Talent management: your secret weapon to success

Sometimes it is very easy to identify talent when we see it. Some people seem “gifted” right from the beginning. However, in an organization, not all talents are required all the time. Some people may have great people skills to help you communicate better with the client, while others may have stronger technical skills and will work better in more abstract environments. At the same time, talent needs to be developed and nurtured, so it can reach its full potential. As you can see, there is more to talent management than you may have imagined. At Virtualmind, we strongly emphasize helping our collaborators reach their full potential, and here we will tell you some of our secrets.

The first key is to have clear recruiting goals, and communicate them well. When you advertise for a new position -and, in the IT world we do that a lot- be as clear as possible in the job requirements. Not just cliché words, such as “team worker”, “highly committed”, “ready to grow”. The first step, obviously, is to know what you need: make a thorough analysis of your company culture, the type of people you want to attract, and the specific requirements of the new position. Once you have all that information, you can prepare a job ad that will reach the right people, and save you and the candidates valuable time.

But talent management does not end there. Did you know that studies show that highly gifted children who do not receive the right stimulus will most likely go undetected their entire lives, passing as some rather extravagant but otherwise normal person? Talent needs to be developed. To do so, companies should consider different strategies, such as mentoring programs, one-on-one training, career plans, and more. It is also vital to be on the lookout and see which skills your people may need to develop. Sometimes you may need to put an emphasis on soft skills, such as time management, effective communication, and even work-life balance, added to the more than necessary training on new technologies.

Finally, one great way to motivate talent development is to reward people’s accomplishments. And we are not talking about a carrot and stick approach here, but a sincere and well-planned recognition strategy for those employees who are reaching their best potential. After all, is it not our goal to keep them happy and willing to stay with us? When people feel valued, and are certain that their effort matters, they will most likely work better and think of the long term within a company. At Virtualmind, for example, we have created the VM Shoutouts program where our very own collaborators are encouraged to nominate a colleague they think deserves to be recognized! This way we are not only giving our Virtualminders the chance to feel rewarded for their work but we are also reinforcing the fact that everyone in our company has a say. And, what is better than being highlighted for your performance by your fellow coworker?

If there is one thing that we have learnt over the past two years is that a company is way more than its office and meeting rooms: a company is its people. So, in that context, hiring and keeping the best and most talented staff should be one of your main objectives. Working with a team that works really hard to turn all this theory into practice every day is in our opinion the greatest way of feeling we are succeeding at choosing our Virtualminders.