- Introduction
Talent management has become a critical component of organizational success in today’s dynamic and competitive business environment. Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of aligning their talent resources with their strategic goals and purpose. However, traditional talent management practices often fall short in achieving this objective. This is where talent portfolio landscape management comes in.
Talent portfolio landscape management is a strategic approach to talent management that involves building and managing portfolios of skills, employees, jobs, teams, and capabilities to align talent resources with organizational goals and objectives. By leveraging talent portfolios, organizations can gain a holistic view of their talent landscape and identify skill gaps, develop targeted training programs, support talent acquisition and retention initiatives, and ultimately drive organizational success.
The purpose of talent portfolio landscape management is to enable individuals to fill specific roles and work in functional and cross-functional teams to develop organizational capabilities aligned with the strategy and purpose of the organization. This approach provides a structured way to manage talent resources and ensure that individuals possess the necessary skills and competencies to contribute to the organization’s success.
In essence, talent portfolio landscape management is similar to enterprise architecture, but instead of focusing on IT, it focuses on HR. Both approaches provide a structured way to manage resources and align them with organizational goals, whether those resources are technology or talent.
In this article, we will explore the concept of talent portfolio landscape management in depth, explaining how it differs from traditional talent management practices and the benefits it offers in terms of aligning talent resources with business goals. We will also discuss how to design and manage different types of talent portfolios and their interplays, providing practical advice and recommendations for organizations looking to adopt this approach.
2. TheTalent Portfolio Landscape
The talent portfolio landscape refers to the collection of talent portfolios within an organization. By building and managing talent portfolios, organizations can gain a comprehensive view of their talent resources and how they contribute to the organization’s strategic objectives.
Below is a visual depiction of the story line:
Understanding the talent portfolio landscape can be simplified through a simple storyline. It all starts with skills, which are the specific proficiencies possessed by individuals. Individuals develop and refine their skills through education, training, and experience. Jobs are then designed with a collection of desired skills in mind, and teams are formed by bringing together individuals with different or similar jobs to work together and bring a capability to the organization.
Capabilities refer to the collective attributes and resources that organizations need to succeed. They are built by developing the skills of individuals, designing jobs that align with strategic goals, and building teams that work collaboratively towards common objectives. Finally, strategies are the desired outcomes that require the right capabilities to succeed.
Capabilities refer to the collective attributes and resources that organizations need to succeed. This includes a range of assets, such as skills, processes, systems, data, technology, and other resources that are required to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives. By leveraging these assets and developing the necessary capabilities, organizations can build a competitive advantage and achieve long-term success.
Effective talent portfolio landscape management involves identifying the necessary capabilities for achieving the organization’s strategic goals and ensuring that the talent resources are aligned with these capabilities. This requires a deep understanding of the organization’s current and future talent needs, as well as the capabilities required to achieve strategic objectives.
3. Building a portfolio in the landscape
Building and managing a talent portfolio landscape requires a structured and strategic approach. Here are the six steps to building and managing a talent portfolio:
- Start with the end in mind: Begin by defining an objective or ambition statement and the goals (between 3 to 5) over the next three years. These goals are sometimes referred to as key results. It’s important to define them with a clear outcome in mind – for example, improving from x to y.
- Map the content of the portfolio: Identify the content of the portfolio, such as skills (sometimes referred to as competencies) and map these competencies. Ensure that the skills are well thought through and not too granular. It is an art to find the right level of granularity.
- Define attributes and evaluation criteria: Once the portfolio map is established, it’s time to think of attributes and evaluation criteria. These are the things that are important to know about each element in the portfolio. Using visual tools, this can be displayed as heatmaps using color to enable you to see patterns and trends.
- Develop a data plan: Based on the evaluation criteria, define the metrics that each element should contain and develop a data plan on how to obtain the data over time. Few organizations have the data readily available.
- Evaluate the portfolio: Evaluate the portfolio by simply asking the HR team what they think. If you have data to base this on, even better. See what patterns and trends are forming and what insights you have gathered.
- Define actions to improve the landscape: Finally, define actions on how to improve the landscape. This may involve developing targeted training programs, talent acquisition strategies, or adjusting the talent portfolio to align with the organization’s goals and objectives.
By following these six steps, organizations can build and manage a talent portfolio landscape that enables them to optimize their talent resources and achieve long-term success.
4. Manage the interplay between portfolios
The talent portfolio landscape consists of several portfolios, including skills, employees, jobs, teams, and capabilities. Each of these portfolios plays a critical role in enabling an organization to achieve its strategic goals and objectives. The interplay between these portfolios is crucial to building a cohesive and effective talent management strategy.
4a: Skills Portfolio and Employee Portfolio
The skills portfolio and employee portfolio are closely linked. The skills portfolio identifies the specific skills and competencies required to achieve organizational objectives. The employee portfolio, on the other hand, identifies the individuals who possess those skills and competencies. By linking the skills portfolio and employee portfolio, organizations can ensure that they have the right people with the right skills in the right roles.
4b: Job Portfolio and Employee Portfolio
The job portfolio and employee portfolio are also closely linked. The job portfolio identifies the specific roles and responsibilities required to achieve organizational objectives. The employee portfolio, once again, identifies the individuals who possess the necessary skills and competencies for those roles. By linking the job portfolio and employee portfolio, organizations can ensure that they have the right people in the right roles.
4c: Team Portfolio and Capability Portfolio
The team portfolio and capability portfolio are also closely linked. The team portfolio identifies the specific teams required to develop and deliver organizational capabilities. The capability portfolio, on the other hand, identifies the collective attributes and resources required to develop those capabilities. By linking the team portfolio and capability portfolio, organizations can ensure that they have the right teams with the right capabilities to achieve their strategic goals.
5. Making the connections
The interplay between these portfolios is critical to building a cohesive and effective talent management strategy. By aligning these portfolios, organizations can ensure that they have the right talent resources in the right roles with the right capabilities to achieve their strategic objectives. By managing these portfolios effectively, organizations can optimize their talent resources and drive long-term success.
Establishing connections between the different portfolios in the talent portfolio landscape is critical to building a cohesive and effective talent management strategy. One way to establish these connections is by making linkages between the portfolios. Another way is by using a reinforcing matrix to understand how the portfolios reinforce each other.
5a: Making Linkages Between Portfolios
Linkages between portfolios are connections that exist between the different portfolios. For example, the skills portfolio may identify a specific skill set that is required for a particular job. The job portfolio will then identify the specific roles and responsibilities that require that skill set. The employee portfolio will identify the individuals who possess that skill set and are best suited for the job.
By making linkages between the different portfolios, organizations can ensure that they have the right talent resources in the right roles with the right capabilities to achieve their strategic objectives.
5b: Using a Reinforcing Matrix
A reinforcing matrix is a tool used to understand how the portfolios reinforce each other. Simply put, the objectives of all the portfolios are placed on the x-axis of the matrix and the portfolios are placed on the y-axis of the matrix. The matrix maps how one portfolio reinforces the other.
For example, the skills portfolio may reinforce the employee portfolio by identifying the specific skills and competencies required for each employee. The employee portfolio may reinforce the job portfolio by identifying the individuals who possess the necessary skills and competencies for each job. The job portfolio may reinforce the team portfolio by identifying the specific roles and responsibilities required for each team. The team portfolio may reinforce the capability portfolio by identifying the specific teams required to develop and deliver organizational capabilities.
By using a reinforcing matrix, organizations can ensure that each portfolio reinforces the others and that they are all aligned with the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.
6: Fit is critical
In today’s dynamic and competitive business environment, it is critical that organizations have a talent management strategy that is aligned with their strategic goals and objectives. This requires a perfect fit between the different portfolios in the talent portfolio landscape, including skills, employees, jobs, teams, and capabilities.
A perfect fit means that each portfolio is aligned with the others and that they all work together to achieve the organization’s strategic goals and objectives. For example, the skills portfolio must be aligned with the job portfolio to ensure that the right skills are being developed and utilized in the right roles. The employee portfolio must be aligned with the team portfolio to ensure that the right people are working together to develop and deliver organizational capabilities.
When the fit between all the portfolios is right, the chances of success are so much greater. Organizations can optimize their talent resources, drive innovation and creativity, and achieve their strategic goals and objectives. However, when the fit is not right, organizations may struggle to achieve their goals, experience talent shortages, and face increased competition.
Therefore, it is critical that organizations focus on building a talent management strategy that is based on a perfect fit between the different portfolios in the talent portfolio landscape. By doing so, they can optimize their talent resources, drive long-term success, and remain competitive in today’s dynamic and ever-changing business environment.
7. Unique Benefits of the solution
Talent portfolio landscape management is a strategic approach to talent management that can offer many benefits to organizations. Here are five special benefits:
- Holistic View of Talent Landscape: By leveraging talent portfolios, organizations can gain a holistic view of their talent landscape. This enables HR functions to identify skill gaps, develop targeted training programs, support talent acquisition and retention initiatives, and ultimately drive organizational success.
- Aligned Talent Resources: Talent portfolio landscape management helps organizations align their talent resources with their strategic goals and objectives. By ensuring that each portfolio is aligned with the others, organizations can optimize their talent resources and drive long-term success.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: By defining metrics for each element in the portfolio and developing a data plan to obtain the data over time, talent portfolio landscape management enables organizations to make data-driven decisions. This ensures that decisions are based on accurate and up-to-date information.
- Improved Talent Acquisition and Retention: By identifying skill gaps and developing targeted training programs, talent portfolio landscape management can improve talent acquisition and retention. This helps organizations attract and retain top talent, which is critical for long-term success.
- Enhanced Organizational Capabilities: By enabling individuals to fill specific roles and work in functional and cross-functional teams to develop organizational capabilities aligned with the strategy and purpose of the organization, talent portfolio landscape management can enhance organizational capabilities. This enables organizations to drive innovation, creativity, and ultimately, achieve their strategic goals and objectives.
8. Conclusion
In today’s dynamic and competitive business environment, talent management has become a critical component of organizational success. Traditional talent management practices often fall short in achieving the objective of aligning talent resources with strategic goals and objectives. This is where talent portfolio landscape management comes in.
Talent portfolio landscape management is a strategic approach to talent management that involves building and managing portfolios of skills, employees, jobs, teams, and capabilities to align talent resources with organizational goals and objectives. By leveraging talent portfolios, organizations can gain a holistic view of their talent landscape, identify skill gaps, develop targeted training programs, support talent acquisition and retention initiatives, and ultimately drive organizational success.
The talent portfolio landscape management approach involves building and managing five portfolios – skills, employees, jobs, teams, and capabilities – and establishing connections between them. By building a talent management strategy based on a perfect fit between the different portfolios, organizations can optimize their talent resources, drive innovation and creativity, and achieve their strategic goals and objectives.
Talent portfolio landscape management offers many special benefits to organizations, including a holistic view of the talent landscape, aligned talent resources, data-driven decision making, improved talent acquisition and retention, and enhanced organizational capabilities. By focusing on building a talent management strategy based on a talent portfolio landscape management approach, organizations can drive long-term success and remain competitive in today’s business environment.In conclusion, talent portfolio landscape management is a strategic approach to talent management that can help organizations align their talent resources with their strategic goals and objectives. By building and managing portfolios of skills, employees, jobs, teams, and capabilities, and establishing connections between them, organizations can optimize their talent resources, drive innovation and creativity, and ultimately, achieve their strategic goals and objectives.