If you heard last night’s State of the Union address, I’d be interested in your “talent management take-away’s.” Personally, I was encouraged by several parts, including:
- Forgiving school loans after ten years for those who choose to work in the public service (a remedy to attract and retain talent)
- Banks’ incentives to finance small businesses (what a great way to develop skills)
- Obama stating, “the engine of job creation is America’s businesses.” To my ears, that includes doing your best in your job, and being engaged in what you do for productivity and results. As pointed out in Federal News Radio’s Lurita Doan’s column emphasizing job creation, to me has implications for talent management outside of public sector.
- I also took in the budget freeze in the federal government, which has implications on talent management, particularly talent development, to do the most with the talent they have. Federal News Radio’s Suzanne Kubota and her interview of Linda Bilmes who said, ‘Unfortunately in the US government, as soon as you freeze spending, what gets frozen is training,’ which she added is fundamental to the long term success of any organization. I would agree that talent development is fundamental to success, but would add that cutting training budgets does not put an end to talent development—it just emphasizes very effective approaches such as mentoring, developmental assignments, and social networking for collaboration to develop talent.
Christopher Dorobek and Amy Morris of Federal News Radio interviewed Jim Gill, VP Public Sector at Saba Softward and yours truly on why talent development is imperative for public sector talent, and how social networking tools can accelerate talent development (read and hear the interview).
To learn more, see the February webcasts on Talent Development in the Federal Sector and new research from HCI and Saba on Social Networking in the Public Sector, particularly Part 2 (of 3) on social networking for talent development. For more HCI webcasts in the Government Practice Area, see the upcoming webcast Feb 24 Preparing Tomorrow's Public Leaders Today.
Reflecting on the state of talent in the union today, here are two articles that resonated with me, because the themes of efficiency and collaboration ring through loud and clear:
- Elizabeth Williamson’s article in the Wall Street Journal re-capped recent brainstorming sessions between the private and public sector. I was encouraged to hear about Deputy Veterans' Affairs Secretary Scott Gould and three deputy cabinet secretaries guided the discussion on "streamlining operations." Mr. Gould said the group would talk about inspiring top performance from government employees. My thought is that inspiring performance begins with leadership; see HCI’s Talent Leadership in the Federal Sector, upcoming webcast Feb 3 Leadership Drivers of Best Places to Work in the Federal Sector .
- This article, New Standard Supports Web 2.0 Information Sharing and Strategic Planning in the Public Sector helps enable agencies to use Web 2.0 social networking technologies in support of their missions, to engage citizens more efficiently and effectively in pursuit of strategic goals and objectives. This reminds me of a clear line of sight between agency mission, plans and talent performance goals (sound familiar to you performance management enthusiasts?)
Obama recognized Americans’ “resilience in the face of adversity.” To me, the behaviors of collaboration with a focus on efficiency and results will serve us all well (of course modeled and reinforced by leadership), whether we work in the public or private sector, and in both a challenged and vibrant economy.
What do you see as “the state of talent” in our country for the next 12 months? I look forward to your comments...
Photo courtesy of jcolman
