14 Dec HR, Global Mobility Professionals are Unsung Talent Search Heroes in Pandemic

Talent managers or people leaders like HR personnel and global mobility professionals have been placed under the spotlight — and for good reasons, too. Pre-pandemic period, people leaders weren’t viewed as individuals having much direct impact when it comes to business performance. But as lockdowns have been implemented, they became consultants in organization-wide business decisions. Moreover, they have been lauded as unsung heroes in the pandemic. Currently, talent managers are enjoying a lot of good press in business news. 

But now isn’t a good time for professionals in these departments to become complacent with their newfound popularity and respect. They have an opportunity to continue the momentum by reskilling. SHRM asked HR leaders and recruitment specialists what needs to be updated in talent managers’ current skill set. Here are some of them.

Utilize analytics for decision making

There can be levels of subjectivity in some of the processes in managing talent. This isn’t all too surprising since many aspects of HR and global mobility work are difficult to quantify and can leave practitioners using intuition in making decisions. An important disadvantage to note when using intuition for decision-making is its bias susceptibility. To avoid this, HR leaders can invest their time in learning how to use data analytics tools.

Align with hybrid model workforce

It has been difficult to stay true to company cultures in an unprecedented health crisis. HR and global mobility leaders can make efforts in aligning work policies and processes accordingly so they can put their company’s culture and values to practice.

Monitor employee performance

Companies should opt to conduct regular performance reviews. Business executives can encourage talent managers in developing skills in conducting effective employee performance reviews so they can better understand whether a specific employee is positioned in a role best suited for them. In some instances, the brightest employees can take on roles they aren’t happy with, thus resulting in resignations. 

Develop soft skills

There always has been a perception toward talent managers as advocates for soft skills. For other lines of work, a spike in demand for opportunities to develop soft skills has been observed. According to STAR OUTiCO, a recruitment agency, the most in-demand soft skills are:

• Leadership and social influence (working with people)
• Technology use, monitoring, and control (technology use and development)
• Technology design, and programming (technology use and development)
• Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility (self-management)
• Resourcing, problem-solving, and ideation (problem-solving)

Talent managers can use these to their advantage and leverage this demand in handling top talent efficiently. 

Utilize both qualitative and quantitative data

Indeed people analytics can save up time-consuming data analysis processes, but it should be complemented with qualitative data. It’s important to maintain the balance between using numerical and descriptive data to form conclusions. This, in turn, will help decision-makers feel at ease as more substantiated data is used to form these conclusions.

End old-fashioned job posts

Companies should face the fact that talent around the world has evolved. The generic job posts aren’t going to do businesses any favor. Talent attraction has evolved to be more centered on the employee. Rather than just defining the role, companies need to communicate to potential candidates what they’re going to get from the company as a trade-off for their commitment. Moreover, talent recruiters ought to sell the company by introducing its company culture. TechnologyAdvice, a B2B consultancy firm, suggests job posts to embrace a company’s branding.

Develop virtual collaboration skills

Workers aren’t necessarily equipped to collaborate virtually, but they were thrust in a position to learn virtual collaboration on the fly. This has an effect on employee experience (EX) and must be dealt with with careful strategy as businesses are predicted to refocus on EX for employee retention. HR and global mobility professionals should revisit its policies and programs and adjust accordingly to assure employees benefit from them.

Managing people remotely

Recruitment, training, and other business processes people leaders possess are already complex when working onsite. Working virtually further complicates things and requires HR and global mobility professionals to understand the need to equip talent with the necessary skills in virtual managing a team. It’s time to re-evaluate employee programs and benefits and align them for the future of work.

Network with other professionals

Internal connections are great, but networking outside an organization can help people leaders get different perspectives and knowledge from other practitioners in varying industries. This is a less intrusive way of getting information on business practices from other HR professionals. Lattice, a people management platform company, suggests HR professionals invest their time in joining human resources focus groups such as the  Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the National Human Resources Association (NHRA). 

Strong dependence on HR leaders was a trend observed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it seems that many business leaders are eyeing to keep them as strategic advisors in 2022. It would be best to equip themselves with relevant skills that would allow them to optimally manage talent in the future.