Talent Pipeline

Problem Description-
Staff hiring seen as a task to be preformed, not a function of a long-term strategy, has a negative effect on the future functioning of an organization.

Comparison to Purchasing-

In my 40+ years of business experience, 20+ have been involved in Purchasing and Inventory Management. After having been involved in recruiting and staff development the last 15 years, it amazes me how similar the concepts that lead to good planning are between staff development and inventory management.

There are two distinct ways of looking at inventory management. The first option is to purchase stock when needed; a reactive, one-time purchase or a “spot buy”. The second option is to make a proactive, long-term purchase agreement with a supplier or suppliers. The first option leads to selection being made on price and availability. This usually leads to an acceptable, but middle-of-the-road quality product or worse. The second option allows the purchaser and the supplier to plan for upcoming needs, ensure inventory is available as needed, better project future costs, etc. This option brings a greater inventory consistency, higher quality and ultimately a lower overall cost.

The “Spot Buy” or “Reactive” method of staff fulfillment
The “spot buy” approach to staff fulfillment follows these steps

• Staff in a given area during growth continues to add workload until they are overloaded
• This builds up over time and reduces staff morale
• Area manager determines the staff is overloaded
• This typically takes months
• Area manager convinces the decision makers that they need additional staff
• Again, this can take weeks or months
• A request for additional staff goes to the person responsible for recruiting
• Area manager asks to hurry up the process because of work overload
• Manager is already feeling staff unrest
• Recruiting process begins
• One of 2 things happens-
• 1. Candidates for the additional staff are found quickly
• An extra workload burden is placed on the recruiting staff
• Typically quality of candidates is sacrificed for speed of fulfillment
• This is referred to as the “warm body” method of staff fulfillment
• 2. The staff fulfillment process takes a long time
• The current “overloaded” staff becomes increasingly unhappy
• The area manager and recruiting staff are at odds with each other
• Morale suffers throughout the process

The “Long Term” or “Proactive” method of staff development-
The “long term” approach to staff development follows these steps-

• Top management recognizes the need for long-term, proactive staff development
• Proactive staff development becomes part of the long-term organizational strategy
• A staff person is given the responsibility of executing the long-term strategy for staffing
• This staff person must understand staff growth or reduction plans for the next 5 years
• The staff person creates a “map” of current staff levels and individual staff abilities
• The “map” and the 5 year staffing plan are used to establish the proactive plan
• Current employees are reviewed for potential advancement
• Sources of talent are determined for future staff additions
• Relationships are established with the sources of talent
• A “talent pipeline” is created with each source of talent
• A pool of candidates is created and maintained for all staffing areas

Create the Talent Pipeline-
The talent of an organization is always flowing over time. We cannot afford to look at recruiting new staff as a snapshot in time. Certainly the particular act of filing one opening is a snapshot, but we must step back away from the moment and think about organizational talent as flowing.

Look back 10 years or 20 years. What position was the current mid and upper management staff at then? Probably some of them were still in school. Some were in entry-level positions. Where will they be in 10 or 20 years from now? Some will be retired. Some will have left the company. Are we content to let this flow just happen to us? Wouldn’t it be better to have a long-term plan? You say, but it will change. Of course it will, but it is easier to make a mid-course correction that to “reinvent the wheel” every time something happens.

We must make the Talent Pipeline a normal part of our strategic planning. Every position in the organization must have a designated back up. We must be continually mentoring employees to find the right spot for their skills and abilities to fully blossom. This is the only way to get fully engaged employees.

The steps to creating the pipeline-
1. Create a “map” of your employees
2. Determine a back-up plan for each position
3. Create an internal “university”
4. Create a training and mentoring program for employee growth
5. Determine the best source or sources for new staff for every level of new employee entry
6. Form symbiotic relationships with key people in all sources; nurture those relationships
7. Use these sources as sports teams use a “farm club”; watching and recruiting candidates
8. Build a “pool” of candidates before the need for additional staff occurs
9. Never stop recruiting
10. Continue to “court” your best candidates
11. Only hire candidates that you believe they are capable of advancement in your company
12. Create a “continuous improvement plan” for each employee
13. Continually review the employee “map” for opportunities and challenges
14. Make sure your people watching the “employee map” understand the long-term strategic plan