Learn How to Enhance Human Talent Through Empowerment and Leadership

From the beginning of time, men have tried to find the meaning of human talent. First records go back to the most ancient languages, Sanskrit (2000 BC). The word Samskara was used in Hindu philosophy. It explained the mental disposition of a person, their capacity to practice a certain activity, the way they related to people and their frame of mind, among other characteristics.

Companies believe that people with these characteristics are qualified to be influencers of the organizational culture and empower others. It is important to note, that companies use technology to find an efficient way to empower, manage and retain talent in a company.

There are several points to keep in mind to achieve an effective talent management and empower people.

Empowering People to Influence and Lower Employee Turnover Rate

One of the benefits of empowering people is that the company becomes more efficient when their employees have the power to make decisions and solve problems on their own. When the organization delegates effectively and encourages autonomy, the employee takes ownership and feels more motivated to work. The main objective of empowerment is to strengthen human talent and to lower employee turnover rate. Check below some advantages of empowerment:

• Empowerment helps the creation of new leaders and influencers in an organization. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the sociologist Max Weber developed the concept of “Charismatic Authority”. It is a concept based on charisma and leadership as a force of change in an organization. A person with charisma, talent, and social skills is suitable to be the influencer of social movements and to secure the devotion of large numbers of people.

Nowadays, we not only find these leaders in social movements, but also in organizations. A study developed by Gallup to 30,000 employees over three countries, resulted that empowered leaders are more effective to influence employees. This valuable talent is an example to other workers, who see themselves represented and influenced by these leaders. Therefore, they feel motivated to stay in the company and nowadays this becomes crucial to lowering employee turnover rate. This is possible as long as the empowered talent shares the member´s character and the same cultural values.

• Employees feel more confident and with more authority to develop their talent and do their job. Having more power and control makes them more productive. Consequently, empowerment promotes and encourages employee accountability as well as strengthens their sense of belonging, resulting in talent retention and commitment to the company.

According to Gallup, workers in companies that lack empowering methods, are less confident and responsible to the organization. Opposite results were obtained in companies where people are empowered, they discovered that employees were motivated to develop innovative ideas in order to meet market demands and be ahead of the competition.

• Thanks to the achieved empowerment, supervisors have more available time to complete other tasks. Supervisors have more time to optimize their calendar in more relevant plans by delegating specific decisions and duties onto others that know how to fulfill the role. There will be no delays on the part of the employee by asking their supervisor questions and will be able to execute tasks in a nimble way. In addition to saving time, empowered employees mature faster as leaders and help other members of the team to achieve their full potential.

At the same time, it is quite a challenge to know how to delegate and empower people effectively. John Hunt, a professor at the London Business School states that only 30% of managers think they know how to delegate, and one out of three of these are considered to do it right by their people in charge. Resulting in just one out of 10 managers knowing how to empower effectively. Nevertheless, through technology, we can measure in an efficient way if a manager is delegating tasks and authority effectively.

Key Factors to Human Talent Management in Organizations

A study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group to 1,350 executives, gave as a result that talent management is a priority in modern organizations. Efficient management predicts and acts to retain valuable talent before they consider to leave the organization.

Here are some points to consider for an efficient talent management:

Talent retention

Know how to attract and retain the most qualified profiles. According to data provided by Hubspot, it is three times more expensive to hire a new person than to retain a valuable employee. When an employee leaves the company, there are not only economic but also social consequences in the team and in the organization. It can take up to twenty-four months for the new employee to learn the culture of the company and to get familiar with the strategy and the company’s activity. All this includes training time, low initial performance, and the cost of slowing down the team.

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, states in Netflix´s culture deck that: “One outstanding employee gets more done and costs less than two adequate employees”. Hastings asks three questions to know when to retain valuable talent:

1 – What could this person get elsewhere?

2 – What would we pay for a replacement?

3 – What would we pay to keep this person? (If they had a bigger offer elsewhere)

Hastings says that paying top of the market is core to attract and retain valuable talent.

How to Slow Down Employee Turnover Rate

• Technology as the main tool for effective talent management. Technology is one of the best allies for talent management. It is possible to get valuable statistics through software that measures talent performance and employee efficiency. Some relevant statistics are: identify business leadership in a company, labor productivity, human talent development, and team performance.

It should be stressed that this kind of software needs to be backed up by a smart strategy to obtain positive results.

• Invest in people and recognize employees. Steve Jobs stated that it is more important to invest in people than in ideas. He supported this by saying: ¨It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do, we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.¨ Jobs affirmed that Apple´s biggest successes were achieved by hiring the best people. It is crucial to recognize the professional development and contribution of the employees and to hear their ideas to achieve an effective talent management. Following these steps helps to keep people committed to the organization.

One of the main ways to obtain balance and steady development in an organization is through empowering the right people and to achieve an effective talent management. Software and technology tools are crucial to coordinate the organization culture and manage talent, and they are also useful to turn valuable talent into influencers and leaders of the organization. The way we measure the performance of our talent is essential to get a balance in an organization, and a software like StarMeUp enables us to have a control and check the progress of the process in a smooth and effortless manner.