Talent Trends for SMB in 2016

Deloitte published their annual summary of talent trends for 2016 (http://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/human-capital/articles/introduction-human-capital-trends.html). However, insight and actions for the small business may not be obvious when cruising through it. Following is a quick write up of some ideas about how to leverage these trends. This document is meant to be an accompaniment to the report and I hope will stimulate some of your own ideas.

Organizational Design

• Think about organizational layers from the employee’s perspective
  • Can you remove them, transcend them to get something done
  • Can you navigate any of the politics that they may interpret as obstacles
• For the top performers, do they have teams they are developing and investing in
• Think about vision and goals, especially when doing performance reviews.
• Collaboration is the new norm; think about the teams you do have and how you can strengthen the network between teams.
• Consider roles of talent manager and project manager. They may be the same person, but the skills are definitely different and you roles should be differentiated based on the manager’s talents

Leadership

• Don’t fall for the superficial; cultivate leadership in yourself
• Realize – all companies are struggling with developing leadership. Small companies have an advantage in that we can more easily recognize it. We’re at a disadvantage because we can’t institute some great development program, so we shouldn’t look to try and do that.
• Be able to understand what leadership is and identify the talent in others. Protect your up and coming leaders from those that are short-sighted or don’t recognize it.
• Don’t just spend money and claim to have leadership development. Before you spend money, determine some ways to measure improvement. SMB likely won’t develop an in-house program; you may look at training outside. Check references; start small, and validate the external training you are investing in.
• The “overwhelmed leader” may be real in your company. Talk to leaders and discuss the support they need and make sure they feel supported.

Culture

• Understand your culture; be a student and be able to articulate it. Talk to the CEO about it; interview them and get their stories about what defines the company culture for them. Enroll them in activities to reinforce their vision, if they aren’t already.
• You might not be able to have a pure data-driven assessment of culture, but you can talk to employees and get their opinion of culture and how they feel about it (level of engagement). Comparing what employees say with what the CEO says may provide insight into areas of divergence and areas of overlap.
• Glassdoor is a free resource for employers, and it is a valuable one. Register on their Employer Center and encourage some or all of your employees to leave reviews (read a bit about this, first).

Engagement

• Even in small companies, we can’t ignore the values, attributes, and behaviors of millennials.
• Small companies have an advantage – it is easier to connect employee’s daily work to the purpose and mission of the company. Focus on that and enhance that.
• Look at incremental changes to your performance review program. Assuming that it is annual, look at ways to add “stay” interviews (i.e. in between the annual review) and how to incorporate measures of engagement in the annual review. Personalize reviews and don’t just check them off the list.

Learning

• Being a “learning organization” may be reflected more in your company culture than a training program or a technical knowledge platform.
• Understand the shift that is happening. Review the table “Learning, today and tomorrow.”
• Encourage employees to explore resources available online (MOOCs, podcasts, videos, etc.) and share their experiences with you and their network.

Design Thinking

• Although the research focuses primarily on application, mobile, and user experience, this mode of thinking can apply in all aspects. It is a basic philosophy of thinking about the customer. For HR, that is the employee. When considering new processes, tools, or software, think about the customer, first, and the HR side (your side) of the process second.
• When doing that, start small and make adjustments. Visit employees where they work and observe them using these processes.

HR

• Chances are, the SMB doesn’t have a large team, but a small one. Develop a long-term strategy that includes technology in order to simplify and eliminate the need for basic administrative work, allowing your team to move up the value ladder and do more meaningful work for the business.
• You may not be able to embed your team members in the business, but you can identify “HR champions” within the business that are enthused about HR and can be bridges between employees and HR (and vice versa). Cultivate those, creating a virtual team that is more networked.

People Analytics

• This is a relatively new field, but there are some valuable takeaways in this report.
• Talk to your CEO and senior staff to find out what they care about in regards to business metrics and how the best people positively affect those metrics.
• Spend some time with your IT group to find out what kind of data the company does have and how easy it is to do some reporting. You may find there is more available than you know, and you may be able to use “people analytics” to demonstrate value to your senior leadership.
• Make some connections and keep any eye out for developments in this area. It won’t replace the personal connections HR makes with employees; it will make them better.

Digital HR

• The report calls for revolution, not evolution, but many small businesses aren’t going to be able to support revolution, nor want to take on the risk associated with significant change.
• Evolution has value, especially for the small business. Realize that the world is digital and employee experiences include those digital interactions. Consider them, alongside the physical interactions, when updating systems and processes.
• Incorporate digital experiences where you can, especially mobile. Any new system or process brought in to the organization that affects employees must support mobile or have a fast path to be able to support mobile.

The Gig Economy

• For many small businesses, this may be a direct threat and something already being discussed at the executive level. For others, while it may not be a direct threat, but it will affect regulations and policies within the HR department. Be aware and understand what is happening in the economy.