Barrie Bramley looks at the preoccupation many companies have with ‘talent’and the confusion it’s causing; as those who are grappling with it struggle to work out what to do with it? Barrie looks at the problem of scarce skills in the market place and the fact that when there’s a shortage of people with skills, you want to ensure that you ‘acquire’ the best people available.

Talent. I love that word!
So different from ‘employees’
So different from ‘personnel’
So different from ‘human resources’
Talent! Just uttering the word, per se, makes you puff up and feel good about yourself!
Talent! I do indeed love that word!
- Tom Peters

Talent. I dislike that word!
So difficult to define
So difficult to see
So difficult to measure
Talent! Just uttering the word, per se, make you want to run and hide, even put your head in the sand until it goes away!
Talent! I do indeed dislike that word!
– Barrie Bramley

It’s not Tom Peters I have an issue with. I enjoy him. I love the style with which he puts his thinking out there. It’s the sudden preoccupation many companies have with ‘talent’ that has my attention. It’s the confusion it’s causing, as those who are grappling with it struggle to work out what to do with it?

All this grappling is not without reason. There is a crisis looming. Some would even suggest the crisis has arrived? From where I stand the crisis is not primarily a talent crisis, it’s a shortage of skills crisis. To be more accurate, in the ‘Northern Hemisphere’ it’s a shortage of young people to replace retiring Baby Boomers, and in the ‘Southern Hemisphere’ it’s an abundance of young people lacking some specific skills. Put this all together and there is a problem of scarce skills in the market place (in some specific spaces). Of course when there’s a shortage of people with skills, you want to ensure that you ‘acquire’ the best people available. And there you have it; ‘the war for talent’ is born.

This is where the confusion begins. For example – you manage to capture the attention of someone with a scarce skill that your company needs. This new person clearly must fit into the ‘talent category’? You’re paying them a lot of money. You’ve spent some significant time, energy and resource capturing their attention. The competition had their eye on her as well. So talent she shall be. Expectations of grandiose proportions develop. Hopes of extra-ordinary performance are announced in the boardroom.

But you have over-looked a key point. Just because they have a scarce skill doesn’t make them superhuman. You only need a 50% pass mark to attain most university qualifications. Someone had to come last in the class. You may have just hired that particular person!

I don’t really dislike the word. I’d just like to suggest that not enough is being done to think through this recent upsurge in a focus on talent. It’s not a new concept either. Businesses have, since their inception, understood that getting the best possible people is a competitive differentiator that mostly works in your favour. Investigate the story of your own company or the one next door in a completely different industry. They’ve been on a ‘search and retain’ mission for talent since they began.

Separating out the issues in order to gain clarity is paramount in order to avoid wasting time, resource and energy.

While I think there are a few issues that need to be put onto the table for discussion, simply appreciating that a different strategy is required when one is attracting the attention of someone with a scarce skill and someone with enough talent to shoot the lights out, changes everything.

Talent! It’s certainly an interesting word : )

Barrie Bramley is a founding partner of TomorrowToday.biz and works in our ‘future of work’ research team. He is a strength-perspective evangelist and invites you to engage him in further conversation. He can be e-mailed on barrie@tomorrowtoday.biz

Related posts:

1. Shouldn’t we all just pick another word?
2. Talent – Manage it by measuring it

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