GROWTH

CASE STUDY / Talent Review

Using a Talent Review as Strategic Leverage for Future Workforce Success

The success of an organization’s endeavors relies heavily on the talent they employ.

With constant technology advancements and shifts in industry landscapes, it’s imperative for organizations to assess their in-house talent and identify the expertise needed for future growth. Yet many companies underutilize the competitive advantage that a strategic talent assessment provides.

One global financial company was in need of a talent review to determine if their workforce of today was capable of meeting their objectives of tomorrow.

This review not only provided them pivotal answers, but unveiled multiple, mission-critical blindspots that, left unaddressed, could have jeopardized the organization’s entire talent strategy.

+ Risk Analysis, Transformation & Change Management, Organizational Design & Development

At a Glance

THE PROBLEM

A global financial organization faced a pressing technological advancements, leaving their workforce at risk of being obsolete. This posed a significant challenge as outdated skills would lead to stagnation and decline in the face of market changes.

THE MISSING PIECE

A comprehensive examination of the current workforce's skills and capabilities was needed, as well as a clear vision of the talent required for future success. Without these insights, the organization lacked the foundation for effective strategic planning.

THE SOLUTION

A strategic talent review was conducted. The results of this review exposed multiple, mission-critical blindspots and revealed the necessary steps of the most effective talent strategy. A strategy map was crafted from this insight, paving the way for the highest transformational success.

OBSERVED CHALLENGE

In support of a division within a global financial organization, a strategic talent review became a critical advantage as technology developments were rapidly emerging, and the existing workforce faced the risk of becoming obsolete. The organization recognized that relying on antiquated skills might lead to stagnation and decline in the face of rapid changes in the market.

A talent review — an integral yet under-leveraged part of strategic people operations planning — was conducted to yield a comprehensive assessment of the existing talent pool and identification of the talent required for future success.

The review process analyzed various aspects of the current workforce, such as location, profile, skills, tenure, compensation, promotional history, and growth potential. Simultaneously, it assessed the need for the future workforce, considering factors like availability, assessment abilities, and leadership potential.

Once an in-depth analysis of the current workforce was complete, insights obtained drove the pathways in which the organization transformed their workforce to meet their future objectives. A subsequent need for the creation of new talent profiles and how those new profiles would impact the dynamics of the organization’s tenured workforce was developed as a strategic advantage in the transformation process.

OUTCOME

The main objective for this talent review was the creation of a talent strategy map: an illustration of the organization’s current workforce, its needed future workforce and the strategic pathway in which to successfully transform for the future. The map included roles and responsibilities, details into team sizes, leadership structure and growth opportunities for teams.

A critical element to success in this organization’s talent strategy map — and every strategic talent map — is the detailed state of the future workforce. Without insight into how to appropriately organize your people, there is an immense risk of performing the large scale undertaking of a talent review and organizational transformation only to have retention rates crumble as the new workforce design is implemented. There will always be primary impacts of your decisions. The key to true success comes through determining the secondary and tertiary impacts as well.

In this case, the existing workforce had essential skills and knowledge needed to support both ongoing operations and the transition to the future. Specific high potential and subject matter experts were identified — those that would be key foundational pieces needed to make the future state of the workforce successful. These individuals were able to be strategically leveraged in the organization’s new transformational plan, as the talent review revealed three main challenges:

The current leadership team did not possess the necessary knowledge to effectively manage the new profiles that were identified as necessary for the company’s future. Decisions needed to be made on how to upskill the current leadership team, hire in new talent and reorganize the leadership structure.
The current recruiting team was unequipped to successfully hire for the new profiles. Similarly to the lack of ability within the leadership team to support the new roles, recruiters needed to be upskilled or supplemented.
A new team model had to be created which effectively integrated the new hires while leveraging the current high potential employees and subject matter experts. The risk of losing existing employees through the changes to the workforce remained high and there was a need to keep the organization’s retention rates strong to avoid loss of key knowledge within their teams.

Without the knowledge on how to leverage a strategic talent review, the organization would have faced significant risks in their rapidly evolving business landscape, including:

Heightened risk of workforce obsolescence
Talent gaps in their inability to identify high-potential individuals and subject matter experts critical for future success
Risks of leadership and recruiting inadequacy in staffing for roles without a clear talent strategy

In this organization’s case, going deep with qualifiers and wide with sources of information allowed us to obtain the most comprehensive picture on talent and transformation, paving the way for an advantageous strategy map and fostering adaptability and long-term sustainability in the organization’s rapidly changing market.

A talent review, whether minimal or extensive, is one of the most valuable strategic decisions that an evolving organization can invest in.

When there’s an ability to make organizational changes, it’s paramount to reach a level of depth that ensures the highest quality decision-making, ultimately steering you toward the best operational outcomes.

DETERMINE KEY INDICATORS | In reviewing the organization’s talent, it was imperative to think about it as a snapshot in time. A full comprehensive review of various factors of their workforce allowed us to determine whether the organization was successfully set up to accomplish its goals. Factors considered included objective metrics such as time in role, compensation and promotional history, in addition to subjective measures such as skill and potential. Leadership weighed in on what was critical to the successful achievement of their objectives.

CONDUCT INCLUSIVE REVIEW | It is imperative that a talent review never happen in a vacuum. Relying only on system information without gathering additional practical feedback can open the best strategic initiatives to glaring blindspots. As a result, various levels of leadership were brought in alongside select subject matter expert (SME) individual contributors, providing a holistic and comprehensive view of the workforce. The inclusion of varying levels of the team was intentionally designed to allow team members to become more receptive to any potential future changes.

DETAIL THE FUTURE | Understanding where the organization exactly was with their talent’s ability allowed for the needed vantage point in creating their future workforce. Systematically determining gaps and weaknesses in an objective way meant that forward progress could be made in creating necessary changes. Most importantly, we were able to assess how these changes would affect the team and leadership dynamics so that a strong change management plan could be created.

SMARTWORK APPROACH

Visual Summary

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Understanding Your Current Talent Determines Your Future Success

In order to create the most effective workforce possible, it was necessary to understand what the capability of current team. Only then was the organization able to determine what pathways they had forward regarding their workforce to meet their new objectives.

Your Recruiting & Leadership Strategy Matters Just as Much as Your New Talent

The talent review revealed critical future challenges that the organization was quickly going to face in how they were going to recruit and lead the new talent. When developing new talent attraction and leadership plans, it’s necessary to understand every recruiting and leadership capabilities. Success depends on what each profile is looking for and how they are supported so you can adapt to remain competitive in new environments.

CASE RESULTS

Assumptions Rarely Stay the Same as the Situation is Examined

Without the insight gained from this talent review, the organization may have set themselves up for failure when they decided to move their objectives in a new direction. It was generally assumed that the new objectives and strategies could be carried out with existing workforce, but it became obvious as the talent review went on that this was not the case.