These days, perhaps the word ‘talent’ conjures up thoughts of fame-seeking contestants on TV shows such as Britain’s Got Talent making spectacles of themselves in some sort of fancy-dress costume, playing the harmonica whilst riding around the stage on a unicycle, hoping that the judges will notice them as the ‘next best thing’. In a business context, however, talent and how it is managed, in particular, is increasingly growing in strategic importance.
So, what is Talent Management? Put simply, it is about looking at staff ‘talents’ and working on ways to develop their strengths. In terms of the purpose and benefits of Talent Management, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Talent Management: an Overview, July 2010), suggest:
‘…it has evolved into a common and essential management practice…(and) in order for organisations to gain a competitive advantage they need to develop a strategic approach that suits their business and gets the best from their people. The value of a tailored, organisation-wide talent management process is that it provides a focus for investment in human capital and places the subject high on the corporate agenda.’
How is Talent Management relevant to the Library? Well, we know that we have stacks of it (please excuse the pun!) within our workforce, however we do not know exactly where our strengths and weaknesses are and how best to develop them. In light of this, shortly after I joined the Library just over a year ago, Avril Jones, Director of Collections Services, presented me with a challenge; to help her conduct a Skills and Knowledge Audit within her department. The essential conditions of Avril’s brief were that the method of data collection should be as simple as possible, therefore not being labour intensive for staff and their managers, and the interpretation of the data should be simple and informative.
With Avril’s brief in mind, Siân Jones, Learning and Development Manager, and myself began researching how other organisations were addressing such needs and found that the British Library were using IT software known as TalentLab to conduct surveys amongst its staff to collect and interpret information in areas such as skills, experience and knowledge. We therefore met with the suppliers of TalentLab to discuss our needs and were impressed by the creative solutions the software can offer.
As a result, the TalentLab software will be implemented in the Library by the end of March 2011 and initially used to conduct an online staff skills and knowledge survey within a pilot group in Collections Services, yet to be chosen by Avril. It is hoped that the results will highlight areas of strengths and weaknesses, thus enabling the Library to invest more specifically in the development of its workforce. If successful, it will be gradually rolled out across the Library as appropriate.
This is an exciting development opportunity for the Library’s staff and shows a clear long-term commitment on the Library’s part to invest in a more skilled and competent future workforce.
Corinna Lloyd-Jones
Human Resources Manager