HART HR Strategic Conference: Talent Management Is Not a Fashion But a Necessity

06 Noi 2012

Wednesday, October 24, took place the 5th edition of HART HR Strategic Conference in Bucharest. The theme of the event was "Talent management: the key to a profitable business." The event brought together over 200 people, entrepreneurs, and top managers in multinational and local companies, along with managers and human resources specialists and professionals.

Moderated by Lucian Mindruta, the conference gathered some speakers with an impressive experience who presented examples and case studies and who shared best practices on talent management. Among the guests of the event were counted: Jan Kwint (Director LTP International and partner of Hogan Assessment Benelux), Iulia Dobritoiu (HR & Commercial Excellence Director GlaxoSmithKline Romania), Sergiu Negut (Partner Wanted Transformation Consultancy), Vlad Bog (HRD Microsoft Romania), Eusebius Burcas (Partner Sales Performance), Mihai Spulber (CFO Mega Image), Simon Podgoreanu (HRD Agricover Group), Amalia Sterescu (experienced & talented executive management consultant).

The topics on the agenda were important and substantial for today's business environment:

• Selection and Induction within an Antreprenorial Organization
• About Diversity at Microsoft
• Creating High Performance Teams: Improving Business Outcomes
• Succession planning - what`s next after the theory
• Leadership Development and Organizational Impact: the Effect on Employee Focus, Involvement and Trust
• Achieving Buy-in at Board Level: How the CEO should look like?
• Leadership competency development in a dynamic organization
• Personality of leaders: When strengths become weaknesses

In the current socio-economic context, it becomes increasingly clear that it is people who make the difference between a profitable company and one that is trying to survive. Innovation, development, business success are results that arise from the way people run processes in the organization, create products, establish strategies, implement projects.

How do we get these results?
Through selection efficiency by increasing employee engagement, assessing and developing the members of teams. In other words, through policies, strategies and talent management programs. Organizations which will understand and use this toolkit will become tomorrow's market leaders. Talent management is a necessity in this environment more competitive and constantly subject to change.

"Talent – as a notion used in organizational management – can mean different things in different companies. For some organizations, a specialist skill very hard to find (eg IT, some programming languages which can add some special linguistic competence) may mean talent. For other organizations, where the technical skills related to the job are not so important (for example, workers in a call center), a certain set of behaviors (speed of reaction, kindness, strength in pressure situations, respect to the rules and procedures) may distinguish between an employee and a mediocre talent. Talent means, proportions may differ, a mix of specific technical skills, soft skills and certain competences, behaviors, taken at a high level", said Madalina Balan, Managing Partner HART Consulting.

Asked why he believes the companies are lately increasingly putting more emphasis on the concept of talent management, Jan Kwint, Executive Director LTP, the Netherlands and Benelux partner for Hogan Assessment Systems, said: "The aspects of globalization, competition and demographic developments come to my mind.

Globalization: companies are merging, growing and becoming more international in their scope and way of doing business. It is key to identify talents (anywhere in the world) at an early stage. Not only the high performers/high potential ones (these are visible) but also then ones that are less visible. Where are they, what do they want? Can we develop them based on future competencies? They need attention and opportunities for development. Otherwise, they will go.

Competition: as the quality and the prices of products and services are becoming more and more the same, you should compete on the quality of your staff. Talent management then becomes key.

Demographic: there is a global trend that baby boomers are retiring and that we need more staff then we can actually get. A labor shortage and a War-for-Talent is the result."

Sergiu Negut, Senior Consultant Wanted Transformation Consultancy, said that "the most important thing is to not forget the ethical dimension. Talent management process must be entirely honest, from intent to implementation, to be credible in the organization. We create success stories, but in order to be replicable and to generate a positive emulation, they need to be anchored in truth, honesty and performance. "

During the conference, was launched the book "The Rocket: Tips for building a high performance team." The authors, Robert Hogan and Gordon Curphy, provide a practical model for building effective teams.

The event ended with a special moment: a wine tasting, offered by CheiaVinului.ro.

HART Consulting has a history of six years on the local market, offering consulting services in areas such: selection (ROI, internal benchmark studies, personality and abilities assessments), assessment and development programs for individuals and teams (Hogan assessments, 360 feedback, A & D centers), organizational surveys, coaching, HR seminars. We are part of international network Hogan Assessment Systems and authorized distributor for Romania and Republic of Moldova.