Roc - Blog

Getting the Best Future for Your Company

Stephen Burr — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Early May saw SAP release the latest “Enhancement Package” (EhP4); these packages are SAP’s way of deploying new software functionality to customers without disruption. Although there are notable improvements in the core HCM module, this enhancement package delivers major improvements in the area of Talent Management.

But in the current global downturn, is this important right now?

Firstly, I’d echo Damian William’s thoughts in the previous blog “Investing in the future” that continual progression of your organisation’s capability, by managing your talented employees, is key to your company’s growth. Les Hayman (ROC Chairman) has previously spoken about how almost every company, via corporate mission statements, tells us that their employees are key to their business. But how many act on this corporate statement? Talent Management is a process that helps deliver on that goal.

It is crucial to realise that Talent Management is a business process that I.T. can help enable. It is about joining up processes across recruiting, learning, performance management, succession planning and compensation management to ensure the right data is collated and available to key decision makers. SAP EhP4 ensures a common data model is used to ensure data is accessible to the right people at the right time using specific roles that are defined for each person in the talent management process; recruiter, learning administrator, managers, etc.

While technology can provide a mechanism to the business to achieve its aims, it needs the business to embrace the process as well as the corporate strategy to re-enforce that commitment.

Talent Management is about getting the best future for your company.

Investing in the future

Damian Williams — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Employers are not willing to let their talent suffer, according to the latest research from Ochre House. Some 67% of surveyed employers are planning on rewarding their top performers with a pay rise this year, despite the current economic climate.

With so many tales of redundancies, the concern would be that valuable employees are lost during the process. As we know, not every company has a robust talent management process in place. Successfully managing talent is vital to the future success of every organisation and it’s refreshing to see that managers are recognising the need to invest in their key players. Keeping staff motivated and secure will ensure that business will flourish and the future leaders are in place to steer the ship.

With reports of headcounts on the increase, it is clear to see that companies are investing in the present as well as the future.

Talent Management: Nothing to do with employee benefits?

Damian Williams — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Talent management is the current buzzword in HR. Talent management is the identification, recruitment, development and deployment of a company's most capable employees. It is a strategy used by employers to improve the retention ratio of their best staff, increase employee loyalty and boost productivity.

Talent management is focused on growing the individual; concentrating on their training and development within the company, while ensuring there are always successors in place that are suitable for key positions should someone leave.

Benefits have an important role to play in talent management. They form an intrinsic part of the value proposition that organisations offer new and existing employees. Flexible benefits can be worth their weight in gold in the employee retention stakes. Research published by the Economist this year, called Talent Wars - The struggle for tomorrow's workforce, discovered that salaries and employee benefits still rank extremely highly in designing a new value proposition for tomorrow's workforce (56%), second only to providing for a better work-life balance through offering flexible working arrangements in terms of hours and place of work (62%).

Structuring a flexible employee benefits programme so staff can select the incentives that are pertinent to their lifestyle is a key weapon in the arsenal of talent management and the retention of star employees. When an organisation is attracting new talent and a candidate is deciding between several offers, it can boil down to what an organisation can offer them. Flexible employee benefits allow the employer to appeal to a diverse range of applicants, and attract good quality candidates.

The ability to mix and match benefits, from pensions and childcare, to holiday allowances and gym memberships, performs a key role in organisations' approach to attracting talent. What appears to be a benefit for one employee may be less important to another, for example, pensions are often less attractive to the younger workforce but become important later on in life.

Although talent management is a corporate level strategy and benefits are ultimately employee incentives, the two are inherently linked. The return on investing time and money in attracting, training, nurturing and retaining key players in the company is diminished if a flexible approach to benefits is not offered as well.

Damian Williams is MD of ROC UK