External Candidates: A Valued Talent Source  By Kellye Whitney

[Talent Management Magazine: March 30, 2007, Vol 2 Issue 3]

 Traditional succession planning activities center on identifying, developing and promoting internal candidates. The ensuing war for talent and its resultant struggles require talent management professionals to tap new talent streams to meet workforce needs and demands. Current talent needs or future talent strategies to address said needs require a different approach, and external candidates offer talent management professionals a valuable source of potential talent, provided they are identified and handled well. “Ideally, you would hope that you would have a pool of successors available within your organization, but the reality of the situation is that is rarely the case at this point,” said John Touey, Salveson Stetson Group principal. “Part of that is demographics — the leaders of many organizations are reaching a point in their career where they’re considering leaving the workforce, and there aren’t as many people coming up through the ranks as there were 15, 20 years ago. It’s becoming more of a necessity to start to look at pipelines outside of your organization.” Before you look for external talent, Touey said it’s best to conduct a rigorous audit of internal bench strength. Understand the critical needs that might affect the organization within certain time frames, know what skills workforce demands require and then assess gaps in the internal pool from a time-to-fill standpoint. Answer questions such as: Will the organization have people with the right types of skill sets? When will they be ready? How can we close that gap or provide talent in the interim, particularly in case of emergency? What skills are required for that next or future level of leadership?
If there is an inadequate internal supply of talent inside the organization, the next step is to figure out how to supplement internal talent with an external pool. “Understand, from a market intelligence standpoint, what’s out there in your industry segment in terms of high potentials,” Touey said. “Get an understanding of how your company is viewed within that industry — are you a company of choice? It’s not simply, ‘What is the talent out there?’ but ‘What is our ability to attract that talent?’ or ‘Are we at a competitive disadvantage with our key competitors? Are we above the norm in our key demographics industry wide?’ “Other issues might be functional. When you’re looking for a chief financial officer or senior vice president of human resources, you may not have the same level of industry requirements that you would for another position. You may be doing a functional scan versus an industry scan, but that’s where you start — what does the pool of talent look like outside of our organization, and how does the organization look to that talent?” Once that’s completed, and talent has been identified, you can let it sit, secure or comforted, by the knowledge that some talent is available when needed. Touey said this is one of the most passive talent strategies you can employ, however. He recommends a more active approach to get to know talent on a one-to-one basis. Reach out, introduce yourself and get to know the person better. “You may not need that person for three years, but start developing a relationship with them now so you can track their development over time, maybe not identically, but in a similar manner to what we would do with internal successors,” Touey said. “Start to think about any developmental roles inside your own organization that you can bring the person into to take them from being an external succession candidate to an internal one.” Touey said organizations also should consider whether they are assessing individuals to replace people in jobs as they are structured today, as well as what future skill sets are necessary to continue to make the company successful. “Most succession today is really focused on jobs in place,” Touey explained. “A CFO leaves tomorrow. ‘Who do we have in place that could take his or her responsibilities as they exist today?’ versus ‘What’s the CFO job going to look like two to three years from now? Are the skills of the incumbent the same skills that we’ll need three years from now from that role? Are we developing people not just for current needs but where our business may be by the time the person is ready to take over the role?’”
[About the Author: Kellye Whitney is a senior editor for Talent Management magazine.]They Also Shared Their Views: 1)   Martin Haworth [Global HR]An excellent article that really shows how vital it is to have a strategy for the medium and long term, as well as keeping the plates spinning day to day! Where organizations fail is that they don’t have anything structured enough at middle-management level to accommodate the issues raised in the article. This can lead to short-fall in performance in the very positions where customers and clients are serviced.In fact at senior management level, succession planning is usually more active, whilst failing to see the vital and indeed critical issues generated lower down the line.

Tags: candidate, recruitment, talent, interview, human resources

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 MUST

1) know how to swim-yes completed

2)complete the violin lesson

3)take part in 10 stage play. 5/10 must be a public event - 5 to go

4)run a 10km marathon -ladies open

Visit

5)north and south pole

6)Great wall of china

7) Vatican City-see the pope

8)The Taj mahal – Done twice 1994 & 2007

9) The Eiffel Tower

10)The tower of london – Done – 2000

11)The leaning tower of PISA

Accomplish

12) know how to scuba dive

13)Ride an elephant, camel – elephant & camel done

14)Land and take off an aeroplane

15) BUNGEE JUMP

16) take a parachute jump

17)Parasailing – done 1998-phuket

18)teach a college course

19)Watch a cremation ceremony in bali – done 2003

20)appear in a local TV drama

21) own a cafe

22) learn to dance tap dance

Visit

23) disneyland usa

24) disneyland hongkong

25)Japan-summer

26) Taj mahal again

27)paris

28) lady diana memorial

29) meet angelina jolie in person

30)all states in malaysia – 2 to go sabah and sarawak

31)christmas island

32) australia – gold coast

Over come…

33) fear of the dark

35) pain – to have one tatoo

as i was introduced to this blog, i was actually sitting 30000 feet above sea level flying high on route to kuala lumpur from india, a dear pal was talking to me and at the usual standard time in kuala lumpur would be around 3am, under those crcumstances i would be fast asleep with the comfort of a large bed, warmth of my 4 year old growing up stunner, hubby also sleeping in the same room. (see how priorities change)

back to the reason for creating a place to share all my limited collection of words that i am trying to increase…if i had the option of going for a surgery….implant of a kind…no dont get ideas….i was more thinking of dictionery latest edition, or word collection software of a kind.

taking this  to 20 years ago, in a old chinese town (airpanas) translating to hot water well which was an attraction of the town hence the name. being brought up in an all ladies family (mom and two sisters) mostly looks like a all ladies dormitory. being the blacksheep in the family i had interest in all the things/situations/meaning in life which was on he contrary than what my mom always thought in which my two sisters were very much in tandem with excluding yours truly.

i am never a grade A student, i choose the subjects that i liked, the activities that i would get involved in and also starting having my own thoughts and prespectives in life. it was never books, dolls, dresses, lovely lace things, good grades, mom’s wishlist… however it was sports, sports shoes, winning sports meet, medal, throphies, nothing else matter but sports, boys, falling head over “shoes” in love, being the household brand name almost…in school, eveyone wanted to be associated with yours truly…

i started my journal than…writing diaries, as i was not able to convince my mom and sisters on why i was not like them and or atleast be like them, the only way i was able to tame the feelings, intentions was thru the journals that i wrote everyday, it was books that had locks…..yes, the diary itself came with a lock..never leave home without it..types. i stopped writing when i was 26…why…i met the man i married…although it continued till we got engaged…work demands and the spirits to keep the relationship heading the directions we wanted…i stopped writing…i would have continued if technology was on my side..had bloggerism existed…(he he ) this also gives an opportunity to create own words…

its time now..my dear michelle thilaga to start rekinddling what i had once  had attempted before…

the begining will continue…

whats in store:

why flowers and smiles

why am i in this world

…..many more…

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