasonably match them to achieve a dynamic balance and achieve the "win-win" goal of key talents and enterprise development. Finally, enterprises and organizations must establish a set of talent standard systems. Introduce functional models and related management tools, combined with the development path of key talents, and carry out relevant key talent succession plans from multiple dimensions such as qualifications, functional levels (knowledge, skills, behaviors), experience, and performance of each key position.
The Best Model for Nurturing Key Talents – "70-20-10 Hybrid Functional Development Approach"
Talent assessment can identify the gap between an individual's current functional level and the functional level of the target position, so as to help identify the implementation of the "70-20-10 Hybrid Functional Development" campaign that meets the individual's development needs, and cultivate the successor talent suitable for the future position. Talent appraisal is mainly to provide guidance for personal follow-up development through functional evaluation and feedback reports. The so-called "70-20-10 Hybrid Functional Development Approach" is the result of the best learning outcomes achieved by many top companies in China and abroad through the implementation of personal development. A functional development activity is a combination of 70% job experience, 20% learning from others and 10% self-learning. The "70-20-10 Mixed Functional Development Approach" is a practice-oriented learning and development model that emphasises the application of what has been learned. The organization undergoes targeted development to enhance individual functions. Purposeful talent cultivation and development activities should focus on the selection of learning methods, so that key talents can enter the right learning channels from the beginning and improve the efficiency of learning, so the design of development activities should understand the individual learner's individual learning style.
Implementation strategy of the "70-20-10 Hybrid Functional Development Activities".
The implementation of the 70-20-10 hybrid functional development activities focuses on the following strategies:
- Construct hierarchical and classified training activities and learning resources according to the key talent development path and the functional level of each position, and provide group or individual customized learning activities for the talent echelon of each position according to the gap in the functional level reflected in the evaluation results.
- Establish an internal mentor system with supervisors at all levels and talents in key professional positions as the core, and strengthen the awareness of "succession" in the cultivation and development of key talents, so that the talent echelon can grow in the inheritance.
- Improve the efficiency of talent operation through the job rotation system, discover and give full play to the potential of talents, and enhance the cross-field ability of key talents, that is, to cultivate multi-functional talents with both front-line business experience and organizational logistics promotion ability for the company, who not only understand professional domain knowledge, but also accumulate rich practical operation experience, which can meet the needs of enterprises for talents in complex competition.
- Candidates for key positions are required to complete the development activities prescribed by the organization and have a certain level of personal ability when entering the talent pool. The company can use internal certification as a prerequisite for employees to enter the talent pool, which can not only maintain the consistency of the cultivation and development of the key talent echelon, but also motivate personal growth.
Cultivation of key talent echelon - the enterprise is imperative
In addition, in the cultivation and development of key talent echelons, various learning channels should be used as much as possible, including structured learning activities, the implementation of the coaching system, the discussion and internalization of various learning topics, the implementation of action learning and transformation, mentor feedback, simulation drills and project task challenges, etc. As far as the personal development of professional managers is concerned, they need to have various forms of learning challenges, improve their ability to learn to take on new responsibilities, and cannot be limited to the ivory tower learning style in the comfort zone, which rigidizes the development of personal ability.
The development of key talents and the establishment of succession echelons is a dynamic process, which requires an effective and systematic system to continuously track the implementation of effectiveness evaluation and improvement. If key talents are the core driving force of enterprise development, whether the overall quality of key talents is complete is directly related to whether the enterprise can flourish for a long time and promote the successful transformation of organizational strategy. Therefore, it is imperative for enterprises to build a scientific, systematic and dynamic key talent development system, comprehensively improve the functional level of key talents, and provide strong and continuous talents for the development of enterprises.
About the Author:
Professor and Director, Institute of Human Resource Management, Chung-Ang University/Zheng Jinchang
He is currently a professor and director of the Institute of Human Resource Management, Chung-Ang University. He was a researcher in the Department of Data and Simulation Systems at the Southwest Research Institute in Texas, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Data Science (later renamed the Institute of Teaching Technology) at Tamkang University, and an associate professor, professor and director of the Institute of Human Resource Management at National Central University. He is the co-convener of the national digital learning program group, the special assistant to the chairman and chief consultant of Quanfeng Technology, the certified consultant of the HR module of the SAP system, the coach of the ICF certified manager, and the project plan consultant of dozens of listed companies in China. His research expertise is in Human Resource Information Systems, Leadership and Management Development, and Performance and Functional Management.
You must be logged in to post a comment.