Developing Tomorrow's Worforce: Winning the War for Talent

Developing Tomorrow’s Workforce:

Winning the War for Talent in the Middle East

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Developing Tomorrow’s Workforce: Winning the War for Talent in the Middle East

There is a new war for talent, and this war is different than in the past. The disparity between availability of labour and required skills is the biggest challenge executives are facing. According to the PwC 2014 Global CEO survey1, 70% of Middle East CEOs have identified availability of key skills as a potential business threat to their organisation. At the same time, the youth unemployment rate in the Middle East is the highest in the world2. One in four Arab youth are unemployed with a median age of 243. So while ¬ the Middle East has a huge potential labour pool, the available workers lack the needed skills.

The PwC 2014 Global CEO survey has found that 72% of Middle East CEOs are focusing on creating a skilled workforce as a priority over the next 3 years. However the Middle East is unique in the framework in which the war on talent is happening:

{ Organisations in the region need to work towards meeting Nationalisation targets for the private sector (e.g. in January 2014 Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid announced his desire to increase the rate of UAE national’s employment in the private sector tenfold by 2021)4.

{ Work conditions in the public sector are more attractive to nationals (working hours, benefits, job security) 5.

{ 35% of residents in the MENA region who work for an employer are actively disengaged; this is one of the highest percentages of actively disengaged workers in any global region6.

{ Only 32% of employers in the Arab region agree that the education system in their country provides people with adequate skills to enhance the economy7.

To win the war on talent, organisations need to realise that it’s not just about attracting talent, but about training AND retaining. Organisations need to get better at building and engaging their talent to ensure a consistent and capable pipeline of ready people to develop tomorrow’s workforce.

Middle East CEOs are focusing on the following priority of the next 3 years:{ 72% Creating a skilled workforce{ 51% Creating jobs for young people{ 49% Ensuring financial sector stability

*Source: PwC Middle East CEO Survey 2014

Engagement among employees in MENA region:{ 10% Engaged{ 55% Not engaged{ 35% Actively disengaged

*Source: 2011/2012 Gallup “State of the Global Workplace” report

Does the education system in your country provide people with adequate skills to enhance the economy?{ 11% Strongly disagree{ 35% Disagree{ 23% Neither/Nor{ 27% Agree{ 5% Strongly Agree

*Source: Arab Though Foundation: Enabling Job Creation in the Arab World (December 2013)

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In order to develop tomorrow’s workforce for your organisation you need to:

1. Understand your organisation’s talent profile2. Recognise your true talent needs3. Perform regular gap analyses4. Integrate talent and learning to drive engagement5. Incentivise leaders to drive internal talent mobility

Understand Your Organisation’s Talent Profile

Almost every organisation has some useful information about the talent of their workforce somewhere, usually captured in the talent acquisition process. Unfortunately, few of them actually use that information after their people have been hired. And even fewer have systems in place that help keep that information up to date and accurate.

It makes logical sense that understanding the unique profile of all our people is an important aspiration. But for most, it’s really hard. Whether you are part of a global organisation employing thousands of people across the globe or are part of a local, growing organisation, 75% use more than 3 HR systems. Getting a comprehensive view of your people’s talent with multiple HR systems is hard enough, the systems outside your organisation like LinkedIn and others, often know more about your people than you do.

In the past, starting over with systems consolidation or launching a massive data warehouse project seemed like the only way to get a single view of your organisation’s talent profile. And because these systems consolidations often take years and millions of dollars to accomplish, and generally produce less than half the expected benefits, many organisations gave up on really knowing their talent profile.

But you can get the comprehensive view of your people you need without systems consolidation. A virtual system of record that gives you the benefits of data integration and consolidation without the time, risk, or cost. It’s designed to merge, blend, and modify information from any system or third-party applications you already have, including popular cloud-based applications or multiple HRIS systems.

With a virtual system of record, you get one comprehensive view of your people regardless of how many different data sources you have. You can also integrate with information and systems outside of your HR infrastructure, like operations systems or LinkedIn, and even pull data from spreadsheets.

Recognise Your True Talent Needs

Yesterday’s talent needs are not tomorrow’s talent needs. The talent profile needs to evolve continuously to take into account nationalisation, diversification and globalisation of various sectors. This may mean that you have to look beyond your traditional sources of talent, such as crossover talent (high-potential employees with transferable skills from other sectors) or recognising that while knowledge and experience are important, who people are and what they can do are more indicative of future performance. You will need to regularly identify key competencies required for outstanding performance and success in each area, so you can create a list of learning activities that can help to develop each competency.

Average HRMS Consolidation Project:

{ Takes 3 years

{ Costs $6 million

{ 2/3rds fail to product more than 50% of benefits

{ 10% are outright failures

*Source: Panorama Consulting

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Perform Regular Gap Analyses

Developing tomorrow’s workforce and winning the new war for talent really boils down to an examination of supply and demand. Organisations who regularly examine the gaps between what talent exists in the organisation and their true talent needs are able to more successfully react to changing business conditions, economic or regulatory conditions and see significantly better results in many important people metrics, including productivity, engagement, and internal promotions. And when you consistently access information about your people and have a clear understanding of your needs, analysing the gaps is easy.

Integrate Talent And Learning To Drive Engagement

The hard part is what comes next – doing something about the gaps. Organisations in the Middle East have a very diverse workforce and individuals are different, even if they work in the same organisations at the same job. But most organisations’ training and development programmes, when they exist at all, are still one-size-fits-all and are often detached from the talent management process.

By integrating development programmes directly into performance management, compensation programmes and succession planning organisations are able to drive employee engagement, enhance compliance, increase retention and improve productivity.

By integrating development and performance activities into their daily work, you can ensure your employees are building the skills you need them to have to be successful in their next role while they perform their current duties. And by tailoring these activities to each individual employee’s needs, you increase the effectiveness of your development programme while making a significant positive impact on engagement and productivity.

Reward Leaders Who Drive Internal Talent Mobility

Maybe the biggest obstacle organisations in the Middle East face in winning the war for talent, is themselves. Gallup, in their “State of the Global Workplace”, found that in the MENA region, the concept of “wasta” (similar to the Western concept of “who you know”) can be used to gain employment and advantage in the workplace as a result of personal relationships. This can undermine the whole talent management strategy. Organisations must therefore look for a more sustainable, culturally adapted, talent-based approach to leadership and employee development.

Most managers are rewarded primarily, if not solely, on what their organisations accomplish, and don’t receive much recognition for enabling their people to find new jobs in new departments. If your organisation isn’t encouraging managers to match talent to the right roles on behalf of the organisation and help their people move into positions outside their influence, you may not be hiring the right talent and your best people are likely to be looking to leave.

By measuring and rewarding your managers on their ability to steward talent for the organisation, you can ensure your best talent is always in your most important roles

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Conclusion

The external talent market can no longer consistently provide organisations with the specialised talent they need to sustain operations and create competitive advantage. Internal development programmes are often too generic or disengaged from the talent management process to be effective. By following these five steps, really knowing your organisation’s talent profile, understanding your true talent needs, performing regular gap analyses, integrating talent and learning to drive engagement and incentivising leaders to drive internal talent mobility, you can win the war on talent, increase employee engagement, and develop tomorrow’s workforce.

1 PwC Middle East CEO Survey 2014: Fit for the Future2 Arab Thought Foundation: Enabling Job Creation In the Arab World (December 2013)3 PwC Middle East CEO Survey 2014: Fit for the Future4 The National: Sheikh Mohammed to double Emiratisation targets for UAE private sector (Jan 14, 2014)5 The National: Statistics suggest sorry state of Emiratisation in private sector – quote from Nadia Abdulaziz, Emirati director of logistics company UNASCO (Nov 7, 2012)6 Gallup, Inc.: State of the Global Workplace 2011/20127 Arab Thought Foundation: Enabling Job Creation in the Arab World

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SumTotal Systems, LLC, the largest independent provider of integrated human resources (HR) solutions, is increasing the performance of some of the world’s most successful organizations, including AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN[ADR]; London: AZN), Amway (KUL: AMWAY), and Seagate (NYSE: STX). The only HR solution provider to deliver Talent Expansion™, a whole new approach to discovering, developing and unleashing hidden potential within our customers’ workforce, SumTotal delivers employee enablement solutions that help organizations become great places to work. SumTotal’s people-focused applications, available on premise and in the Cloud, enable contextual, just-in-time development designed to advance employees’ skills and knowledge. Today, more than 3,500 organizations, including several of Fortune’s “Best Places to Work,” rely on SumTotal’s on premise and cloud-based Talent Expansion applications to enable and empower their employees. Visit us at www.sumtotalsystems.com.

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