I'm An Employee First

I am sure many of you know how passionate I am about talent management solutions that center on people, not administration. As we all know, people are the foundation of business performance and success. I'm not only acutely focused on reflecting this in technology, but as I live each day as an employee of my company.  Unfortunately, many organizations don't think about talent they way I do and quite frankly, that's a shame.

Organizations of all sizes and industries are suffering from the same challenges right now: Retirees taking skills and intellectual capital with them, untimely departures of critical individuals and employees leaving for "better opportunities" with your competition.  With all these workforce changes, companies have to plan and begin managing their people in the same strategic manner in which they run their business.  Without this, you have disengaged people and a high probability a slowdown of the business will occur when these individuals begin leaving. 

This is exactly the reason why organizations have to think about talent in a broader sense.  It's not good enough or acceptable any longer to think about only key leadership. We have to focus on every employee, down to the lowest paid.  It's time to Put People First.

When I think about my own role and career I'm an employee first.  We all are regardless of our "title".   And at the risk of sounding selfish, I too have career aspirations. I am lucky in that my manager works with me to ensure I'm engaged, challenged and growing professionally.  He's helping me prepare for my next career move.  

Here's where the importance of organization-wide, person-centric talent management comes in to play.  In order for me to progress into my next role, I have to ensure I'm building a team that can take the reigns from me when the time comes. Seems simple, right? Ah, things are not always as they seem. 
 

As a leader, I'm responsible for a team of incredibly talented individuals who have vast knowledge on the talent space.  None of them have a "Chief" or "VP" in their title, but without their dedication, knowledge and support, our business would suffer.  It's imperative to me and our success to have a team who is engaged and wants to do their best every day.  In order to ensure that happens, I need to make sure they are taking an active role in defining their own future and that I'm providing the development opportunities to get them where they want to be.
 

Now don't forget, I'm not in HR. But HR needs to supports me. They need to be deliberate in engaging with me from a support standpoint.   Ultimately, it's up to me, as a business leader and manager, to identify, engage, and develop my people.  The best way to do that is talk to them, listen to them and remember you were in their shoes one day.

So bottom line, put yourself in the employee role for a minute.  Think about what you want and need to be successful and go provide that to your people.