How do you support your pocket rockets – talent management, succession planning

So, you have managed to hire an absolute gem, a person perfect for growing with your business, you can see the possible potential, now what do you do? How do you get those pocket rockets powering through the organisation with their pace and energy and develop their potential brightness? There’s nothing worse than a rocket on bonfire night that doesn’t go off with a bang and create something bright and colourful in the sky.

We are seeing that people are expecting more from work, greater fulfilment and meaning from their roles. How are you going to match that talent to what’s needed in your business?

Here are a few ideas to help you get the spark off those rockets…

Invest time up front and provide a good induction – A tour of the facilities, explanation of how the company is structured, practical guidance on working hours, pay, tax, health and safety, introductions to key people or departments and especially clarity on the job expectations, objectives and KPIs. We’ve split ours into before the person arrives, what they need in their first day, first week and first month. Ask for feedback from anyone new on the Induction they just went through to make sure it continually improves.

Find out their priorities – while millennial employees might be known for valuing flexibility and freedom the younger Gen Z care about job security – do you really know your people? We know one size doesn’t fit all so find out about their values and what’s important to them. Keep a note and start to work up a plan to match their priorities to the business’s succession plan.

Offer opportunities for growth – make it clear you are invested in career development and that you will trust them to lead projects. Ongoing development is an investment in your business just like investing in a service contract for a big piece of machinery. As time goes by don’t let that initial spark fizzle out!

Make sure you review talent at least annually, who is the successor for who, who is ready to progress to the next level or take on more responsibilities, who needs training and development and in what, who has the aspirations and who is happy where they are. Map it out and get a plan and prioritise it! Offer individual career paths based on individual potential.

Offer mentoring and coaching – within the business as a great way to give new talent a key stakeholder in them, someone to support and guide them and for the longer standing talent the opportunity to Mentor. Win, win!

Provide regular opportunities to meet, discuss progress and provide feedback – A regular meeting to talk through projects and give and receive constructive feedback is essential to the development of the employee and the success of your business.

Have a strong Vision and focus on Values – Know why you are doing what you are doing, your purpose and vision for the future, communicate it well and show your passion. Make sure that you review your company values, that they are core shared values not just permission to play, accidental values or aspirational values and talk about them, show how you live them out and how your talent can live them out too.

Check their engagement – disenchantment of high potentials is troubling, and you can’t afford to lose them. It’s important to recognise them early and often, be explicit about how their goals or objectives link to the businesses and get them involved in the biggest challenges in your business. Take the temperature regularly and get creative with valuing your people.

And just like the rockets on bonfire night if you invest in the best you will get the biggest bang for your buck and the brightest firework show. You need to invest in your people to get the best from your people.

As always, we can help and there’s funding available for eligible businesses.

• We can support the development of your induction process through consultancy.
• We can train and develop you or your managers leadership skills to better understand your talents needs.
• We can support the development of a talent and succession plan – we’ve a package of support whether you already have a performance management process or not.
• We can train your people to be mentors and develop their coaching skills.
• We can support your talent by coaching and mentoring them.
• We can train you and your managers or leaders to have honest conversations with successful outcomes.
• We can provide consultancy support for developing or reviewing your Vision, Mission, Values and connect people to them.
• We have an employee engagement survey tool that can check engagement levels across a range of drivers and show you where you need to focus your effort, identifying any risks and then help you to develop a plan to improve engagement, productivity and retention.

Some clients pick and choose, and some clients want it all, make that call today to find out how we can help you. Let’s get planning now to have a great send off at the end of the year and start 2023 with a plan to develop and invest in your team, especially your pocket rockets aka key talent.