Searching for Talent? Try Supply Chain Management
How can employers, regions, and entire industry sectors ensure they have a reliable pipeline of incoming talented employees whose competencies have been rigorously assessed?
INC's John Cleveland has worked with Metrics Reporting Inc. to produce a set of processes and tools for employers to develop talent supply chains, now being implemented in the heath care, manufacturing and retail sectors. The Talent Supply Chain Management (TSCM) system has five components for employers to implement:
- Competency Validation. Competency validation assures that employers clearly define the skill requirements of each job and validate that those requirements accurately predict job performance. It involves developing a job family taxonomy and conducting job analysis and competency validation for each job family. Competencies fall into two groups – foundational competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and personal characteristics that create the capacity to carry out specific tasks), and occupational competencies (industry wide and job-specific tasks that individuals need to be able to carry out to be effective in their work).
- Talent Planning. Talent requires a planning system similar to any other organizational function. The key components include: annual forecasts of talent requirements by job; an annual Talent SCM budget; talent KPIs that are reported on a regular basis; and talent reports to leadership to assure contribution to mission and margin.
- Talent Selection. Talent selection uses evidence-based processes to manage the talent acquisition “funnel” from a large pool of potential candidates to those ultimately hired. Key steps in this pipeline are sourcing, screening, selection, hiring and on-boarding.
- Talent Development. Talent development supports continuous improvement in the productivity of the incumbent workforce. It involves three processes – career planning, learning/development and performance appraisal.
- Supplier Management. Supplier management assures that individuals and talent suppliers (education and training organizations) understand the competency requirements as the employer has defined them. This means they have to integrate those competencies into their curricula, and utilize competency-based credentialing processes that assure that credential holders in fact possess the required knowledge and skills.
The system also depends on individuals navigating competency-based career pathways and accumulating the competencies and credentials that demonstrate their qualifications for jobs. Talent suppliers (schools, workforce development organizations, credentialing organizations) need to provide students with competency-based education and offer valid competency-based credentials that align with employer requirements. This requires that they use occupational competency information to inform curricula improvements to ensure graduates have the competencies to be successful in the jobs marketplace.
More information about the TSCM system and how it can be used by individual employers, regions, and industry sector: https://in4c.net/innovation-network-for-communities/workforce-development/.
