TALENT MANAGEMENT

The last few months I have attended a lot of congresses, lectures, presentations and other intellectual meetings.  As always, I am searching for new ideas and new knowledge. I want to keep on developing myself and I’m nowhere near done learning.

A few of the meetings were sports related but I have also attended some that were organized by businesses or the healthcare sector.

The good thing about being able to find things out about so many different work areas is that it enables you to find clear differences between them as well as commonalities. This makes it possible to connect cases from different work areas that are rather similar. There are a lot of similarities in sports, business, and healthcare. One is that a lot of these companies are currently in change and development processes. Their main focus lies on reducing costs and improving efficiency.

The subjects “talent” and “talent development” have been mentioned many times in these meetings. How can we discover talents and keep them? A very important element that supports this is the internal passion and ambition of an organization; “It has to be possible but it can’t be done if you do not want it”.

The various work fields use different terms for this. In sports and business, talent development is being referred to as talent management. With both terms they mean the same. Whilst in my opinion, there is a clear difference between them.

I think that talent development is only a part of talent management. Talent development focuses completely on the individual. Talent management focuses more on the individual in the context of the organization. I believe it is important to state that the different work fields can learn a lot from each other. It is a shame that they do not use each other’s available expertise. Now the question is; how that can be activated and organized?

In the sports world they start working on the individual when they feel that the individual has greater potential to reach the top than others. In the sports world talent discovery means nothing more than seeing potential for reaching the top. In talent discovery it is not the case that someone is the best. It is about the potential. When this is discovered, they can start working on developing this potential.

For this a careful and exact plan is made. This of course depends on the age of the talent. Based on this steps will be taken that are intended to lead to success. Parts of the plan are all technical, tactical and physical skills that are needed in the field of sports where the talent is active. But at least as important parts are the mental skills, such as self-reflection, motivation, stamina, personal conditions, nutrition, body mass index, injury registration, injury prevention, and of course the social circumstances, such as study, living conditions, travel time, and friends.

Everything around the talent will be captured and monitored, and where needed adjusted or managed. This enables the talent to fully focus on the sports that he or she wants to success in.

Would this be the case in business as well? Would people in business always be busy with discovering talent? Or seeking potential in new employees and create a specific plan at the start of their career to secure maximal development in the context of the organization?

I don’t think that this is happening very often nowadays. But there are changes being made in the HR department: the career and future of the employees are being looked at in an earlier stadium. Due to (digital) innovative developments in the future, HR managers will have to consult with their employees to find out where the opportunities lay to grow within the organization.

What a profit can an organization gain if the potential of a future employee can be captured beforehand? This way the company know which talents their employees have. And what could those talents achieve when they are developed either intern or extern of the company? If talent management of a company would be used in the same way as talent development in sports, this would add a lot of value. The business world can also learn from talent development in sports. Scouting proactively for the best employees instead of reactively waiting for them to apply. Getting the greatest talents actively, know where their strong points are, and follow their developments.

I do want to point out that living healthy and health in general; vitality in short, has recently grown to be an acknowledged part in HR in business and healthcare. But the last few years that has also been integrated into the sports world. People are realizing that a healthy lifestyle, and handling your health consciously is an important issue that the organization needs to contribute to. Not only to keep sick leave low. From the perspective of a sustainable company it is important to consider if employees are able to handle a lifelong time of a certain type of work.

The moving section knows very well that nobody is capable of walking up and down stairs for 40 years. Employees are often done after 10 to 15 years. An important aspect is conducting interviews with employees to follow this, but most of all offer tools to remain fit. Another important element is the discovery of competencies and talents to find out what the employee wants and can do if the current work is too hard or too difficult. This way they can find possibilities before it is too late, and teach them the needed abilities to make this future possible.

Fris and Fit has been at a high place on the list of the sports world, when it’s about aspects that influence being successful.

What the sports world clearly can learn from the other work areas is working future-oriented. Something very unexposed in talent development is the future of the athlete after the sports career. Unions and clubs are very busy with the present. In top sport there is no time to figure out what you can do besides your sport. They need to perform right now. Athletes are not at all busy with their future perspective during their career. Some athletes end their career at a young age and have no idea what they are going to do, or more important… what they can do besides their sports. After a career a lot of athletes need to work in society and most athletes, clubs and unions do not consider this.

And who is responsible for the fact that some develops to the fullest in his ability and his will? I think that is very simple. That is the individual, the employee or the athlete that is responsible for his own maximal development. My definition of a talent is for that reason: “Someone who is capable of independently getting the most out of his talents”. Of course every organization has an input. The input consists out of facilitating and helping; offering the right facilities, responsible work conditions, good teachers, an HR manager that thinks alike and provides education for the future. But however you put it, the individual has the final responsibility.

The organization, HR manager or training will help to achieve the ultimate form of self-reflection, so the individual know what choices are best, what he needs, and what the consequences are. Every person has a talent. Let’s find out for what!