the power of growing talent instead of buying it.

Growing talent in-house gets a management buy-in

Why it is beneficial to grow and nurture talent within the organisation instead of sourcing it externally

Conventional talent management practices across organisations have focused on recruiting the right talent at the right place, with regular monitoring to benchmark performance. In today’s scenario, workforce management has gone a step ahead to include designing, implementing, and measuring global people strategies to achieve success in business operations. As HR managers embark on this mission to define and deploy robust people management strategies, they are faced with one important question: should talent be grown in-house or should it be heavily sourced from external environments?What are the ramifications and the business/financial impact of each strategy?

Detailed assessment of current business and people scenario 

Before arriving at a decision of whether to grow talent in-house or source them from outside the organisation, HR managers need to evaluate the current human resources framework, taking into account the specific capabilities of existing employees and matching these with the requirements of the business. HR heads should ask the following key questions before planning their task force management initiatives:

• Are any of the internal employees equipped with the necessary skills required for this role?
• Would there be adequate time to train and develop an in-house resource to take full responsibility for this role?
• Should a resource be expected to learn and imbibe all the specific skills necessary to execute this role satisfactorily, within the time available?
• Is there any room for low productivity in the teething phase of this project?
• Would the cost of training a resource be affordable?

Advantages of growing talent in-house

The very premise of talent management is to identify and grow the organisation’s internal resources so the business has the requisite talent necessary to execute mission-critical projects. HR needs to build a steady resource funnel of experienced and skilled employees,which can help in making informed recruitment decisions in the event of a churn. Recruiting people in-house and training them to meet the requirements of the business can prove beneficial on several counts. 

Improved financial performance

Research has proved that recruiting people internally, especially in senior level roles has a direct and positive impact on the company’s financial performance. Banking on the internal resource pool to fill in executive roles enables seamless conduct of business operations as there is no loss of focus on training and mentoring a new recruit. The business continues to function as before, laying full emphasis on maximising productivity and financial gains. 

No need to reinvent the wheel

A long-term employee of an organisation will have an in-depth understanding of the business objectives and internal systems and processes. Moving current employees to more strategic and diversified roles within the organisation is far convenient than recruiting someone from outside, who will have no idea about the organisation’s core values and principles. 

Better and efficient individual performance

Employees of an organisation are fully aware of how the business functions and clearly understand the relationship with internal as well as external stakeholders. Furthermore, having already undergone the necessary HR training, internal resources generate better results than external recruits who are new to the system and need more time to understand the nuances of the business.

Increased motivation and engagement within the organisation

Elevating internal employees to more senior roles is a strong motivator for everyone working in the organisation and is an indicator of the trust and faith reposed by the management in its employees. Promoting existing employees to executive positions gives out a strong message to employees that the management values their loyalty and commitment towards the company. It also conveys the fact that the leadership recognises the inherent talent in every employee and is willing to nurture it with necessary training and feedback.

Talent management is not a one-time activity but a long-term strategy every HR manager has to implement throughout various organisational levels. Once the primary business requirements have been identified and the necessary analyses made, the next step is to evaluate the internal people framework and map employee skills with the requirements of the specific project or task. Thereafter, a gap analysis to identify any lack of skills will equip HR professionals with the necessary data and information to devise and implement a structured training and development plan. A detailed internal resource SWOT analysis will help HR successfully answer the question of whether to hire resources from outside or build and nurture capabilities from within the organisation.