Talent identification in most companies is narrowly focused on pinpointing the skills, capabilities, and potential of top talent. Unfortunately, this approach can result in investing in the wrong people - or putting top talent in the wrong roles.
Talent identification is much broader than most organisations realise. It is the process of accurately identifying a person's behavioral strengths, depth of technical knowledge, relevant career experience, and personal interests - and how those attributes allow them to be more or less successful in a specific context.
The term 'talented' is often used to describe people, but it commonly lacks context. You may be talented in a very specific area of HR because of your skills or experience, but you may not be very talented in finance or sales. When we talk about identifying talent, we are talking about the fit between a person and the context they are operating in.
What talent identification actually means
Everyone operates better in a particular context. The role of HR is to maximise the fit, because both the person and the context in which they operate are constantly changing.
The aim of effective talent identification is to help you build a capability that allows you to answer the 'who' questions faster and more accurately than the business leaders asking them. Everyone has an opinion, and most talent decisions are based on opinion. But to be respected, you need facts - fast.
The 'who' questions business leaders ask
Business leaders typically ask 'who' questions when it comes to talent, and HR is expected to deliver these answers as the custodians of the people data. Here are the most common questions:
Who should we hire? Who has the skills, experience, and attributes to be effective in this position?
Who are our high potentials and future leaders? Who can we develop to do something they are not currently doing?
Who has scarce or emerging skills that will help us adapt in the future?
Who could successfully transition to a more complex level of work faster than the average person?
All of these questions have one common thread: the need to identify if a person's talent and the requirements of the role - the context - are a good fit.
Four enablers of accurate talent identification
There are four enablers that will help you build the capability to answer questions about your business' talent quickly and accurately.
- 1
Good quality data: People data is usually not accurate, complete, up-to-date, or accessible. The starting point is knowing what data is relevant. If you have 100 people and 100 data inputs, that is 10,000 data points to manage. Cutting the list down to 15-20 makes it manageable.
- 2
Efficient processes: The eye-roll is the most common reaction HR gets when asking employees to complete talent assessments. Processes need to be designed so the benefit clearly outweighs the cost of participation.
- 3
Cultural adoption: If you want people to do something, make it easier to do the right thing - and harder to do the wrong thing. The right thing is using an evidence-based approach to talent identification.
- 4
Embedded technology: The right tools reduce friction in the right areas. Technology can speed up or enable a dysfunctional result if the first three enablers are not in place.
What you need to know about the person
To answer the 'who' questions, begin with the part of the answer that is most stable. People do not change very quickly. There are four data points that allow you to answer almost any talent identification question:
The four data points for talent identification
Behavioral attributes: Certain behaviors work better in certain roles - approachable people suit sales, detail-oriented people suit finance. Behavioral attributes can be observed and assessed using validated frameworks.
Technical or functional skills: The price of admission for many roles - proficiency levels range from beginner to expert. Technical skills are seldom the differentiators of high performance, even in specialised roles.
Experience: What a person has done and how it compares to what you need them to do - measured by relevance and depth. Prioritise high-value experiences that are difficult to get.
Interests: What type of work a person enjoys - fuels discretionary effort and internal motivation. Someone might have the attributes, skills, and experience but not enjoy the conditions of the role.
What you need to know about the context
You need to know the same things about the context as you do about the person in order to get the right fit - but how you get that information is very different.
Many HR managers make the mistake of asking business leaders what behavioral attributes are needed to be successful. This undermines your credibility because you should know - and secondly, business leaders do not know what attributes they are looking for; they only know what success looks like. Use well-researched competency frameworks to become the authority.
For technical skills, this is where you ask the manager - it is their area of expertise. For experience, define types of experiences rather than specific ones, and prioritise high-value experiences that are difficult to get. For interests, consider what type of people enjoy this type of job.
Building the capability step by step
You are never going to be able to answer every 'who' question quickly and accurately, but you can build the capability to answer the critical ones. Start by compiling your top 10 list of 'who' questions that you hear most often, check them with your business leaders, and then follow these steps.
The four-step capability build
- 1
Create a data platform: Identify what data you need, what you already have, where it is, and how to consolidate it. Determine what you still need to collect and how to keep it current.
- 2
Design a process: Decide who you need data from, how often it needs updating, and how to incentivise participation. Adopt a reuse, reduce, and recycle mindset - can you use one data point to answer multiple questions?
- 3
Create a culture of evidence-based conversations: Build the skills in your HR team to provide evidence-based support. Train line managers to ask the right questions and respect data-backed answers.
- 4
Scale with technology: Use technology to scale the right processes, collect the right data, and facilitate the right conversations. Make it a consumer experience rather than an HR compliance exercise.