Talent Re-imagination in the Digital Era

In the November 2019 meeting of NHRD Bangalore, Mr Shreekant Arimanithaya, Global talent leader EY Global Delivery Systems spoke on the subject of "Talent Re-imagination in the Global Era". The speaker has over 26 years of experience in companies such as Britannia, Toyota, Phillips and GE. His present company, Ernst & Young collaborate across borders and provides innovative and strategic in-house services from one of the EY delivery centers in Argentina, China, India, the Philippines and Poland.  It helps clients embrace change as an opportunity.

 The speaker started out by saying that 'Re-imagination' is not an incremental change but an exponential one, turning the business model upside down. It would involve extensive use of digital technology. It would mean leveraging intangible assets such as culture, attitude, creativity. Re-imagination would mean obtaining learning lessons from outside one's own domain as also agility lessons from other domains,other companies and functions. It would require agile change management- being able to adapt, stand up on falling down.

The exercise would involve reshaping yesterday's workforce for tomorrow's talent requirements. The existing employees are to be made 'future ready' and  then use them to recruit appropriate future employees. Harmonious working is to be achieved in a situation wherein five generations of employees are working together. 62% of companies are using flexible work force. There is a need for globally mobile employees. Curiosity, creativity, empathy and taking initiative is the need of the hour as robots are being increasingly used for routine jobs. To be able to work flexibly has become a workforce expectation. 

While 'Re-imagining talent' there is a need to focus on employee well being. The new generation tend to change jobs every three years as they get bored easily. Therefore, preparedness is crucial by paying attention to new operating models, leadership capabilities, skill sets, workforce agility, culture and new working environment. Creating long term value is important. Here is where questions like "Why we should exist?" is important.  Shreekant quoted Simon Sinek, Author & motivational speaker "Today, leaders and employees want a clarity on purpose". He also recommended that the audience watch the video of  sinek available on you tube.  I have included the video " Finding Purpose and Inspiration" here for the benefit of  readers.

Building trust, being distinct from others through client centricity, attracting exceptional talent and extensive use of data and technology with values as the foundation is the need of the hour. The employee is to be encouraged to build and personalize his/her career- You can be yourself, your voice will be heard and you can make a difference. EY supports clients in the journey for making this happen.  Curiosity is the key for building a better working world and keeping employees effective, efficient and fit for the future. Collecting listening data , mood tracking, culture survey etc. are to be done in an agile fashion to ensure social listening and a healthy culture. 

Insights into the rate of engagement, reasons for separation, emerging trends, opportunities, and potential problems can be gained by an automated HR dashboard.  With the support and insights gained from use of technology, you are in a position to give the message to employees that "You can leave us but we can't leave you and will continue to engage with you." Hybrid data management platforms like Boomerang commerce enables organizations to collect data of any type, source and structure to make data simple and accessible across multiple vendors, deployments and workloads. The information thus obtained is descriptive, predictive and prescriptive and enables decision making like those made by a medical doctor. 

There would be a role for counselors to build life time relationships. In the circle of attracting, joining, working and succeeding, a lot of personalization is to be done within generalization. for which algorithms(Set of steps to accomplish a task) have to be developed.The speaker discussed many more data platforms that would be relevant and important in the digital era. As for example interns are given tasks even as they are studying in college that skill them appropriately for the needs of the company . Subsequently,their credibility score is tracked and employment is offered if  they meet the requirements. 

Shreekant, while signing off, underscored the importance of culture in the organization which comprises of the values and behaviour of the employees. It is not about playing the game out of fear with an intention of 'not losing' but playing on purpose and 'playing to win'. In the former case the focus would be on controlling, being critical and pleasing.  However, for achieving the latter, purpose driven transformative leaders are necessary.