Competition for talent continues to be a very hot topic in business today … both on a local and global level.
And not least because of the extraordinary competitive edge afforded to those organisations – across the world – who invest in spotting and retaining talent.
At Savannah Group, every day we see the rewards that high-growth organisations reap from positioning themselves to attract and retain highly-talented and agile workforces.
In engaging a blend of full and part-time talent, for a local and global workforce – theirs are winning responses to the evolving needs and market realities that businesses face today.
‘Glocal’ talent needs
Working to help scale up high-growth businesses in Egypt and West Africa, my experience is that the best talent often is a blend of global and local = ‘glocal’. This is along the lines of the 1990’s slogan of ‘think global, act local’ and remains true today.
I’ve personally spearheaded successful recruiting and onboarding of Western-educated local talent busting the myth of the traditional expat solution is the best option for emerging markets. This involves attracting the very best of a very small and highly educated local talent pool. Relevant candidates will have close relationships with the key stakeholders, know their way around government, can run a complex P&L and mesh Western and local values. This approach to nurturing and capturing a pool of ‘glocal’ expertise has been pivotal to our clients’ success in their respective (and sometimes difficult) African & Asian markets.
Five ways organisations are benefitting from embracing talent:
1. Stronger financial performance
2. Richer customer value propositions
3. Boosted employee motivation, performance and wellbeing
4. A reputation as a great place to work draws in more talent, aids succession planning and encourages recommendations – for a virtuous circle
5. Greater competitive edge. In a world where change is the norm, a pool of diverse talent (especially digital talent) is key as businesses respond to the fourth industrial revolution (see this fascinating BCG report about Industry 4.0).
So, with the competition for talent more intensive than ever, what should organisations be doing to entice the best of the best?
And how can organisations today address the challenges of a limited pool of high-quality candidates, a dynamic global job market, generational diversity and rapidly changing business priorities?
According to Washington Technology – The United States authority for government contractors and partners – successful talent-embracing organisations have these in common:
• Cultures that deliver on promises – Instilling pride in current and potential employees (and clients)
• High internal and external visibility across website and social platforms – so potential employees can easily vet and compare them with other firms
• Industry awards – third party endorsement of the quality of their offerings and the way they look after talent – which converts any claims into demonstrable evidence
• Thought leadership – proof of the expertise that top talent is looking to be inspired and challenged by.
In this way, winning organisations create the conditions, both on rational and emotional levels, to attract like-minded prospective employees, and become their preferred employer.
And needless to say, with all the online tools available at one’s fingertips, organisations who are “out of sight” are quite simply out of the running.
How is your organisation doing? Do you embrace ‘Glocal’ talent? And which organisations inspire you as role-models for embracing talent?
