FCCS News & Insights

Getting Strategic about Strategic Talent Management

Talented and engaged employees differentiate your organization and are becoming increasingly important at the same time that the talent market is becoming increasingly competitive. These conflicting pressures make it essential for organizations to focus attention and resources on their Strategic Talent Management (STM) approach.

“Good strategic talent management means observing people, assessing their performance and placing value on the results they achieve. This allows the organization to ensure that the right person is in the right job at the right time,” says Jay Lux, FCC Services’ Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness Consulting. “As businesses have gotten larger and more complex, the importance of doing this consistently and effectively has grown, as has the financial and operational impact to an organization that does not manage its talent effectively.”

FCC Services has developed a comprehensive suite of STM solutions to assist clients in establishing, strengthening and expanding their human capital management approach. These solutions provide leading-edge thinking at all points along the employment process, including selection, development, retention and succession planning, and are designed to most effectively support employee growth from the new hire through career advancement into management and potentially executive leadership. Our breadth of offerings can be utilized individually or in concert, and solutions can be tailored for organizations of any size with any size human resources team.

FCC Services’ decades of experience in supporting Farm Credit organizations and cooperatives has developed the expertise to identify the skills and attributes needed for specific positions at all levels, and how to recruit effectively in smaller communities where it can be more challenging to find great talent. Our CEO and executive leadership selection efforts have successfully identified strong new leaders for Farm Credit organizations, both within and outside of the organization. Supporting these recruitment efforts are a series of assessment tools, including the Predictive Index, Insight Interviews, the Hogan Leadership Assessments and the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal that provide objectivity, as well as statistical reliability, in making hiring or promotion decisions, as well as identifying areas for growth and improvement.

Our comprehensive training and development programs help develop critical skills, and are customizable to meet specific situations or challenges. As an example, the Crucial Conversations session is tailored to include insight and practice in how to talk to a distressed farmer. We can also customize programs for individual organizations and provide regional programs that enable multiple organizations that may not have as large a budget to access these development opportunities.

Employee engagement is a critical measure, as engaged employees lead to satisfied and engaged customers. Engagement surveys provide critical analytics to support business planning, with data coming directly from the staff who are carrying out your mission every day. Our engagement survey includes specific questions that are actionable and validated, and organizations can use the resulting data to make strategic decisions.

Executive commitment and a willingness to have robust, strategic conversations are essential to building and maintaining an STM approach to invest in finding and developing the right people to execute their organization’s vision and strategy. Underpinning all STM programs should be a strong plan, founded in each organization’s business challenges and long-term strategy. The greatest value comes from a defined process that meets leadership goals and cultivates and develops the organization’s talent so it’s a tool to run their business. FCC Services works with clients to develop these plans, crafting a step-by-step approach that can be implemented in the timeframe that makes sense for the organization.

“Taking a more holistic approach to talent management and being mindful of how you hire and develop your employees, you can become more aware of their strengths and the true value they bring to the table, which can enable you to identify individuals to take on new roles and responsibilities,” says Jay. “This strengthens your talent bench, increases retention and also positions you to respond to both planned and unplanned departures. We’ve seen time and time again that planning for talent change and turnover is a key to success, and we’ve worked successfully with several organizations to develop plans to fit their budget and staffing resources.”

FCC Services Strategic Talent Management Solutions

• Human Capital Planning and Talent
• Strategy Consultation
• Talent Sourcing
  • Interview Services and Predictive
  • Selection Assessments
  • Consulting Services for Recruiting, Hiring and Onboarding
  • Job Posting
  • Candidate Generation
• Talent Development Assessments
• Culture and Team Development
• Leadership Development and Learning Programs
• Succession Planning
• Talent Pipeline Development (Onboarding/Reboarding/Offboarding)
• Executive Selection
• Employee Engagement Consulting

For more information about FCC Services’ Strategic Talent Management services, contact us at 303.721.3200.