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Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR 1

Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR

2 Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR

Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR 3

Introduction

Even though we are still only in the first quarter of

the 21st century, often referred to as the digital cen-

tury, it is obvious that, because of digitisation, the

main corporate strategy pillars are changing dramat-

ically and will look extremely different just a few

years down the road.

For companies to generate a sustainable talent man-

agement lifecycle, we believe that their strategies

should be built upon equal parts of Product & Ser-

vices, Sustainability, Digitisation and People"1. But

how does one prepare for this, and what does it

mean in practice?

This perspective addresses ways to prepare for the

People (HR) dimension and outlines how to increase

the likelihood of contemporary people management

and governance becoming successful. Although

Product & Services, Sustainability and Digitisation all

play important roles in our argumentation, we will

not address the nature of these pillars and their dy-

namics in this perspective.

1 We recognise that regulation plays an equally important strategic

role within certain industries, e.g. Financial Services and Pharma-

ceutical. However, our interpretation is that regulation is a part of

We build our reasoning upon the findings in our pre-

vious perspective Talent Management in the Digital

Renaissance, where we claim that six key features

have to be incorporated to succeed as an employer

with a strong people/talent focus:

1. Involve young talent in high-level

discussions

2. Leverage from immediate value

3. Facilitate C-suite interaction

4. Be outspoken about the best career

opportunities inside and outside the

company

5. Vocalise how to facilitate the digital

renaissance

6. Frequent one-on-ones

In the following paragraphs, we will present the

Lifecycle Management Framework and contextualise

it in more detail in the context of the future role

of HR.

the frame that each sector has to navigate within, similar to tax re-

gimes, etc.

4 Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR

The key to empathy

For a company to become the future winner of the

scarce talent pool, its management must rethink their

"People Management Strategy" by recognising that

when making the promise "it is all about people", it

comes with a strong commitment from the initial em-

ployee touchpoint all the way through the employee

exit phase. This requires significant involvement for

all in-house stakeholders, particularly HR, which has

to be the no. 1 driver throughout all phases of the

employee lifecycle.

As can be seen in Exhibit 1, we have divided the em-

ployee (or talent) lifecycle into four phases. Each

phase is equally important to potential, current and

former employees, and so, all phases must be equally

important to the company. Thus, it is just as

important to support an employee’s exit as it is to

support any personal development when she/he is

onboarded.

By displaying HR's dedication and commitment in

each of the phases, it becomes visible that the

phrase "it is all about people" is a substantial part of

the company strategy. Furthermore, by monitoring

and measuring performance in each of the phases

with the ambition to constantly improve, the

company prompts its overall empathy ambition.

In the following, we will go through each of the

phases with a clear reference to the role of HR. An

HR involvement scheme including some of the focus

areas is presented for each phase. It is important to

stress that the presented features cannot stand

alone and that they are only examples of key areas

to cover. Each company must tailor its own new HR

interface catalogue, securing that current and future

needs are met.

EXHIBIT 1:

Source: QVARTZ analysis

Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR 5

Branding for hire

The employee is the first and most important

customer. This sounds like a cliché, but it is truer

than ever.

We know that people, especially millennials, choose

to work for a company because they identify them-

selves with a certain company profile (culture, mis-

sion, vision, CSR and sustainability record). The data

supporting this observation is comprehensive and

we have in the illustration below listed a few quotes

from recent studies:

"Job seekers are most likely to choose

one job over another because of the

chosen employer's culture…"

Source: Candidates Choose Jobs Because of

Company Culture (SHRM, Feb 2017)

Link: Click here

"Five years ago, salary and benefits were

the top reasons a candidate would

choose one company over another".

"Today, culture is the number one reason

candidates choose a company".

"Five years from now, TA executives pre-

dict "workplace flexibility" will be the top

reason candidates choose an employer".

Source: The Talent Forecast Part 1: Adapting

today’s candidate priorities for tomorrow’s or-

ganizational success (Korn Ferry, 2017)

Link: Click here

"Like it or not, millennials are the generation

driving the workplace changes of the near future

… millennials desire a strong company culture

(in one dimension or another) more than

anything else when deciding who to work for…"

Source: Why Corporate Culture Is Becoming Even

More Important (Forbes, 2017)

Link: Click here

"Three-quarters said they want

a company that both supports

them financially and acts as a

good corporate citizen by

demonstrating that it cares

about the community and

well-being of its people.

Source: Money is no longer the

biggest incentive in selecting a job

(USA Today, 2017)

Link: Click here

6 Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR

On top of that, we claim that the likelihood of a per-

son working for a company not wanting to use or

buy the product produced by the company is very

low. Hence, both the product and company profiles

must be attractive to the potential hire. The role of

HR is to secure that the natural symbioses between a

product and a corporate profile, including its market-

ing strategy, are in line, and that the required talent

pool in question receives these messages in a genu-

ine format.

Aligning branding and attractiveness to the future

needs and capabilities of the company is crucial for

attracting a sufficient part of the scarce talent pool.

HR is responsible for ensuring that branding and at-

tractiveness are not in conflict or hindering the com-

pany ways of attracting the required human capital.

Hence, for talent management to work, it is a prereq-

uisite that HR works closely together with marketing,

securing focus on both current and future capability

demand.

The HR Task & Involvement Scheme for this phase should include:

Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR 7

Acquisition

Typically, HR plays a vital role during the acquiring

phase. Various interviews and tests are performed

prior to signing any contract in an ambition to spot

company fit, weaknesses and strengths of the poten-

tial hire. HR obviously represents the interests of the

company, but should simultaneously represent the

needs of the potential hire. Hence, they should make

sure that the job in question is the best possible job

for the employee at her/his current level. For HR to

succeed in this pursuit, a total overview of the talent

pool and the capabilities needed are essential. These

two components play an important part in the dia-

logue with the potential hire and prevent hiring

based on availability instead of capability.

The HR Task & Involvement Scheme for this phase should include:

8 Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR

Continuous

development

In past times, a career ladder was typically designed

as a pyramid, regardless of industry type. The first

two years of one’s career were spent as a junior. The

next four as senior, then middle manager and man-

ager roles, and if the employee was lucky enough,

s/he ended up as part of the corporate management.

Throughout each of these steps, the employee had

access to a number of courses designed to fit his/her

current step in the pyramid and was assigned work

tasks reflecting his/her current or next step in the

pyramid. Historically, the personal development of

employees has, roughly speaking, been divided into

two areas: hard skills and soft skills. The hard skills

represented everything from industry knowhow,

product knowledge and value chain optimisation

(just to mention a few). Soft skills were primarily rep-

resented by know yourself-better courses and devel-

opment of manager capabilities in various shapes

and forms.

This system is rigid and outdated.

From paysa.com (see Exhibit 2 below), we know that

retention rates for the tech disrupters and tech titans

are lower than what we usually see.

EXHIBIT 2

Source: https://www.paysa.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DisruptorsA8.png

Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR 9

For us to understand how these companies are able

to capture significant value despite having a high

frequent employee flow, we claim the following hy-

pothesis:

The companies presented in Exhibit 2 are by

design not managed through a pyramid system,

but managed through a project system where

the development of both hard and soft skills is

individually designed.

In order for companies to attract the most talented

people, they have to learn significantly from the peo-

ple governance system that we see among the tech

titans. Everything that an individual employee is in-

volved in as a part of their individual learning must

be recognised as such. If an employee is suddenly in-

volved in something that is not developing a particu-

lar individual skill, he or she will eventually swap

companies.

Together with each employee and the manager of

the employee, the role of HR is to ensure that each

individual has a dynamic pipeline of interesting pro-

jects, or involvements, to look forward to. The pro-

ject pipeline has to be designed in such a way that

both the employee and the employer are gaining suf-

ficient value within a very short timeframe. Every

consequent project should be designed to cater for a

specific purpose, ensuring either hard or soft learning

at an individual level. Focus is thereby steered away

from the traditional career ladder to the individual

learning level. Obviously, hygiene compensation

levels should be paid according to current

knowledge level.

The HR Task & Involvement Scheme for this phase should include:

10 Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR

Exit with a future

Knowing just how important empathy is prior to and

throughout the lifecycle, it becomes clear that any

exit must be just as positive as the entrance. When

accepting that employees are hired for shorter and

shorter periods, and not for lifelong employment, the

rehiring of alumni is vital for the future business

model. This mean that any company must have a

number of different exit programmes in place, all

with further possibilities for personalisation. It is cru-

cial for any future cooperation that an exit is as well-

planned, open and transparent as possible. All of

these features jointly secure that a focus on empathy

is kept at it highest throughout the lifecycle and that

sustainable circular employment governance can be

established.

The HR Task & Involvement Scheme for this phase should include:

Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR 11

Conclusion

The future role of HR is to be present throughout all

the steps of the business and its processes. Forcing

HR to “live” together with the employees, and not in

a closed office, by letting them be an integrated part

of the business will not only strengthen the corpo-

rate profile towards externals but also strengthen the

financial performance of the company.

For companies to stand out as pioneers on the

people agenda, these initiatives require significant

investments and senior management focus. As

stated in the beginning of this text, the most im-

portant factors are Product & Services, Sustainability,

Digitisation and People. While these topics all require

senior management focus, the People dimension is

without a doubt the most vulnerable part of the busi-

ness value chain, and must be given adequate focus

securing sufficient empathy throughout the talent

lifecycle.

12 Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR

Tim Bruun Madsen

Tim.Madsen@qvartz.com

+45 61 22 42 69

Talent Lifecycle Management – the future role of HR 13

www.qvartz.com