Talent Management
"The best minute you spend is the one you invest in people." Ken Blanchard
Time and time again through surveys, questionnaires and online response forums, the response to what makes a positive outsourcing agreement always results in the same answer. The people.
Organisations are realising that the key to effective business partnerships is very often the individual relationships that exist and the amount of time that is put into managing them.
Every week news stories highlight successful outsourcing partnerships and lessons regarding talent management can be learnt from each of them. 3M extending its IT outsourcing relationship with Cognizant is one of them, along with other manufacturers who have recently renewed or extended their outsourcing deals, such as General Motors with HP, Ford with CSC and Dell with the US Department of Homeland Security this year.
Ferenc Szelenyi, Vice President EMEA Public Sector Services, Dell, said: “To make talent management work, it needs to be comprehensive, throughout an organisation. Therefore, the starting point must be to ensure the organisation has the right technology and processes in place, and in one place. This will mean the HR team, together with the management team, can focus on managing the company's talent, rather than on managing each separate transactional process.”
The NOA Talent Management in Outsourcing seminar was held with the aim of sharing best practice, incorporating views from the industry and highlighting how to gain a competitive edge through human development opportunities.
Yvonne Williams, Representative for Individual Professional Development, NOA, opened the seminar and said: “Development and skills mapping are not always laid out clearly within an organisation and there can often be overlapping or duplication. Understanding where problems can lie in the outsourcing process and devising solutions using the right people for the job is crucial to its success.”
Training and professional development are key in outsourcing. Trained and skilled staff need to be retained and development plans need to be frequently looked at within the context of the bigger picture and changes in the industry. These changes can include the increase in vertical expertise, emphasis on relationship management with offshore and nearshore providers as well as the implementation of evolving technology in the industry.
Logica was on hand at the seminar to present a case study of how professional training can be used to best effect. Logica employs 39,000 people across 26 countries and has developed numerous successful global “You Develop, We Grow” activities focusing on talent management and professional training.
Helen Sussex, UK Skills Development and Training Manager, Logica, said: “Specific people skills are the ones which are mostly missing from outsourcing partnerships. Outsourcing should not be seen as a simple delivery of services. Client management and investment in staff is essential. The benefits of a comprehensive talent and development programmes are numerous. The value based approach is emerging increasingly in outsourcing and suppliers are no longer simply required to fulfil their SLA.”
As the outsourcing industry is maturing, it is important that it is recognised as a profession in its own right. The UK is very often seen as an outsourcing centre of excellence, yet it often fails in promoting its own professionalism.
The NOA is embracing this challenge through qualifications, development workshops, various events and a fellowship. These all aim to further establish the outsourcing sector as a highly regarded profession by promoting the industry and producing white papers which can be distributed to the wider outsourcing community.
The NOA Pathway is a set of accredited qualifications designed to support the development of competency and provide professional recognition in the outsourcing industry. The programmes are flexible to allow the participants to shape the programme around their own agenda and are framework based but not prescriptive.
Chris Halward, Programmes Director, NOA, said: “To develop outsourcing as a profession, it seems sensible that a talent programme should reflect that outsourcing is part of everyday business now. Talented individuals who do not understand outsourcing will struggle unless they realise the process.
“This process can be demonstrated through knowledge of the NOA Lifecycle which provides a recognised flexible framework to guide companies and individuals through the outsourcing process.”
NOA also announced it will be awarding post nominals for the Diploma and Professional Certificate. The NOA believe that post nominals will enable individuals who have invested in their professional development to be more easily recognised and may go some way to solve the issue of self-promotion in the industry.
So while the outsourcing industry can only go from strength to strength with the increasing flexibility of models, cost effective use of new technology and prospective surge in public sector contracts - the amount of growth and recognition will ultimately depend on the management, recognition and development of one area. The people.
