The Talent Community

The talent communityTOM KAMINSKY AND MARIA ROSPLOCH

GIVE CANDIDATES A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR COMPANY AND YOU’LL BUILD AN ENGAGED WORKFORCE

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Whether they realize it or not, all companies are in the business of talent.

Historic global, corporate economic shifts have compelled a heightened focus on talent.

There is the need to protect intellectual capital. There is the cultivation of valuable

knowledge particular to a company and its culture. There is the priority of building

a deep bench of talent.

Talent management has escalated to a primary business activity, on a level with

product development and distribution, customer relations, supply chain management,

marketing and sales, and investor relations. Not one of these activities is possible

without strategically sourced, carefully selected talent. And in a world in which

processes and players are undergoing landmark change due to technology’s

reach and impact, there is no question that talent management will require

technological prowess.

Think about the rate of baby boomer retirement. The decreasing birth rate. The current

dip in university enrollment in science, mathematics and technology. The digital nature

of marketing. The effort required to identify the people who might fit in a company

environment. The opportunity cost of losing touch with candidate silver medalists who

might be good employees or even influence their companies’ buying decisions at

some point in the future.

INTRODUCTION /03

These realities call for more than a traditional HR framework or a relationship

management platform. They point to the fact that recruiting, hiring, retention and

knowledge transfer – already disrupted by social technology, already fueled by

intricately-networked structures – must be perceived as revenue centric and worthy of

custom platforms. Moreover, talent management deserves a level of personalization

commensurate with the new expectations generated by social technology.

There are other, exciting realities about corporate talent today, too. Access from

around the globe to local talent. A socially networked workforce. Independent thinkers

who connect. Customers who advocate, not just buy.

One emerging tool can address the good, the bad and the ugly realities by managing

the business of talent: the talent community. It lives online yet it is real, forging

connection from first contact and compelling lifelong relationships that serve the

workforce and the corporation. It enables people to stay in touch, to personalize the

company-candidate-employee connection through valuable content and specialized

communication.

The talent community makes the business of nurturing and engaging talent easier to

do. Companies could not pull off the integration of a personal touch and technological

intelligence until today. Now that they can, giving talent management a higher level of

attention and emphasis is a must-do, not a nice-to-have.

INTRODUCTION /04

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The secret of talent management is engagement

Competitive pressures and shortages of talent are affecting every industry and discipline.

The competition for specialized skills, knowledge and experience permeate every

category. Yet the pressure to remain competitive and reduce cost shows no sign of

dissipating. So when a company stands either to lose a team member to a competitor

or cannot attract the person with the appropriate skill set, the company’s position can be

compromised.

Beyond taking steps to capture and retain knowledge capital with random tools, a

company can use technology in another way – as the network serving available talent

and the company. This signifies the importance of undiluted engagement: emphasizing

relationships which are networked to the degree that deep bonds result – bonds that

withstand employee departures and changes in personal situations and priorities.

Engaging employees in relationships poses no risk and many rewards: authentic good

will, mutual understanding, insight into employees’ needs and expectations. Most of all,

engaging employees is the foundation of a critical talent community that is skills-centric

and connected not just within the company but within industries and professions.

/06THE SECRET OF TALENT MANAGEMENT IS ENGAGEMENT

Talent Board

Talent Board

Messages Talent Group My CV

Retiree

Star Graduates

Interns

Candidate Runners-up

Alumni

Engaging employees in relationships across industries and professions has many rewards.

Using technology as more than a tool for knowledge extraction enables a company

to think and act beyond the “talent base” to create a marketplace that, in reality, is a

talent community. The company’s talent community includes people who are more than

quality performers or targets; by virtue of their connection to the company, they know

its culture and methods, enabling them, upon employment or re-employment, to ramp

up faster, produce quickly and perform more strategically. And if they don’t become or

remain employees, people engaged in a company’s talent community often act as the

company’s ambassadors without even being asked.

The benefits of a talent community are significant.

• Freed-up internal teams who can put more time into the substance of talent

acquisition, resource management and talent retention

• Knowledge of and access to people who are in the market for new positions

• Loyalty that can enhance other barriers to competition

• Retention of intellectual property

• Accessibility to specialized talent that possesses a familiarity with the company’s

culture, processes and protocol

• Increased speed to productivity

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The company’s talent market includes people who are more than quality performers or targets.

THE SECRET OF TALENT MANAGEMENT IS ENGAGEMENT

• Cost savings in recruiting for full-time positions and vetting contingent labor

• Speed in sourcing talent, from star interns, to retirees who like to participate in

project based work, to runner-up candidates

• Ability to engage talent within their comfort zone – interests, expectations,

needs, values

• Time to nurture relationships on a personal level, from delivering job openings

that might interest them to sharing content about their areas of expertise

• Opportunity to invite members and extend membership beyond talent targets

to influencers


Troubling trends to considerRecently, Bain & Company,

in conjunction with Netsurvey,

analyzed responses from

200,000 employees across

40 companies in 60

countries and found several

troubling trends:

• Engagement scores decline

with employee tenure,

meaning that employees

with the deepest knowledge

of the company typically are

the least engaged.

• Engagement scores decline

as you go down the org chart,

so highly engaged senior

executives are likely to

underestimate the discontent

on the front lines.

• Engagement levels are

lowest among sales and

service employees, who have

the most interactions with

customers.”


This is why companies as varied as Zappos, Rackspace, Ericsson and IBM have built

talent communities. These are interactive, online, 24/7 forums in which individuals

connect not just with the company’s current workforce, but with alumni, retirees and

other potential employees and contractors about employment and over substantive

issues and professional interests.

Talent communities present a remarkable opportunity to engage people through

content about employment, performance, and ideas, and they help companies build

and retain access to knowledge and experience in a manner that transcends the typical

employment transaction.

Talent communities help companies build and retain access to knowledge and experience.

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A talent community personalizes – and nurtures – the talent supply chain

A talent community covers a great deal of business territory.

It is a technology solution. It creates a network and enables real-time, multi-layered

connections among a variety of stakeholders, powered by a customized, branded

technology platform. It is a marketing channel, as it provides another direct route to

influencers who can hear and tell the company’s story through its real human face.

And the talent community is a human resources tool because it addresses all aspects

of managing talent, from sourcing through exit.

In a day and age when people want to work differently, in terms of both quality and

quantity, companies are looking at the need to consider free agents, or workers

who are hired on a contingent or contract basis, as a resource while responding to

employees who often want to become free agents. In fact, 44 percent of American

workers across all industries classify themselves as free agents today. The risks in free

agency are clear. For the worker, it is replacing employer-sustained infrastructure

beyond the salary as well as dealing with fluid employment status. For the employer,

the risk is knowledge and intellectual capital the company cannot always contain

and must take extraordinary steps to protect. Up to this point, tools like job boards

and outbound, company-sponsored communications have pushed job and hiring

/11A TALENT COMMUNITY PERSONALIZES – AND NURTURES – THE TALENT SUPPLY CHAIN

As part of the total talent supply chain, forty-four percent of American workers across all industries classify themselves as free agents today.

information to candidates. This is not engagement, and with what might become

a 50-percent-free-agent workforce, it is essential for companies to create a talent

community that encourages interaction while it nurtures the supply chain.

The very aspect of community is what distinguishes an online talent base from a

talent community. It is the capacity to interact one-on-one as well as one-to-many that

enables a company to demonstrate a level of attention that mere job boards and email

campaigns will never realize. The communities can be set up as invitation only, further

allowing organizations to source niche types of talent. The talent community addresses

talent segments, messaging, sourcing, risk management, company value, and company

content. It is a force not just for talent management but for talent-rich business

planning and execution. But it must be done right; this is not purely a technology

purchase nor is it a matter of securing solid specialty consulting advice.

To build a breathing, strategic talent community, companies must integrate technology

and self-knowledge. This combination gives the company a custom community that

expresses its brand through the delivery of relevant, customized content.

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To build a breathing, strategic talent community, companies must integrate technology and self-knowledge.

A TALENT COMMUNITY PERSONALIZES – AND NURTURES – THE TALENT SUPPLY CHAIN

Talent supply chain strategies have rightfully shifted from a front-heavy emphasis

on sourcing and recruiting to embedding sourcing and recruiting throughout the

employment cycle. This is a mindset of always looking at talent as if they must be won

and kept – even when they leave.

For this reason, a talent community must be more than a set of social media tools

bundled with a robust database or relationship management platform. The talent

community must afford a company the ability to connect and engage; its features

must be served by technology, not overshadowed by bells and whistles. The talent

community is about nurturing people in real time, on their terms.

/13A TALENT COMMUNITY PERSONALIZES – AND NURTURES – THE TALENT SUPPLY CHAIN

Where to start• Define your sources of

talent within the talent

supply chain to target

potential members of the

community, expressing key

talent qualifications

• Invite only the talent who

aligns with your sources

of talent

• Chart the specific types

of information content

your talent needs and

wants, from tips for

interviewing, to benefits, to

industry information

• Incorporate flexible

strategies for content

and technology that you

can update or change

every quarter

Every member of the talent community is the company’s customer, stakeholder and

influencer. Every company must design its community in terms of its business identity

and the employee’s role in shaping and executing this identity.

There are 8 factors to consider in constructing a talent community.

1 Understanding of the worker’s needs and expectations

2 The ability to communicate candidly and in the company’s voice

3 A technology platform that serves a company’s particular needs, culture

and strategies

4 A philosophy of openness, transparency and invitation

5 The sense that the community is a resource for all parties, not just the company

6 Tailoring to the company’s industry and locations

7 The belief that anyone who has worked in the organization is part of its future,

not just its past

8 The ability for community members to communicate and network with each

other on a talent board, which gives visibility to see what is relevant and trending

for the group

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Every company must design its community in terms of its business identity and the employee’s role in shaping and executing this identity.

A TALENT COMMUNITY PERSONALIZES – AND NURTURES – THE TALENT SUPPLY CHAIN

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How to establish a vibrant, resourceful talent community

Adopt a customer sensibility. Beyond user friendly experiences, design a talent

community that treats members as customers. Much as corporate marketing is

becoming the institutional voice of the customer, the talent community must be a

space that invites talent to connect with the company on their terms.

Be inclusive. Social networking undoubtedly has brought customers and users into

the corporate tent. Yet many companies struggle with the old habit of broadcasting

directives; it doesn’t work in an age when people instantly come across company

information from sources other than the company. An inclusive talent community

makes it easy for people who are interested in working for the company, or staying

connected with it, to get information they know to be true.

Identify and deploy superb technology. With the abundance of corporate

technology platforms designed to do everything from capture minute bits of content

to distributing messages automatically, it is tempting to try to outsource the talent

community to a template format. Resist the temptation. The best talent communities

are custom-designed to serve the talent and company’s persona – and to lock into the

rest of the company’s relationship management efforts appropriately and strategically.

Take the time to design your talent community using technology that accommodates

your company.

/16HOW TO ESTABLISH A VIBRANT, RESOURCEFUL TALENT COMMUNITY

Find, share and develop high-quality content. The information created and shared

within the talent community must be useful and interesting to the talent. It should be

refreshed frequently. People are bombarded with emails, tweets and posts and spend

time sifting to find the relevance. High-quality content does the sifting for talent and

puts their desires on par with the company’s need to reach them.

Use a consistent voice. Companies invest a great deal in creating brands that resonate

with the marketplace. This includes establishing a voice – a point of view and a set of

messages that customers recognize immediately. The best talent communities echo the

company’s personality as expressed through the brand and reinforce the benefits of

working there.

Establish boundaries but keep them fluid. Social media has brought down barriers

and relaxed communication styles. This doesn’t mean formally structured corporate

messaging should be compromised. The talent community is a professional space with

corresponding responsibilities, so companies must set boundaries and help community

members navigate them.


Get comfortable with trial and error. Failure is becoming an option, thanks to Silicon

Valley startups. Yet many parts of the world are still learning the benefits of trying new

things and enduring a few missteps. These are going to happen in any new endeavor,

so the talent community is not immune. Leaders, however, must put practices in place

that mitigate damage by anticipating it and preparing for it.


Many parts of the world are still learning the benefits of trying new things and enduring a few missteps.

Resources and reading

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Management’s Three Eras: A Brief History by Rita McGrath, HBR Blog Network

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/07/managements-three-eras-a-brief-history/

Organizing the Networked Enterprise for Change

By Jacques Bughin, Michael Chui, and Lindsay Pollak

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/organizing_the_networked_enterprise_for_change

It’s Time to Retool HR, Not Split It

by John Boudreau

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/08/its-time-to-retool-hr-not-split-it/

Within Reach

by Pam Berklich

http://www.hrotoday.com/content/5552/within-reach

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/07/managements-three-eras-a-brief-history/

http://www.hrotoday.com/content/5552/within-reach

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

THOMAS F. KAMINSKY is Vice President and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Practice

Lead – Americas for KellyOCG, the Outsourcing and Consulting Group of Kelly Services, Inc.,

a leader in providing workforce solutions. In this position, he is responsible for expanding

current client relationships and developing new business opportunities. This includes managing

and accelerating the KellyOCG RPO brand and position within the market through thought

leadership, strategy infusion and effective practices as well as ensuring service delivery models

and innovative solutions reflect client needs.

MARIA ROSPLOCH is Vice President, Global Solutions Architecture and Enhanced Services.

Maria consults globally with top performing organizations to ensure that client talent needs are

clearly developed and defined, in order to deliver optimal recruitment process solutions. With a

focus on best practices and lean processes, and founded on nearly two decades of recruitment

process and delivery expertise, Maria is integral in designing the right strategic solutions for

clients, and partners with delivery teams to ensure alignment with client expectations and

consistently achieved program goals. Prior to 2002, Maria held roles in program management

and account leadership for KellyOCG.

EXIT

ABOUT KELLYOCG

KellyOCG® is the Outsourcing and Consulting Group of workforce solutions provider Kelly Services, Inc. KellyOCG is a

global leader in innovative talent management solutions in the areas of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Business

Process Outsourcing (BPO), Contingent Workforce Outsourcing (CWO), including Independent Contractor Solutions,

Human Resources Consulting, Career Transition and Executive Coaching, and Executive Search.

KellyOCG was named in the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals® 2014 Global

Outsourcing 100® list, an annual ranking of the world’s best outsourcing service providers and advisors.

Further information about KellyOCG may be found at kellyocg.com.

http://www.kellyocg.com