Talent Supply Chain – Make or Buy

The toughest decision facing HR Leaders across the country today is in the area of Talent Supply Chain. I have had the fortune of meeting with 18 of them in the past week across the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore alongwith my partner, Marc Effron. Marc leads the Talent Strategy Group based out of NYC (www.talentstrategygroup.com)

The future of corporate success is clearly dependent on kind of persons you are able to horde within your corporate walls. Like the past era of licenses in India and ability of business houses to garner as many of them form the Govt as possible, the same simile can be applied to hording of Human Capital in a corporate.

Invariably all HR Heads are trying to find the best way around Talent Supply Chain. Critical decisions needs to be taken in light of the organisational cycles. If you are in growth scenario, the requirement of talent is completely different than the downsizing scenario. If industry is facing recession, would you like to build a bench? Is there merit in hiring from the campus or should you go for experienced hands? How much of your organisation’s bandwidth can you spare for building future pipeline? Should you pay 50% more than the market and get the best talent available for your industry?

HR Heads have to become better at this science, they have to learn news ways and tricks to manage this. Till now most of the HR heads have been managing these questions out of guts, experience and helping hand of business. Future will see them becoming more scientific about this.

The problem is not limited to private sector, public sector is going to see a mass retirement of both the top and middle management in the next few years. There is no guarantee that they will be able to fill this experience gap and give efficient service to customers. There is also no guarantee that these institutions will be able to exist if there are no capable employees to manage them profitably in the future.

Marc Effron in his book One Page Talent Management (OPTM) has thrown light on how to build and operate this factory. His approach to talent is like building a product: know the specifications, choose the raw material carefully and churn them through the process. Just like any factory does, you should be able to do this efficiently with each new cycle of production. There is no simpler way to do this.

Strategic decisions for corporates that will determine profitability in the next few years will revolve around managing the talent supply chain. The question of make or buy which happens in any production process will have to be answered by each company separately. The decision will not only include the HR head but the CEO, CFO and the Chief of Strategy.  The question can not be answered by the Head of HR alone, it is too critical for the growth of business.