Recharging retail: Talent challenges in focus

Committed employees show a high level of involvement in their jobs with a high level of identification with their organisations

I was glad to be a panellist in the recently concluded Retail Forum 2021 with the overall theme, ‘Recharging Retail: Resilience to Results’. Session two was on ‘Driving Your Talent Strategy,’ focusing on the much-needed talent for tasks. Today’s column broadly reflects on talent in the context of COVID-19. 

Overview

Talent has always been a buzz word in business circles. We saw a wave of writings such as ‘Winning the War for Talent’ spreading the world. In fact, talent comes from Biblical times. It was one of several ancient units of mass, involving a precious metal. It was approximately the mass of water required to fill an amphora (a jar). The talent of gold was known to Homer, the renowned Greek poet, who described how Achilles gave a half-talent of gold to Antilochus as a prize.

The meaning and usage of talent has changed over time. Today, we call it special natural ability or aptitude such as a talent for drawing.  Also, it represents a capacity for achievement or success; ability: young men of talent. We often hear the term as a talented person: The cast includes many of the theatre’s major talents, etc. In essence, talent has moved from currency to capability. Yet, capability has its own currency value. In that sense, it has not lost its original meaning. 

Triple Cs of talent

In moving further, there is a specific set of attributes associated with talent, especially in the HR circles. Dave Ulrich calls talent as equivalent to competence multiplied by commitment multiplied by contribution. In mathematical terms it looks like this: Talent = Competence x Commitment x Contribution.

As Ulrich further explains, competence means that the individuals have knowledge, skills and values required for today and tomorrow. In brief, it involves right skills at the right place for the right job. Commitment on the other hand is what makes the competence to put into action.

Committed employees show a high level of involvement in their jobs with a high level of identification with their organisations. In other words, they thrive in their jobs while enjoying working at the organisation. 

Contribution is the deepest and the subtlest component of the three. It highlights ones purpose in serving others. According to Ulrich, contribution occurs when employees feel that their personal needs are being met through their participation in their organisation. 

“In this talent equation, the three terms are multiplicative, not additive,” states Ulrich. “If anyone is missing, the other two will not replace it. A low score in competence will not ensure talent even when the employee is engaged and contributing. Talented employees must have skills, wills, and purposes; they must be capable, committed, and contributing. Senior executives who wish to build a talent culture should spend time identifying and improving each of these three dimensions.” 

As he summarised, competence deals with the head (being able), commitment with the hands and feet (being there) and contribution with the heart (simply being).

Talent issues 

As Mathangi Jayaraman of Aon Consulting presented at the Retail Forum, the global retail market reached a value of about $ 23 trillion in 2020, however the global retail sales fell by an average of 9.6% in 2020, representing a loss of $ 2.1 trillion but with the easing COVID-19, the market is expected to further witness a healthy growth in the forecast period of 2021. As she further observed the highest-paying sectors in 2021 continue to be the ones from last year – Information Technology, Information Technology Enabled Services, Life Sciences, E-commerce and Venture Capital-Backed and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods.

According to her, it is notable that the sectors that were adversely impacted by COVID-19, such as Retail, Hospitality and Real Estate, are projecting healthy increases in the range of 5-6%. Such numbers reflect their intent to stay relevant and to control attrition, which had increased for these industries last year organisations have focused on the junior management for the salary increments and top management has undergone a significant reduction in increments for the year 2020.

In such a global context, several key talent management challenges during COVID-19 and beyond could be seen. As Herman Aguinis and Jing Burgi-Tian observed in an article published in Business Research Quarterly, these significant talent management challenges including hiring freezes and layoffs; salary freezes, cancelled bonuses, and pay reductions; how work is done (office vs. home); and increased employee stress and burnout. 

As they recommend, in the broad context of performance management, measure results in addition to behaviours, measure adaptive performance, conduct stay interviews to retain top performers, implement a multisource performance management system, and collect and use performance promoter scores. 

There are three ways you can support the next generation of talent, according to a report by Hays Talent Solutions. 

1. Rethink your mentoring strategy

“Employers should consider thoughtfully designed programmes to assist with this generation’s adjustment to the professional world,” the report says. “In particular, there will need to be a greater focus on intergenerational mentoring and support.

“Workplaces should strengthen their stress management programmes to operate at the employee, workplace and organisational levels. This could include, for example, early-career affinity groups that encourage open conversation in a supportive environment and coaching interventions to prevent minor performance challenges from having long-term implications.”

2. Find new ways to assess young talent

If an organisation decides it will take on first-job recruits, it will be difficult to spot talent among a cohort of young people who might have unconventional educational or employment track records due to the disruption of COVID-19, the report argues. 

“Organisations that are smart will look to see how individuals navigated the pandemic – despite the disruption, did they find a way to learn a new skill, make new connections or work on something pro bono in an area that they are passionate about? This shows resilience and someone who is not deterred by challenges.”

3. Consider a ‘bumper year’ of young talent

Many organisations, such as accountancy and financial services firms, base much of their talent strategy around the progression of entry-level employees who gain qualifications on the job. These businesses now face the additional challenge of returning to a regular training cycle, the report says.

“In the absence of maintaining a pipeline, it’s predicted that the business will suffer in five to 10 years, due to a skills gap caused by the current talent moving up within the hierarchy, with no pool of talent to replace it. They may also fail to demonstrate the diversity candidates and clients expect in an organisation.”

Utilising talent wisely 

In order to find the right talent and ensuring an upward path to utilise talent, Dave Ulrich recommends four As, as the characteristics of a high potential. 

Ambition: Any business success comes with a price including personal time, hard work, emotional dedication, and perseverance. High potentials have the personal drive and ambition to pay the price for success.

Ability: In the leadership literature, individuals often derail because they are unable to learn from mistakes or from the past, lack interpersonal skills, are not open to new ideas, do not adapt to new situations, and/or become complacent and arrogant. By definition, high potentials have not derailed and have potential for future growth.

Agility: One of the key skills for future leaders is the ability to learn and grow. Learning agility includes mental agility (e.g., curiosity, finding simplicity in complexity, identifying quick rules of thumb), people agility (e.g., self-aware, committed to personal growth, working to help others succeed), change agility (e.g., likes to tinker and experiment, tries new things, accepts failure), and results agility (e.g., flexibility in ideas, good in new situations, works well with teams).

Achievement: Future leaders have a pattern of achievement in the present. They accept new assignments and deliver well on them.

The above four As give leaders a compact yet comprehensive way of looking at talent, with future in mind. 

Relevance to Sri Lanka 

In Sri Lankan society, I see two types of talent which I would like to call ‘raw talent’ and ‘required talent’. Raw talent for me is the multitude of school leavers seeking employment. Required talent is what CEOs of leading organisations looking for. There is an obvious gap between the two. Bridging the R-R gap is one critical challenge for people managers.

It was heartening to note the resilience demonstrated by Sri Lankan organisations in the wake of COVID-19. The presentation made by Deidre Candappa of MAS was very enlightening with multiple initiatives with regards to the driving of their talent strategy. The emphasis given on “women go beyond” was evident when she mentioned, “We care about having more women in all levels of work and in all different job roles.” It echoes well with what Hilary Clinton said some time ago: “Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.”

Among the many other ways of engaging talent as MAS, inclusion, diversity of workforce, having a supportive framework that values employees’ work-family harmony and specific assessments of talent impact on performance are worth mentioning. They are all coherently connected to the overall purpose “to be changemakers enabling dreams and enriching the fabric of life on our planet”.

Way forward

There is no doubt that we are facing a talent drought. How to see the showers of talent rain is only through sharp strategies with concrete action. A sector such as hospitality cannot grow simply with sun, sea and sand, sans solid talent. A sector such as retail needs rethinking of their talent strategies with a view of adapting best practices. The recently-concluded forum provide ample insights for retail leaders to reflect and relate. 

It reminds me of what Mahatma Gandhi said a long time ago: “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” That is where the talent becomes potent.

(Prof. Ajantha Dharmasiri, former Director of Postgraduate Institute of Management, can be reached through [email protected], [email protected] or www.ajanthadharmasiri.info.)