How Net Zero should be the goal for Talent teams too
In an era when ESG strategies have focused so heavily on the Environmental pillar, our Talent Solutions team have been busy looking at sustainability in terms of Social benefit. Their answer is the Talent Sustainability Framework – a new method for employers to gauge and improve sustainability from a talent perspective.
The Talent Sustainability Framework gives employers a clear picture of how sustainable their talent operations are, but also a defined pathway to improvement. It hinges on a new definition of Net Zero specifically for HR teams, where Net Zero means striving for zero waste throughout the talent pipeline, with the ultimate aim of building self-sustaining talent ecosystems.
This approach comes bound up with two questions. First, what does a Net Zero approach to talent look like? And second, what do employers need to do to reach Net Zero?
In answering these two key questions, we hope to show you a fresh, holistic way to view your talent practices in order to optimise the skills of your people and create truly self-sustaining talent ecosystems.
Traditional methods of attracting, hiring and retaining talent are too often reactive, piecemeal and inefficient. It’s often said in HR circles that an organisation’s people are its most valued resource. Yet in an era of unprecedented upheaval in the workplace, few businesses are using this critical resource as effectively as they could.
Today’s employers face a convergence of new disruptions and demands, from the climate crisis and COVID-19 to skills shortages and the strategic imperative of enshrining diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in their workforces. It will take a bold new approach to navigate this shifting talent landscape – one that reimagines how people are attracted, hired, reskilled and redeployed in your organisation. This is the map provided by the Talent Sustainability Framework.
Whether it’s your return-to-work strategy, diversity or recruitment, organisations must recognise that all these issues are interlinked. You’ve got to keep a pulse on the whole picture and look at your talent from a holistic, sustainable point of view. Businesses can’t afford to ignore any area."
1. Acquiring and hiring talent to accelerate time to productivity – Not just how quickly you can hire people, but whether you’re recruiting the right talent in the right ways and how well you get them up to speed.
2. Engaging and evolving talent to create a higher-skilled workforce at an optimum cost – Identifying what skills are needed and who already has them within your organisation, then deploying the right methods to engage, upskill and retain those people.
3. Improving culture, retention and belonging by transforming leaders – Setting culture, communicating purpose, fostering belonging and aligning leaders to reduce turnover and create flourishing talent pipelines.
Each domain is broken down into six measurable dimensions that can be tracked to not just gauge the current sustainability of your talent approach, but also plot a path to becoming a Net Zero, talent-centric organisation.
The Talent Sustainability Framework is a maturity model for talent sustainability. At the heart of the model is the Talent Sustainability Quotient (TSQ): a movable measure of the current sustainability of your talent practices, plotted against each domain and sub-dimension.
As you adopt and embed more of the practices outlined in the framework, your organisation seamlessly moves closer to a Net Zero approach to talent.
We need to be much more critical of wasted talent across the board, so that organisations can become efficient and sustainable. Recruitment is key to this – businesses should work to minimise the time it takes to get the right workers in their roles. At the other end too, it is vital for employers to take responsibility for their leavers. Are you keeping your people employable in the long-term, even if not at your organisation?
The insights that inform your TSQ are robust, reliable and data-driven; the results provide an actionable plan to set the right talent strategy and prioritise spend. Through effective use of the TSQ, organisations can pinpoint where to prioritise changes and, with Talent Solutions’ expertise, map out your unique journey towards Net Zero.
At the end of the Talent Sustainability Framework lies a sustainable talent ecosystem for your organisation, where your workforce is implicitly in sync with your strategy, proud to work for you, motivated to give their best and adaptable to evolving demands and priorities. It is a holistic framework built to not only address today’s challenges but create lasting change; to bring talent more meaningfully into conversations around organisational sustainability.
To find out more about the Talent Sustainability Framework, download our whitepaper.
Ready to find out your TSQ? Take the assessment and learn what steps your organisation can make to stay ahead.
