Jan 10, 2022,09:00am EST|869 views

The 15 Big Challenges Facing Talent

Management In 2022
Esade Business & Law School
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Leadership Strategy
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Francisco Loscos is an Associate Professor at Esade’s Department of People

Management & Organisation

Big challenges facing talent management

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The overriding challenge of talent management will be its capacity to adapt to changes
—both construct-wise and management-wise—in order to achieve a vision that is closer
and more connected to reality. Managing talent competitively today involves, on the
one hand, turning away from the hapless past we have inherited in the shape of HR
policies built on strategic shortsightedness and the prevalence of control over
connection, and on the other, developing tools and delivering them to the artists, the
people with talent, so they can produce the new. From this premise, 15 major
challenges emerge:

The first has to do with the idea that talent management must bear in mind that the
new talent war will not be determined, as its predecessor was, by market “shortage” but
rather by organizations’ incapacity to successfully address their
“connection” in terms of context and with the business.

The second is about interpreting that the context is a playing field on which it is

necessary to build the organization’s talent map, a playing field that is determined
by constraints such as BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear and Incomprehensible), which
Jamais Cascio defines through aspirational paradigms such as Bauman’s ideas of liquid
modernity.

The third challenge is concerned with the ability to build the rules of talent from the
perspective of the cause-effect relationship in business models.

The fourth challenge is determined by the need to overcome the erroneous

stubbornness in which organizations are entrenched, of continuing to manage
today’s realities with yesterday’s instruments.

The fifth challenge is about interpreting and managing properly the “new balance”
between organizational and personal needs.

The sixth is related to the collision that exists between the “limited supply of value”
that organizations propose to people and the “insatiable demand for value” that
partners place on organizations. This may turn out to be the most complex challenge to
manage in times to come.

The seventh challenge hinges on the need to abandon the “unhealthy obsession” with
retaining talent and the “absurd blindness” of continuing to work with and from career
paths that are impossible to plan, and to turn “retaining” into “having back,” by
facilitating and encouraging talent to go out and exploit their development in the
market, with the aim of them being able to return when cyclic needs—those of the
company and those of the person—bring their paths to cross again.
The eighth challenge focuses on stopping the need for diversity from prevailing over the
need for the value of uniqueness, understood as the unique and differential value of
each of the professionals who form part of an organization.

The ninth challenge is perhaps the most controversial, insofar as it is radical in

approaching teleworking as an organizational model rather than a motivational
one. Managing it as a motivational and/or remuneration factor is a big mistake which
will definitely be cause for subsequent “organizational regrets.” Teleworking as an
organizational model requires an objective reading from the business to people, and
therefore from the value chain to emotional considerations, and enabling its use to be
determined by both the type of “positions and jobs” and the type of “professionals.”

The tenth challenge involves breaking a historical prevalence of cultural orientations

towards processes and power over those of results and people, and that can only be
done by fostering and developing scenarios of trust, scenarios that make it
possible to reduce complexity (Niklas Luhmann) and infuse speed into organizational
performance (Stephen Covey). Unfortunately, control is, in addition to a mistaken
“cultural leitmotif,” also an absurd input that is used in an attempt to obtain the desired
output (performance).

The eleventh challenge centers on definitively incorporating meritocracy as the

decision-making meta-criterion in talent management. I see this as a key issue
for the necessary transformation of talent models. If the answer is not affirmative we
will undoubtedly remain stuck on “Groundhog Day.” Compassion, fear, beliefs, “I
reckon…,” “I’ve got a feeling…,” “because I say so…” are criteria that have been used far
too often in talent management.

The twelfth challenge is based on the following question: Who should adapt to

whom? The company to people or people to the company? In my view, the first option
is an unwanted consequence of Stockholm syndrome (“prisoners” of people instead of
“drivers” of the business through people), in which the HR area is still trapped.

The thirteenth challenge responds to a whole series of issues derived from one broad
question: Will we be able to interpret the new talent codes properly? And on
this basis, organizations are going to have to ask themselves if they are clear about all
the keys to the talent formula, and if they are aware of how strongly the keys associated
with “living” and “connecting” are emerging, and if they are aware of the depletion of
some codes such as know-how and experience and that in the talent formula the order
of the factors actually does alter the final outcome.

The fourteenth challenge is about knowing how to make smart use of the new
alternative ways of working, which are here to stay. Diversity of talent linking
models (in form, in time, and from different spaces) is beginning to be a variable of
acknowledged strategic value. Talent as a “pull” rather than a “template” is going to
become one of the great ambitions of organizational change, and leading on from that,
“hiring versus linking” is starting to emerge as one of the momentous dilemmas of the
future.

The fifteenth challenge is underpinned by the idea of moving away from the
intuitive method for decision making about people and replacing it with
factual analysis. Managing the whole talent flow (entry, learning, development,
compensation, analysis and evaluation, and exit) through intuition and perception, and
therefore with no or very poor data, has ceased to be an act of heroism and has become
malpractice. As British physicist and mathematician William Thomson Kelvin once
said, many years ago, “What is not measured cannot be improved, and what is not
improved will always degrade.”

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Dec 7, 2021,07:15am EST|4,793 views

Top 10 Issues Facing HR Leaders Heading
Into 2022

Eric Friedman
Forbes Councils Member

Forbes Human Resources Council

COUNCIL POST| Membership (Fee-Based)

Eric Friedman is the Founder and CEO of eSkill, a global leader in skills testing and
behavioral assessment solutions for employers.

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It’s no secret that the modern working environment is changing at a lightning-fast pace.
While many of these changes aim to improve workplace culture and provide employees
with better work/life balance, the onus falls on HR leaders to implement these new
practices.

This article will outline the top human resource issues of 2022 that HR leaders are
likely to encounter. The top 10 HR issues facing 2022’s best HR professionals are varied
and intricate, including:
1. Improving Diversity, Equity And Inclusion (DEI)

According to a recent Gartner survey, 35% of HR leaders will prioritize diversity, equity

and inclusion in the coming year. Organizations across virtually every industry will
strive to become more aware of DEI-related issues to create an inclusionary working
environment.

These entities are facing internal and external pressures to become more diverse, so
improving DEI is considered one of the top human resources issues of 2022.

2. Paving The Way For Remote Work

During the height of the pandemic, organizations across the globe transitioned to
hybrid and remote work. Even though many organizations are considering a return to
the office in some form in the future, this new trend is here to stay. The majority (92%)
of companies polled by Gartner expect some employees to continue working remotely. 

In light of this trend, HR departments must set up for remote work. Employees and
company leaders want to continue capitalizing on the advantages of this employment
format, which will require HR leaders to change the way they manage human capital to
maintain productivity and an optimal level of interpersonal communication.

3. Improving Change Management

While employees and executives are open to the idea of a hybrid work environment,
implementing sweeping organizational changes can fatigue staff. Improving change
management is considered one of the top 10 HR issues 2022’s leadership teams will
face.

McKinsey found that companies were "five times more likely to have a successful

transformation when leaders have role-modeled the behavior changes they were asking
their employees to make." HR leaders should prioritize reevaluating change
management, as many employees are likely experiencing burnout and fatigue due to the
changes implemented in the past year and a half.

4. Building Critical Skills

McLean & Company conducted a 2021 HR Trends Report to identify pressing issues
that HR leaders are facing. What they discovered was that many industries are
encountering a significant skills gap.

In response, HR leaders must analyze their organizational skills gaps with tools such as
role-based skills assessments while also training employees in specific new abilities.
According to the report, only a small percentage of HR departments are currently
engaging in this type of training and analyzing the employee skills gap.

5. Equipping Future Leaders

DDI conducted research surveying 368 CEOs and 2,102 HR professionals and found
that the C-suite only rated 38% of their mid-level leaders as "very good" or "excellent."
This trend is extremely concerning as the global talent shortage makes promoting from
within vital to a company’s long-term success.

In 2022, HR leaders must deploy strategies that are designed to equip future leaders for
promotional opportunities. Specifically, this training should focus on creating empathy-
driven managers that are conscious of the needs of their subordinates.

6. Finding Talent During A Shortage

The global talent shortage, often now referred to as the Great Resignation, is making it
challenging for organizations to find quality employees to fill vacant roles. To mitigate
the effects of this shortage, HR leaders must devise more effective strategies for
evaluating talent. This work may include skills tests and remote interview practices, as
these tactics may accelerate the hiring process.

7. Providing Great Employee Experiences

The modern employee cares about much more than just a good salary. While earning
potential will affect their decision to stay at a particular company, they are equally
concerned about a healthy working environment. HR leaders must find ways to
increase workforce health, making employees more resilient to disruptions.

8. Identifying Skills Employees Will Need Going Forward

Before HR teams can create new training programs, they must first identify which skills
their staff will need going forward. Unfortunately, it can be incredibly challenging to
predict what skills will be in demand shortly. For instance, the skills needed for a
specific job in 2018 might no longer be pertinent in 2022. This obsolescence is due to
the rapid advancements in technologies used by businesses across sectors.

9. Revamping Training Practices

HR leaders need to prioritize building critical skills and core competencies. This focus
comes as no surprise as many HR leaders say that they cannot create effective skill
development solutions quickly enough to meet the evolving needs of their companies.
In 2022, HR leaders will be tasked with revamping their existing training practices to
teach employees new skills more efficiently.

10. Fostering A Healthy Work Environment

The last of our top human resource issues of 2022 is fostering both a psychologically
and physically healthy working environment. In addition to a competitive salary and
positive working experience, employees also want a high level of workplace safety,
sustainable average stress levels and interpersonal emotional maturity.

Since remote teams do not meet physically, it's important that an organization's culture
is strong to act as a healthy work environment. For companies adopting a hybrid model,
maintaining physical safety can be guided through trusted protocols against Covid-19 or
even OSHA's ETS (although, there is a stay on this standard currently). For ongoing
productivity and retention, HR leaders must address individual employee concerns on
their stress and burnout levels. For emotional well-being, they must create a working
environment that is collaborative and provides psychological safety. Lastly, HR staff
should provide employees with development opportunities in an inclusionary setting.

HR leaders who effectively prepare for these challenges will help their organizations
create a productive and diverse workforce. Everyone from line-level employees to C-
suite executives will reap the benefits.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives
across all industries. Do I qualify?

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website. 

Eric Friedman

Eric Friedman is the Founder and CEO of eSkill, a global leader in skills testing and behavioral
assessment solutions for employers. Read Eric Friedman's full executive profile here.
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