5 minute read
Make a move on internal talent
Revised ways of working, technology and proactive employee engagement will be key to enhancing internal mobility and optimising employee engagement processes. This will allow employees to take control of their personal career growth and create an organisational environment that supports this.
BY ATLEHANG RAMATHESELE
Advertisement
In a conversation powered by Oracle, top HR practitioners came together at this year’s HR Indaba Conversation to discuss how to dynamise and energise the process of hiring from within an organisation. The session started with a powerful opening from strategic business solutions engineer at Oracle, Rob Bothma. Other than highlighting how the recruitment freeze in the midst of the pandemic forced organisations to look internally for further assistance,
Rob emphasised the importance of using technology to optimise employee engagement processes.
Following much research about how the workforce was going to change over time and the rise of the gig economy, Rob explained that Oracle ascertained that organisations were going to have to manage the dynamics of needing certain skills with less stringent parameters than full-time employment, and making these opportunities available to staff. This was to address when an employee has an additional skill that is only required for a limited period or a specific project. Oracle heeded the call by creating a function called Opportunity Marketplace that allows managers to share the duration of a project, the team and the skills required. This has helped organisations improve their networking skills internally, assist staff to gain skills and enable employees to sell themselves in a more social environment.
“You start building up capability within the
Elsie Pule
organisation that resides outside of your job, which is a benefit to employees. From a management perspective, they were able to get the job done and had a resource to tap into,” he explained. Michele Seroke, CHRO at Motus Corporation, sees mobility as proactively and strategically moving and deploying people across divisions, geographies and projects to give them maximum exposure to various roles, as well as removing barriers, such as alleviating the strain on families when one needs to move to work overseas. Michele highlighted that in any successful talent programme, identification is the first step so that organisations can find a way of leveraging and mobilising existing talent. She mentioned that supportive identification helps to understand how talent will increase revenue, improve organisational efficiency, reduce costs and create profitability: “My particular passion is identifying talent for critical business objectives rather than simply identifying talent for the sake of it,” she said. She added, “We must have the ability to find the critical skills and roles that drive business, add value and learn what type of talent we require to drive business strategy forward.” Elsie Pule, group executive human resources at Eskom, encouraged leaders to empower and uplift others. “You require people to bet on you and give you opportunities. I have had many people take a chance on me. Sponsorship at all levels is key to enable people to have enhanced mobility,” she said.
Michele Seroke
Akhona Qengqe, chief people officer at YUM brands, said technology had really streamlined processes because it helped HR make decisions faster. “You know there is a vacancy and can see who in the organisation has highlighted that as an ideal role. You can look at the data and determine their readiness,” she said.
Giving employees agency
Elsie said that employees need to be clear about what they need, and seek help when they don’t, which coaching programmes can assist with. Employees also need to understand the environment in which they operate to have an impact: “I would urge professionals to be drivers of their own careers and get as much help as you can to define what progression looks like. Find alignment between your personal needs and what is impactful in your organisation.” Rob added that employees needed to understand that the onus of fulfilling their career aspirations was on them. Organisations need to provide opportunities, but the ownership thereof was actually on the employees themselves. Akhona said it was important to identify talent to future-proof businesses and create business success, it was also necessary to create structures and processes to develop talent and drive retention and engagement, as well as replacing talent in the areas of the business where they would add the most value.
“We want to keep our talent engaged and create pathways for them to grow, even if it is lateral and gives them exposure to other parts of the business – so we can build better leaders,” she said.
She added, “What you end up with is a complete talent strategy – people take on new roles, get promoted, are exported to global businesses to learn or get short-term assignments.”
Looking to the future
Akhona is a huge advocate of collaboration and constant feedback to drive employee growth and aspiration. “As HR, we need to look at ourselves as facilitators in the whole talent and strategy development process. Our role is not to tell people what they can do and who they are, but rather to show them who they can be and partner with them to help them get to the other side of the bridge,” she said. Michele said the role of HR was about fostering talent and ensuring that businesses have the right people to execute its objectives, and encouraged practitioners to delve into that and familiarise themselves with more solutions for optimising that role. Elsie reminded HR practitioners that employees are capable of deciding what they want to be – provided they have the right framework, tools and skills.
“Make sure you don’t find yourself complaining about a skills exodus. Ensure you have a pool of people you can draw from,” she cautioned.
