When is the last time you’ve taken some time to really think about the people you see at work every day? The fact is that once the organization chart has been defined, the people hired to fill the positions and the teams seem complete, we rarely take the time to truly evaluate our in-house talent.
In most cases, we hire people at a specific time, under given circumstances and to take on defined responsibilities and projects. Just like people evolve, develop their skills and grow their experience, teams and projects transform. From time to time it pays to assess our current talent to ensure that the organization still has the right people in the most appropriate positions, with adequate responsibilities and working on the projects best fit for their skills, experience and aspirations. Regular performance management is one way to gather some of the information necessary to evaluate talent. It is necessary to keep track of people’s skills, any additional education and training they may have received since being hired and specific experience they may have developed. However, to fully evaluate the organization’s talent, people have to be assessed in the larger context of functional and cross-functional teams and the overall organization chart. The objectives of current activities and projects and the specific expectation for people to achieve them also have to be taken into consideration to provide an accurate picture of the internal talent pool.
So, why should organizations take steps to assess their talent? Well, it’s about people. Most organizations agree that they are only as strong as their people and teams and many even recognize that “employees are a company’s greatest asset – they’re your competitive advantage” as said Anne M. Mulcahy, former CEO of Xerox Corporation. Yet, few organizations take the time to regularly question whether they continue to have the best-suited people in the right roles and whether their people have what they need to be successful in their positions – be it the skills, experience, team members and equipment. Do your people have what they need to continue to develop and achieve their highest potential and to continue to positively contribute to the organization’s success? What does it take to be able to protect and nurture your “greatest assets” and preserve your competitive advantage? Maintaining and growing its activities as well as launching new projects require that the organization have the right mix of people who continue to share the organization’s values and an organizational structure that supports the organization’s vision, mission and objectives. Are functional and cross-functional teams adequately staffed to be successful? Could the organization be in need of different or more talent to reach its goals?
Really knowing your people will help you make sure you have the right individuals, in sufficient numbers, making up the best teams that fit together to accomplish the mission and reach for the vision. It does take some effort to get to know your talent pool. Do you have people within your group who can ask the right questions, review the documentation and gather the information required to fully assess the organizational chart? Essence Recruitment has the expertise to provide Talent Assessment in order to fully understand your organization’s past, present and future. We aim to understand your current team, your values, your culture, your vision and your organization’s potential limitations in terms of the talent pool. Essence Recruitment’s Talent Assessment can help you reach your aspirations in terms of organizational structure and people performance.
