PRACTICAL GUIDE
EFFECTIVELY MANAGING TALENT BY MENTORING
DEBORAH NAUDTS / EMMA VAN DEN BROECKE / JILL VAN DER BIEST / LIESELOTTE UIJTTENHOVE / MAAIKE VAN RENTERGHEM / MAYA PANNIER
“Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is” GEORGE LUCAS
WHAT IS TALENT MANAGEMENT? Talent management is a way to improve productivity, flexibility and efficiency of both employees and organizations. Hereby, an organization invests in its employees to make use of their talents, but only investing in top talents within an organization is not enough. The inclusive approach stresses the importance of making use of the strengths of all the employees. This approach is the ideal approach of talent management in the current work environment.
In what follows in this guide, we make use of these insights and provide some guidelines (oa practical tools and 7 stepby-step plan) on how to develop everyone's strengths and weaknesses in order to increase productivity, flexibility and efficiency of the employees and the organization.
(Vos, De Vries, Celant & Veenkamp, 2017)
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WHY TALENTMANAGEMENT MATTERS Employees... ...become more passionate, perform better, handle tasks smarter and show more innovative behaviour. ... take on tasks outside of their function description, so they can be deployed more widely. … develop themselves faster, so they adapt to the quickly changing work environment.
Companies...
Employers…
… get a better image … reach their organisational goals faster … strenghten their competitive position … become more attractive for future employees
… create a better connection with their employees, which strenghten the benefits for the organisation/company even more
(Vos, De Vries, Celant & Veenkamp, 2017)
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Talentmanagement Research shows that employees who recognize their own talent, perform better and approach their work more leisurely. Employees who pro-actively use their talent, accept tasks beyond their function and function in a smarter way. Managers have an important compensatory role in this process. Employees who are less capable of recognizing their talents or proactively deploying their talents, need more support from the managers. However, when it comes to the enthusiasm of employees, the manager has a more reinforcing role instead of a compensatory role: employees experience more enthusiasm when their own proactive attitude goes together with good management support. These results show that in the design and implementation of talent management programs, a shared role of both employee and manager is desirable.
(Vos, De Vries, Celant & Veenkamp, 2017)
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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Talent recognition
Support by supervisor
Performance Extra role behavior Innovative behavior Enthusiasm
Pro-active attitude
(Vos, De Vries, Celant & Veenkamp, 2017)
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WHEN TO USE TALENTMANAGEMENT
Personal development conversations
Employee development
Hiring conversations
Increasing job demands
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“Talent can't be taught, but it can be awakened” WALLACE STEGNER
HOW TO BRING IT TO THE WORKPLACE.... The employee must recognize his/her talents and have a pro-active attitude to use their talents in the organisation.
The employer must have attention for and support both the above mentioned aspects constantly.
(Vos, De Vries, Celant & Veenkamp, 2017)
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PRACTICAL TOOLSÂ QUESTIONNAIRES A psychological assessment to find the individual strengths of your employees to improve relationships, enhance well-being and overcome problems. For more information go to the site: https://www.viacharacter.org
DEVELOPMENTAL CONVERSATIONS JOBCRAFTING
Having confidential conversations between managers and employees helps strengthening the bond between them and identifies developmental opportunities for the employee.
Giving the employee the chance to make small changes in his job description leads to more motivation and responsibility for the employee, which has a positive impact on employee performance (Peeters, van den Heuvel & Demerouti, 2017).
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PRACTICAL TOOLSÂ JOB ROTATION By giving employees the opportunity to try out different functions in the organisation, you can find out which function fits the best with the talents of the employee. This way the employee can find the best fitted job with his or her strengths and talents (Chuck, 2017).
TESTIMONIAL
Figuur 1. [Woman office happy]. Overgenomen uit: Woman office happy van Gettyimages, z.j. (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/at-work-more-americans-pu_n_3906976.html). Copyright 1999-2018, Getty Images.
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PRACTICAL TOOLSÂ MENTORING Using mentor-relationships to focus on recognizing and using talent guarantees a personal approach and constant support for the employee. This way, employees get personal support, which has a positive influence on employee performance. Using the 7 step-by-step plan shown on the following pages, helps you as an organisation to develop good mentor-mentee relationships.
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7 STEP-BY-STEP PLAN STEP 1: FIND A MENTOR Let employees choose a mentor with whom they have shared values or interests. This can be a colleague (from the same or another subject field) or boss, depending on what you decide as a company.
STEP 2: MORE RESPONSIBILITY After filling in a questionnaire about their strenghts (see p. 9), both mentor and mentee can reflect on it. The mentor and mentee decide which goals they both want to reach. They set how they will use and develop their talents.
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STEP 3: COMMUNICATE The mentor and mentee decide how they will communicate and they do this regularly. They set fixed dates to talk to each other and evaluate their goals. How often they do this, is their own choice.
STEP 4: NETWORK The mentor and mentee share their networks with each other so they can both meet interesting people that can help using or developing talents effectively.
STEP 5: TRUST Trust and honesty are very important. The mentor and mentee should talk about what bothers them and admit it if they make mistakes.
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STEP 6: GIVE CHANCES Look for and create chances for each other in which you can both use and develop your talents.
STEP 7: EVALUATE Evaluate once in a while to see if you’re reaching your goals. Check if the mentor-relationship is effective. Prolong your relationship or consider choosing another mentor, depending on your evaluation (Blanchard & Diaz-Ortiz, 2017).
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GO AND FIND YOUR TALENTS Authors: Deborah Naudts, Emma Van Den Broecke, Jill Van der Biest, Lieselotte Uijttenhove, Maaike Van Renterghem, Maya Pannier Group number: 128 Professor: Prof. Mieke Audenaert Universiteit Gent Date: 18/04/2018
All pictures used in this guide (without any reference) are collected from the database of Canva.
References: Blanchard, K., & Diaz-Ortiz, C. (2017). De One Minute Mentor. Amsterdam, Nederland: Boom uitgevers. Chuck, L. (2017, 5 december). The benefits and challenges of job rotation. Geraadpleegd op 10 april 2018 op het World Wide Web:https://www.forbes.com/sites/adp/2017/12/05/the-benefits-andchallenges-of-job-rotation/#4bed4bc66ff5 Getty Images. (z.j.). Woman office happy. [Foto]. Geraadpleegd op 16 april 2018 op het World Wide Web: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/at-work-more-americans-pu_n_3906976.html Peeters, M., van den Heuvel, M. & Demerouti, E. (2017). Effecten van een job crafting interventie voor rijksambtenaren. Tijdschrift voor HRM, 2017(8), 1-19. VIA Institute on Character. (2018, 12 april). Geraadpleegd op 10 april op het World Wide Web: http://www.viacharacter.org/ Vos, M., De Vries, S., Celant L., & Veenkamp, W. (2017). Optimaal benutten van talent: De interactie tussen leidinggevende en medewerker. Tijdschrift voor HRM, 2017(12), 1-21.