The role of the global talent manager has rapidly evolved in recent years. The accelerating pace of change has dramatically impacted talent management over the last few years. As companies navigate a complex business landscape, the skills that global talent managers need to be successful have shifted.
Talent managers today must keep their fingers on the pulse of the latest workplace trends while also possessing critical hard and soft skills. As key strategic partners, talent managers have moved to the forefront of supporting organizational agility and digital transformation.
To continue adding value in a climate of near-constant flux, a global talent manager should look to master the following seven skills:
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated remote work and digital communication on a massive scale, vaulting technology to mission-critical status practically overnight in 2020. While some companies have returned to the office, reliance on video conferencing, cloud-based tools, AI, VR, and other innovations is here to stay.
Tech literacy and analytics chops enable talent managers to crunch data and extract powerful workforce insights. Skills like interpreting trends in turnover and retention, conducting predictive hiring analytics, leveraging people analytics tools, and making data-backed talent decisions are now baseline requirements.
HRIS, virtual recruiting, chatbots, and other tech are also transforming traditional talent management functions. As digital natives comprise more of the workforce, having the expertise to evaluate and implement the latest tools for attracting, hiring, engaging, and retaining top talent is non-negotiable.
Global talent managers should stay current on the latest HR tech innovations through continuing education, conferences, vendor demonstrations, and pilot programs. For example, understanding how AI-enabled video interviewing platforms can remove bias while accelerating hiring outcomes can inform better decision making.
The breakneck rate of change makes it vital for talent managers to continually track developments across the HR landscape. Keeping abreast of trends allows talent managers to future-proof strategies and get ahead of challenges before they mushroom into crises.
For example, with millennials and Gen Z hungry for growth opportunities, formalized mentorship programs are gaining steam for recruitment and retention. Career-focused partnerships enable younger workers to learn on the job from experienced mentors. Talent managers who recognize and act on this trend early can capture a decisive competitive advantage.
Other trends to watch include shifts in what employees want from their jobs, new performance management approaches, video interviewing, stay interviews, data-driven recruitment, and more. Global talent managers must exemplify agile, responsive leadership to implement what’s emerging in a way that aligns with company goals.
Even with high unemployment rates in the wake of the pandemic, the war for talent remains white-hot in many sectors. And given that recruiting is a foremost talent management responsibility, mastering this function is non-negotiable.
While the fundamentals of souring, screening, and selecting top candidates remain vital, how recruitment happens is changing fast. Strategies like social recruiting, referral programs, AI filtering, skills tests, and remote interviewing are now routine.
Talent managers should continually evaluate and refresh their talent acquisition playbook based on outcomes and emerging best practices. For example, does your current approach allow promising passive candidates to be recruited? Does the process accurately and efficiently predict candidate success? Is your employment brand and value proposition competitive? Asking tough questions is key to recruitment excellence.
To achieve recruitment success, talent managers need to intimately understand modern candidate expectations and preferences. Leveraging chatbots for initial candidate engagement, promoting employee review sites to convey authentic employer branding, and showcasing diversity and inclusion efforts can all help secure leading talent.
Disengaged employees deliver subpar performance, negatively impact coworkers, and frequently quit. With average voluntary turnover hovering around 18% – and costing thousands to backfill one position – engagement matters.
Global talent managers play a central role in cultivating an engaging employee experience from hire to retirement. Leading practices like stay interviews, transparent communication, celebrating wins, constructive feedback, learning options, and meaningful rewards, all fall within the talent manager’s wheelhouse.
Additionally, emotional intelligence (EQ) is mandatory for boosting engagement. Talent managers must master soft skills like empathy, authenticity, active listening, and relationship-building to create a high-trust culture where people enjoy working.
Tactics like regularly soliciting employee feedback through surveys and focus groups, acting on suggestions, re-skilling workers to avoid redundancy, and giving global recognition to top performers demonstrate that talent leaders have their ears to the ground.
When crises hit, whether industry disruptions, economic downturns, or global health events, talent managers carry extra responsibility for reassuring anxious workforces through compassionate leadership.
The ability to attract skilled talent remains integral to the talent manager role. However, as the corporate landscape transforms, traditional recruitment practices may no longer suffice. Talent managers must rethink their employer brand messaging, leverage digital sourcing channels, and explore new attraction channels to secure in-demand skill sets.
For example, modern recruitment strategies may encompass:
Rather than relying solely on job boards, talent managers should embrace a digital-first approach to sourcing that incorporates platforms like LinkedIn, GitHub, Dice.com, and more based on the specialized skills required.
Creative messaging aligned to niche candidate personas also allows employers to stand out. Talent managers should stay abreast of the latest sourcing techniques and have the creativity to test innovative approaches aligned to changing candidate expectations.
Continuous change is the new normal. As stewards of people and culture, it falls to global talent managers to ready the workforce for what lies ahead. Leading teams through periods of transition requires exceptional communication abilities, resilience, empathy, and vision.
Whether the impetus for change is new technology implementation, M&A activity, or macroeconomic factors, talent managers must translate the vision and support employees through potential upskilling needs, adjustments in team dynamics, modified workplace practices, and more.
For instance, the rise of automation and AI threatens to displace jobs in many traditional industries. Talent managers play a crucial role in forecasting capability gaps, structuring retraining programs, and reskilling workers to prevent redundancy. This minimizes disruption and resistance by giving employees the agency to adapt to new business realities.
Beyond managing logistical elements, talent managers have a profound opportunity to shape mindsets. By role-modeling agile behaviors and learning orientation through their own development, they foster an organizational culture that embraces change as an opportunity.
Elevating talent strategy from an operational function to a key driver of competitive advantage requires that talent managers develop gravitas as strategic advisors. Beyond exceptional people management capabilities, modern professionals require:
Well-honed active listening and influencing skills are also vital for gaining executive buy-in and budget approval for people initiatives. By aligning talent solutions directly to commercial goals, managers position themselves as strategic business partners within the organization.
For example, demonstrating how investments in diversity hiring or upskilling talent will allow the company to expand into new markets or customer segments help secure investment. Talent managers who fail to connect programs to profitability and loss risk have their function viewed as an expense center rather than a value creator.
The modern talent management role demands a complex blend of hard and soft skills. While still responsible for traditional programs spanning recruitment, development, compensation, and retention, global talent managers now need technical aptitude, analytical prowess, business acumen, and change leadership abilities.
Fusing data-driven decision making with a genuine commitment to employee experience allows talent managers to balance efficiency with care. By continually honing capabilities across seven key domains, talent leaders ready their workforces to outcompete amid continuous turbulence.
Those who embrace upskilling position themselves to add strategic value and ensure the human dimension remains firmly integrated into emerging global business paradigms. Rather than being replaced by technology, forward-looking professionals discover new opportunities to leverage exponential tools to solve human challenges.
The thrilling reality for any ambitious talent management professional is that this field remains wide open for shaping. While core human needs like connection, trust, and purpose endure, how talent managers meet these needs can constantly improve through compassionate innovation.
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