n spite of apparent progress by women and minorities in various spheres of life, their numbers at top IT firms is alarmingly low. There exists a mismatch between number of women graduating from IT courses in colleges in the USA with the number of jobs they hold down. Management consulting giant McKinsey says that the business world will potentially lose more than four trillion US dollars by the year 2025 if greater gender parity is not established. Some steps have been suggested in order to ensure greater diversity in technology companies. Diversity needs to be promoted as one of the parameters for talent recruitment. In order to develop and sustain innovation at the workplace it is essential to have diversity so that various kinds of ideas can bounce off at the place reflecting the variety of experiences or background. Startups led by women need to be supported by industry. None of these targets though will be met until specific targets are set with measurable metrics mentioned.

Source: http://www.cio.com/article/3098350/leadership-management/solutions-for-improving-diversity-in-tech.html

Talent management experts have identified some ideas which if followed can elevate existing top professionals further ahead at their work. The first such idea is trend spotting as applied by Unilever where top managers from across the globe are assigned the duty of identifying some business trends that will be crucial for the company to address in fifteen years’ time. This also enables the company to stay ahead of the curve in terms of globalbusiness intelligence capture. Similarly, sometimes these top managers are gathered together at one place and given the challenge of devising turnaround team. Soemthing will need to be revolutionized for the good during this process. To gain practical exposure, employees are sent for consumer deep dive where they actually spend substantial amount of time with their customer base. Some companies have even actively encouraged their top talent to step out and start up their own firms as this allows them to test new ground. Top talent must also possess the ability to negotiate and thus these people are often thrust into positions where they need to deal with government officials. Organizations have even established innovation hack rounds where professionals are stacked in places and exposed to pressure cooker like conditions with the sole aim to develop some ideas.

Source http://www.business2community.com/human-resources/6-ideas-catapult-growth-top-talent-01590636#0leIvkIubSPH2U4B.97

A pool of talent largely ignored until very recently, is being tapped into by the corporate world. Individuals suffering from autism were long considered unemployable but now it has been understood using several case studies that people who suffer from the same, often exhibit above average intelligence levels in certain fields. SAP is one of those companies what have stepped up recruitment of people with autism. These organizations team up with a Danish firm called Specialisterne that has around three-fourths of its employees afflicted with the malady. They have even developed a certification to prove that such individuals can be highly productive. So that these companies do not appear to be exploitative, they have arranged corporate training sessions with Specialisterne where these recruits undergo a five week programme and get certified. The word autism is instead getting replaced in the corporate world by the term neuro-diversity.

Source: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/neurodiversity-the-benefits-of-recruiting-employees-with-cognitive-disabilities

Top talent solutionsfirm Randstad has developed a new software called ‘twago’ which is built is such a way as to support organizations managing freelancers. With growing flexibility at work, most organizations today employ an army of freelancers or gig workers. Traditional talent management software cannot manage this deluge of freelancers as their modules are designed for full time employees. Twago also facilitates recruitment of freelancers. Once on board, project management can be personalized with such gig employees. Twago is connected to the company’s central analytics wing called Talent Radar.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/randstad-sourceright-launches-twago-freelance-management-platform-585418501.html

There is an urgent need for talent management professionals to source authentic informal leaders. These are those leaders who inspire all around them through their own work but maintain a sense of trust and authenticity across the organization. These kind of leaders aren’t always the star performers but prefer being in the engine room. They do not always accept hierarchy or protocol but behave like their true selves. These people get bogged down by formal communication channels such as project report statuses. Instead they rely on direct face-to-face interaction. Unfortunately some such leaders lack the patience or perseverance levels to stick out at one place for too long. Once they succeed at a place, they look to move on, but generate enormous productivity till they are there.

Source:  http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/How-to-Find-and-Engage-Authentic-Informal-Leaders

Knowledge workers are a unique breed of employees. Instead of conventional tactics, certain HR practices have been acknowledged which are sure to get the best productivity out of them. Knowledge workers desire a continuous, consistent work culture across the organization, rather than departmentalization. They abhor politics. Transparency is valued by them. With such people of high caliber, the system of command plus control does not work. They wish to be empowered. This can be made possible by conducting regular corporate training, authentic three sixty degree feedback, free flow of knowledge and matching their expertise with appropriate salary. These knowledge workers also believe in leadership with accountability and the person on top of a team has to deliver accordingly. Knowledge workers bring high degree of perfection at work, thus it becomes important to harness their unique gifts.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/eric-quonlee-/hr-practices-knowledge-workers_b_10726002.html

A representative from Aon which is a management consulting firm specializing in HR, says that employees must be treated by companies the way they handle their customers. Talent management becomes a particularly skillful task to deal with during mergers and acquisitions. Employees go through several dilemmas such as reporting channels, job security, growth prospects or work profile. Companies need to clarify these points with utmost transparency. Resource allocation is another challenge. However, dispelling the myths surrounding automation, the managing partner of Aon clarified that it will not result in people losing their jobs, but instead there is bound to be realignment. There will be fresh assessment on skill sets which need to be fitted according to altering realities. E-commerce firms have in particular struggled with their staffing as many were funded generously but could not handle the amount resulting in people not being taken care of. Across organizations, top employees are now being treated as capital assets and they are being shifted from core functional areas to high growth sectors. 

 http://www.livemint.com/Industry/e9eTs5MsOGwzO44o7ocOgK/Companies-must-treat-employees-as-customers-Aons-Mark-Oshi.html