Rita B Allen Associates

Due Diligence Process – Understand your organization first - define it’s mission, values, competitive posture, culture, goals, objectives, and strategies. Then assess your talent – identify the existing competencies, skills, knowledge and abilities needed to achieve those goals and whether they currently exist within your organization. If they do not exist, where are the gaps and how will you address those gaps? Lastly, investigate and assess the appropriate talent management/career management initiatives that will begin to address those gaps as well as extend the level of competency you strive to achieve and build for the future. There are several initiatives to explore. The ones that are most appropriate will be determined by your due diligence process.

Planning – There are many basics to ensure the proper planning takes place for creating and implementing practices that will prepare your organization for the future. Competency models and performance criteria for each role within your organization is critical. In-house focus on the planning and development of employee growth and progression is vital to the investment in your organization’s talent. Companies that proactively engage their employees in continuous learning initiatives in a manner that embraces their involvement and input increases their loyalty and commitment. Proactive learning and development initiatives including career development, career planning, career paths, employee development, and/or succession planning are crucial for preparing your organization well into the future with the right competencies and talent required to meet your business goals.

Development – Embracing ways to further the individual's personal and professional development creates leaders at all levels of your organization. Management coaching, mentors, advisors, effective performance management and feedback programs, competitive reward systems, career centers and cross-functional development programs are a few ways to achieve this kind of focus on leadership development throughout your organization. Leaders exist at every level of an organization and investing in the nurturing and development of that potential is imperative for competitive advantage.

Engagement – Organizations that truly create and espouse a culture of employee engagement are continuously evaluating/assessing their talent and empower them with the knowledge, ability and authority to address areas for improvement with proactive, progressive and immediate solutions. Engaging in diversity initiatives that truly embrace the value of having differences in your organization’s workforce, embodying that message in their actions and creating best practices around your diversity initiatives is a key driver for talent retention and talent management. Highly effective rotational programs, flexible work arrangements and knowledge management practices are other critical ways to have an impact on organizational effectiveness and development. Keep ahead of your competition and build a sustainable talent management process by building best practices that adopt the notion that human capital is your best asset. Last but not least, organizations that train their staff on networking and allow opportunities for networking will stand ahead of their competition across all venues – business development, talent management, customer service, employee relations, organizational development, ROI, market share and more.