Building a talent-centric organization (TCO) is a goal most businesses that want to be successful attempt to create. You may hear a lot of talk from leadership about the executive alignment they are doing. But alignment in and of itself isn’t the whole picture when building a TCO. If you consider alignment the end game, it will not get the company to talent-centricity or profitability.
When building a successful, profit-generating, low-turnover organization, executive alignment must go hand-in-hand with talent strategy. These five elements must be present if a company wants to ensure its executive alignment moves them forward to a TCO.
What Is a Talent-Centric Organization?
Creating a talent-centric organization (TCO) involves prioritizing employee engagement, autonomy, creativity, and advancement while ensuring your employees have a secure sense of the purpose of their work and its significance within the organization. I work with business leaders daily, helping them understand why it’s essential to make this transformation.
Get the Right People On Board
Every aspect of a company revolves around its people. Executive alignment and a talent strategy will require the right people. How can you connect people if they are not culturally aligned or their values are not in sync?
You can’t throw a group of people together just because you’re trying to fill the void and then hope they’ll successfully connect (hope is not an effective strategy). No. It takes time and patience to find the right people who will be ready to align, willing to align, and able to align with the company’s vision and business strategy. It’s better that you find these individuals late than keep repeating the process of searching for new people repeatedly.
Make Sure Leadership Is Committed to the Company Vision
Be sure your company leadership team is already committed to the company vision and culture. If so, you’re one step closer to achieving the goal of a TCO. There can be no room for selfishness in a talent-centric organization.
Everyone must be on the same page and working towards a common goal to succeed for the company. If any member of the leadership team gets too greedy and wants to take from the company’s success, commission, or so on, something needs to change. Leadership needs to work as a team to make sure this commitment filters down to the employees.
Put the Value on People
When push comes to shove, what does the executive team really value? If the answer isn’t people, what do you have but just a machine? This “machine” might be able to pump out some results (and yes, results are important), but the talent-centric company will get results without de-valuing individuals.
Executive alignment must ensure people feel valued for their work and not just like another cog in the wheel. Without your people, the organization is lost. You have no TCO.
Develop and Train Employees to Boost Engagement
Sometimes leaders may get good talent in place and then forget about them or just leave them to fend for themselves. As a rule, this won’t work. Employees need to remain stimulated and engaged. You don’t want your talent just going through the routine of doing their task without having their hearts into it. You’ll be back to working with machines or robots. Who would want to stay in a position long if their heart isn’t in it?
You want to be sure employees have opportunities to move up the ladder, learn, and grow. They will thrive in such an environment. The company will thrive, too, as it will have an ample supply of ready employees to fill in gaps as they arise.
To keep employees engaged and thriving, leaders must put time and effort into training and developing them. Don’t let them become stagnant. This is a key component of employee growth and development. Employees who are learning stay active and engaged and will keep moving upward as long as you provide them with opportunities.
United but Diverse
You want a united executive team and employee base, but that doesn’t mean they have to be all clones. One of the last things you want is “group think.” There is a difference between having everyone on the same page in terms of the culture and mission and having a diversity of thought and opinion.
Leadership would do well to create a culture of feedback that explores the employees’ different viewpoints. But suppose everyone is the same gender and has the same background, experiences, and viewpoints. In that case, you won’t get very much feedback that is helpful for growth.
Start Building a TCO
You can get to work building a talent-centric organization (TCO) by implementing these five elements into your organization. Find the success that comes with a TCO and propel your leadership team forward.
The post Everyone Wants to Talk About Alignment, But This is Only Step One in Building a Talent-Centric Organization appeared first on Vertical Elevation.