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It takes talent to capture talent.
02 de February de 2021
In the world of business, , Talent Management and Development is one of the most important parts of a company and crucial to its evolution. .Everyone wants to have the best possible team among their ranks —clearly— but, in order to select the most adequate person for any position, a profound analysis of the evolution of the labour and technology sectors is needed.
The thing is, hiring isn’t the only crucial point here — in order for the company to grow, it’s necessary to establish employees and invest in their constant training.
Next stop: Talent
The 5th DCH Barometer on Talent Management is clear proof of this. Throughout its five editions, results have played a decisive role in shedding light on the speed at which everything changes and how important it is to adapt to an ever changing setting. Getting somewhere is not just about catching the train, but also having the right ticket and standing on the right platform.
The pandemic has been rough in many ways. However, it gave rise to new growth opportunities for those who have been paying attention and who have prepared: “2021 is going to be a hard year in which we’ll have to make hard decisions. Talent Management will have to rise to challenges and embrace opportunities. That’s why upskilling, reskilling and mentoring employees is going to be so important. People are leaving companies and we can’t afford to lose their experience”, expained Jaime Sol Espinosa de los Monteros, Managing Partner of EY’s People Advisory Services.
The trend that Human Resources will follow in this second year of pandemic was perfectly summarised by Sol: “We are working increasingly faster. We need to make decisions almost instantly. So, Agile is going to be one of the topics of 2021”.
The rules of the game are changing.
Technological development is the main driver for Human Resources departments having to make adjustments and make sure their work is effective. “We have witnessed many changes in this short period of time and we’ll surely see many more”, said Raul Bravo, EAE Business School Madrid Director. It is precisely these changes in the business environment that we must take into account and, whenever it’s possible, try to anticipate. This is not always achievable since there may be unexpected situations, but it is crucial to make the right decision at that moment.
In the Age of Technology, there’s another very important requirement besides the speed of action: attitude. The Growth Mindset concept becomes relevant in this regard. It’s about how each one of us must be the leader of our own professional development and our own education and training. “It’s about being proactive when it comes to growth. It’s not enough to have a cross-disciplinary education — what is needed is an on-demand approach. It’s no good to receive just one type of training per year — what is needed (if Growth Mindset or upskilling are to be achieved) are one or two per month and on different channels”, expressed David Alonso, Global HR Manager / Employee Experience Tribe Lead (Agile People) at Telefónica.
On the other hand, María Manso, BBVA’s Global Head of People Analytics, added that always having to be up-to-date with trends and having the necessary knowledge to carry out your job properly is nothing new: “Maybe what has happened is that, with technology and new digital knowledge, this process has been accelerated. We need to go a lot faster and we need to acquire that knowledge in a much more agile way in order to be able to incorporate it. That’s what’s making upskilling and reskilling so trendy right now”.
Employees at the Human Resources department are not the only ones who must be on the watch and focus on improving their performance through training — the senior positions also have that responsibility. It’s important they know what resources and capabilities are available in the company and come up with an effective strategy. “Senior management must be conscious of this and willing to instill a future-focused mindset, having in mind what kind of company they want to build. Leadership is essential”, insisted Juan Manuel Chicote, Human Resources Manager of DKV Insurance Group.
Evolution in data.
This event in which Human Resources professionals were gathered was also good to get the numbers for the development of the sector in these past years. During her presentation, Pilar Llácer, professor and researcher here at EAE Business School, broke down the most important trends-related data of the Human Resources environment. Obviously, the effects of coronavirus had an impact on the 2020 statistics. Llácer stated at the beginning of her presentation: “We must not forget this year. It’s important to remember it and learn from the things we did right and keep doing them”.
Pilar pointed out that globalisation has proven that Human Resources management in Spain and in Latin America are quite similar despite the great geographic distance between them. Regarding the dimensions affected by covid19, she made special emphasis on development, due to the motivation of workers when faced with the arduous challenges that the pandemic brought about.
The most obvious challenge has been coming to terms with having to work from home — a trend that spiked during the pandemic. Surprisingly, it has been one of the positive impacts in the business world, alongside the commitment shown during this period, the power to adapt in the face of change and all the knowledge acquired. On the other hand, the most negative effects were related to the loss of face-to-face contact and the challenge of having to carry out certain internal processes in companies that were not prepared to do so — for lack of digitalisation or automation of tasks or, like 30% of SMEs, for lack of a website.
The rate at which each department has hired clearly indicates that Junior profiles were the prefered choice of companies and that the areas that have grown the most have been Technology, Operations and Logistics. The fact that Junior profiles are better at upskilling and reskilling has increased the rate at which they are hired in comparison with Senior profiles (50+ years), who —according to Pilar Llacer’s data— don’t quite finish adapting to digital transformation. Almost 70% of this group doesn’t meet the requirements for positions in which new technologies need to be applied. Even when this number has improved since 2019 by 7%, the numbers reveal that companies need to pay special attention to this in order to optimise the abilities of their Senior profiles.
Abilities have gained greater importance for companies than knowledge when it comes to hiring. Marta Valer, Randstad’s National Key Account Manager, shed some light on this: 85% of success is based in abilities while 15% is based in knowledge and experience.
Back to the future.
Foreseeing and anticipating the coming trends will take companies that grow the most in the short and medium term to the top.
For years now, we’ve been talking about Blockchain — a type of technology that is useful for the development of new currencies but also for sharing and storing data. Rebeca Fernández, DCH’s People Analytics Programme leader, explained how the evolution of blockchain technology —which eliminates the middleman— speeds up a variety of processes in a safely, flexible and auditable manner. This builds trust among its users and makes it easier to carry out tasks more rapidly and with a higher degree of automation.
“If I have seen further than others, it was because I was standing on the shoulders of giants”: paraphrasing Isaac Newton, Julio Rodríguez, Mentoring Spain’s CEO, stressed the importance of learning from the great mentors and those who found success in their work. Mentoring is a day-to-day activity, but it is crucial to formalise the commitment between mentor and apprentice in order for knowledge, experiences and other skills to come to fruition.
The conclusion was unanimous: 2021 is going to be a year of transition in which we will all have to learn to adapt and stay up to date like never before.
Before the end of the day, Pilar Llácer challenged everyone to find a word that would define how they wanted this year to be like. She chose “ilusión” —a spanish word that combines hope and excitement— while Marta Valer went for “ambition”.
We rather not choose. That’s why we are taking all of them and putting them into one word: evolution.