A survey of CEOs held about a decade back by McKinsey revealed that these top executives give a lot of importance to a well laid-out talent strategy. Yet, many were displeased by the ongoing talent management practices as employed by the respective HR teams. Unfortunately, a decade on, little seems to have changed on the ground. The main disconnect lies with the HR Business Partners or HRBPs. In spite of being good at counseling junior staff, HRBPs with a strategic bent of mind, seem to be hard to find. To improve this search, firstly the title of the designation itself needs a change to Talent Value Leader. For this to succeed, the HRBP needs to be free from all operational responsibilities so he/she may concentrate on the strategic side. These Talent Value Leaders must get empowered enough to influence the overall company vision and corporate strategy. This will ensure that they will no longer be viewed as merely personnel managers. Finally, a proper pipeline must be developed for such potential leaders to succeed existing ones.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-organization-blog/the-critical-importance-of-the-hr-business-partner?cid=winningtalent-soc-twi-mip-mck-oth-1803&kui=17sA7oKecCULSjckvFyRHg

Uploaded Date:17 March 2018

Talent recruitment is one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences. While it is admittedly difficult to identify the real gems, in certain interaction and information-intensive jobs such as project management and software development, the disparity is immense. The start performers are understandably a staggering eight-hundred percent more productive than the rest. A study conducted by management consulting giant McKinsey puts the shortfall figure at a whopping forty-five million in the developing world over the coming years. Europe and North America will require another eleven percent college graduates to fill their shortfall. The employee value proposition thus has to be really strong to capture the real high-performers. If not, there may instead be negative reviews on sites such as Glassdoor or Job Advisor. As contradictory as it may sound, it is true that a mere five percent of employees in any firm or industry create positions for the rest ninety-five percent. Companies will be well-advised to focus on this five percent. UPS and Apple for instance have managed to attune their best employees to the key positions. The latter did face some struggle after the death of its iconic founder Steve Jobs, but eventually found their way back.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-organization-blog/focus-on-the-five-percent?cid=winningtalent-soc-twi-mip-mck-oth-1802&kui=bScHTPv2OFb_G1tdgQgSZA

Uploaded Date:17 March 2018

Companies spend a lot of money and put in a lot of effort to rectify areas where they are not that good by either recruiting or providing corporate training sessions to their existing personnel. Instead, if companies could focus some part of this time on further leveraging their existing innate strengths, the results may actually prove to be better. This is particularly true for companies that are utilizing the concept of design thinking, as a lot of this aesthetic sense derives from inbuilt competencies. First of all, companies must be honest enough to acknowledge their weaknesses. But after this, it becomes equally crucial to understand the true strengths which may be leveraged. Problem identification is key here. While others may have certain diagnosis, one needs to find the real reason for whichever shortfall the firm is experiencing. Whatever strengths one has, those need to be accentuated to make up for the flaws.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Design-for-Your-Strengths?gko=6fc72&sf180954936=1

Uploaded Date:16 March 2018

Traditionally, most companies have purely focused on the financials and growth. But this is not conducive for long-term development, so companies need to forge an identity of theirs. This will lead to a concrete value proposition to develop distinct capabilities. While the identity needs to be solid, the nitty-gritties may keep evolving, so the structure remains agile. There are several tests that can be taken to gauge this team identity. The first of these is the coherence test. Then there is the Strategy Profiler which gauges the effectivity of the corporate strategy in place. There is also a way-to-play tool and a right-to-win exercise.

Source:https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/strategythatworks/commit-an-identity?platform=hootsuite

Uploaded Date:16 March 2018

Global business leader McKinsey has developed a vision for the future workplaces known as HR 3.0. An estimate by the McKinsey Global Institute suggests that major changes are right now at place. Upcoming technologies could replace a substantial proportion of the current workforce. Companies will increasingly adopt such technologies as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots as they lead to cost savings. AI however also has a lot of positive impacts on the future of talent recruitment. An example can be cited about the long-drawn hiring process where thousands of CVs need to be sifted manually. This work can now be performed using a pre-defined algorithm. Similarly, rejection or shortlisting letters had to be individually typed out, can now be done automatically. These kinds of applications reduce the human clutter, so people can use their time in creative pursuits. As per a study, processing time has now fallen by two-thirds during recruitment rounds.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-organization-blog/human-resources-in-the-age-of-automation?cid=winningtalent-soc-twi-mip-mck-oth-1803&kui=rO_b5h0UE5VzrusQeAjkxg

Uploaded Date:16 March 2018

The success of digitally-driven companies has usually been attributed to their innovative use of the business models, customer experience and technology. Yet, one aspect oft-ignored, though equally crucial is their next-gen operating models. This is not restricted to digital natives, but even industrial firms such as ING which have taken advantage of well-structured operating models. A study by management consulting firm McKinsey clearly demonstrates how fleet-footed digital natives always have an advantage in this sphere. But this gap may well be closed by incumbents who act fast this challenge faced. For established companies, the challenge lies in the top management being convinced about this new threat and plunging headlong to solve this. The first thing the most enterprising of these incumbents strive to achieve is better customer listening and experience tracking. This provides them authentic business intelligence to take more informed decisions. The technology to be used needs to be tested against the operational model through testing and continuous learning.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/accelerating-the-shift-to-a-next-generation-operating-model?cid=other-twi&kui=0fCcrd1GYUUDLRKlAnJJPw

Uploaded Date:12 March 2018

Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods has shocked many an analyst. One, due to the former’s penchant for growing its businesses organically, and two because of the seeming lack of synergy between the two. Some analysts have referred to the fact that they share common customer bases and perhaps the marriage between the digital and physical store formats. Whatever the rationale behind this move, what remains true is that digital giants are moving away from their earlier digital-only focus to one which involves the leveraging of the brick-and-mortar formats as well. One thing that has benefited digital firms’ winner-takes-all approach is the presence of networks that have also powered the likes of Google and Facebook. Their data warehousing capabilities have been so immense that they provide cutting-edge, accurate business insights. The digital experience of these giants mentioned as well as Twitter, Instagram and Yelp for example have seamless and comprehensive. The digital-physical intersection will be most crucially looked at over the coming years. This is due to the as-yet unexploited opportunities in new frontiers such as developed countries where even now digital penetration is minimal. The hardware connections will also rise as a result of this market expansion. This will also lead to more realistic data gleaned from physical interactions, further causing even more detailed business insights being captured. The talent recruitment too will need to keep pace, as domain and technology experts will be needed, and collaborate. The older ecosystem will need reengineering while existing stakeholders will have to be involved in collaborative experimentation.

Source:https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/business-model-innovation-technology-digital-getting-physical-rise-hybrid-ecosystems.aspx?linkId=47326775\

Uploaded Date:03 March 2018