Make the most of your talent – from upskilling and continuous learning, to collaboration and constructive feedback.
At Runn, we’re a people-positive business. We believe that human capital is the most critical lever in business success – and we’re committed to helping every organization rise by lifting their people.
As our co-founder and COO, Nicole Tiefensee, explained in our recent webinar on evolving trends in resource management:
Resource management has evolved from a focus on project delivery and efficiency to a broader, strategic view that includes nurturing people's growth, passions, and learning opportunities.
Strategic resource management today is about orchestrating your team in a way that boosts both your business and your workforce. It’s about achieving nimbleness, aligning with business values and goals, and fostering growth".
But how can companies make the most of the talent at their disposal – implementing policies and procedures that benefit both individuals and the business?
We’ve got seven best practices to help you align your talent and skills strategy with your business goals – empowering your people, enhancing performance, and ensuring long-term success.
Skills management is concerned with cataloging the skills of your workforce and mapping them onto current and future needs. It’s about creating a baseline understanding of the skills makeup of your organization, to ensure you have the talent, capabilities, and capacity to fulfill your organizational goals.
Skills data is the foundation for strong and successful workforce decisions – from operational deployment such as resource allocations and recruitment needs, to strategic decisions around upskilling, succession planning, and capacity.
It also helps identify areas of risk – such as over-reliance on niche expertise or gaps in emerging technologies – that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Many organizations lack a centralized record of their workforce skills and capabilities. Databases may be siloed and information fragmented. Records may not include accurate or up-to-date skills information. Plus, skills data and terminology may not be standardized. This makes it difficult to use skills data tactically and strategically.
Want to dive deeper on skills management best practices? We've got you covered. We invited three skills management experts round the table to explore the key areas you should focus on to achieve truly effective skills management 🎥
Skills gap analysis identifies the difference between the current capabilities of your workforce and the skills needed to achieve your business goals. Offering training that directly addresses these gaps ensures your team is equipped with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed.
Identifying and addressing skills gaps is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge and achieving business goals. Without a clear understanding of the skills your workforce needs, you risk investing in irrelevant training that doesn’t align with your objectives – this leads to wasted resources, decreased productivity, and declining competitiveness.
It can be difficult to identify and address skills gaps effectively. Training programs may not align with current or future business needs due to a lack of data to show which skills are truly lacking.
This means training that may not be relevant or useful, leading to wasted resources and unmet business goals.
Continuous learning recognizes that organizations and individuals need to update their knowledge on an ongoing basis. Culture is key, supporting staff to embrace opportunities to develop their skills and rise to new challenges.
Continuous learning helps businesses stay ahead by keeping skills fresh and talent ready for new challenges. Plus, investing in people boosts morale, engagement, and long-term loyalty. Upskilling and internal mobility are two ways to develop your employees in a way that is cost-effective, targeted, and relevant to your business goals.
Providing external training and supporting team members through qualifications takes time and money that you may not be able to spare. But you can’t afford to ignore skills gaps as they’ll soon undermine productivity and competitiveness.
Constructive feedback involves providing people with guidance around their performance that is helpful, actionable, and designed to encourage growth – rather than focusing on mistakes and feeling punitive. It is about communicating in a way that is respectful and targets growth and engagement.
Feedback boosts personal and professional growth by helping people understand what they are doing well, where they need improvement, and how they can continue to develop – to the benefit of the business. Paired with a judgment-free, no-blame culture, it also encourages experimentation and innovation, as people are less afraid to fail and more open to learning from mistakes.
Without regular feedback, employees may not be aware of areas that need improvement, resulting in stagnation and reduced performance. But employees and managers may be uncomfortable giving or receiving feedback. Plus, poor leadership skills could result in feedback being unconstructive and negatively impacting the recipient.
We’re all familiar with goal setting and the SMART framework. To maximize talent in your organization, you need to ensure goal setting is implemented consistently, and that individual goals ladder up to organizational objectives.
Clear goals provide direction and focus, helping employees prioritize their tasks and align their efforts with organizational priorities.
It ensures that everyone is aligned with the strategic direction and understands how their work contributes to overall success. Plus, achieving and receiving recognition for goals can keep people motivated and engaged with their work.
Without clear goals, employees may feel uncertain about their role and impact. Lack of clarity on what success looks like can result in disengagement and misalignment. Without clear targets, productivity, morale, and performance can suffer.
Career pathing is concerned with matching up employees' career ambitions with the needs of your organization. It takes into account their skills, interests, and career goals, to align them with available opportunities. This helps employees grow in a way that supports the company’s strategic objectives.
Career pathing enhances employee satisfaction by showing them a clear future within the organization. It improves retention by offering opportunities for progression and reducing the risk of employees seeking growth elsewhere. Plus, it can be more cost-effective and less disruptive to grow-your-own experts rather than hire them externally.
Many organizations lack structured career development programs. Career paths can be unclear and employees may be unaware of the opportunities available to them – or fear unfair treatment if they do apply. Without clear career paths, employees may feel they’re going nowhere fast, leading to disengagement and turnover.
Keeping reading: Career Pathing – A Strategy that Benefits Both Employers & Employees ➡️
Research and collaboration are central to the success of your projects and organization. Fostering teamwork – so people collaborate and share knowledge effectively – is essential for effective delivery and innovation. But teamwork is tough…
Without effective collaboration, organizations miss opportunities for innovation and improvement, and efficiency may suffer. Collaboration enhances creativity, drives efficiency, and accelerates problem-solving. Plus, the exchange of knowledge makes the organization more agile and responsive to change.
Many organizations struggle to foster teamwork. Teams may work in silos which makes knowledge sharing difficult. Employees may lack motivation to collaborate, even experiencing suspicion and hostility towards other teams if legacy tribalism goes unchecked!
