Winning Today’s Talent RacePERSPECTIVES VOLUME 8

Ajoy Mukherjee

Global Head and Vice President, Human Resources

Copyright © 2017 Tata Consultancy Services LimitedFebruary 2017

HR professionals need to let go of traditional hiring and retention practices to compete for talent

Winners Foresee Talent Needs

Companies must identify requirements ahead of the moment of need

HR departments should become agile to anticipate the next wave of skills and retain their best talent

SKILLS

IT is experiencing a skills shortage in artificial intelligence, the IoT, and Big Data and analytics

Managing the Talent Crunch

Digital technologies are redefining jobs in every business function

Manpower Group says 1 in 3 employers struggles to fill jobs due to talent shortages

Accurate forecasts of attrition and business growth help a company prepare for growth and predict talent needs

1. Develop your existing people

2. Find people who learn continually

Winning the Talent Race

3. Screen more rigorously

4. Bring brands to campus

5. Use digital channels to hire and screen

6. Build a strong employer brand

Focus on internal development and cross-training to retain employees

Begin your search for talent internally, not externally, and ‘groom your own’

1. Develop your existing people

Give people opportunities to practice the skills they’ve learned

Hire people with a proclivity to learn new skills and acquire knowledge

The shelf life of knowledge is reducing rapidly so new learning should be quick and frequent

2. Find People who Learn Continually

Personal attributes such as attitude, emotional intelligence, and collaboration are becoming more important than specific technical skills

Re-evaluate your emphasis on soft skills during hiring

Use social media, alongside traditional methods, as part of a more rigorous approach to background checks

3. Screen More Rigorously

Strengthen your brand image to compete with digital startups in the battle for talent

Build relationships well before you need to recruit

4. Bring Brands to Campus

Provide learning materials to institutions that build brand equity and enhance your company’s reputation

Make social media a key hiring channel as recruitment becomes a high-tech enterprise

Use analytics tools to predict future needs

5. Use Digital to Hire and Screen

Forecast talent requirements effectively to make your HR function a strategic business partner

Strengthen your company’s reputation as a great place to work

Explore opportunities such as conference speaker slots and industry alliances

6. Build a Strong Employer Brand

Use social media to tell the world about the employee experience at your organization

Recognizing the value of cross-training but not allowing people to put their knowledge into action

Withholding executive support and exacerbating cultural resistance

Execution is Key to Success

Focusing on hiring at the expense of retaining

Avoid these common mistakes:

HR can learn from the agile iterative approach of startups and be prepared to change tack when needed

The HR function can become an engine of growth and help the company identify future talent requirements

HR as Digital Business Partner

Copyright © 2017 Tata Consultancy Services

Limited

Winning Today’s Talent Race

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