With the start of a new year, companies get to work setting new goals or revising existing ones. Goal execution, however, depends upon the necessary talent.

As the world of work changes and companies rely upon more contract workers, develop more collaborative relationships and employees become more widely located and mobile, the requirements for performance management and succession planning broaden. Erik Berggren and Jason Corsello suggest, “It is critical for companies to have a system in place to manage the goals and competencies of these cross- barrier collaborators” (p. 3).

In their report , Talent Management 2017, Berggren and Corsello recommend,  “A dramatic shift in the way in which HCM solutions work is in order to meet the coming challenges in talent management" (p. 10). 

They list the challenges as 

"• Finding and acquiring talent in the age of the free agent
• Aligning talent in a borderless world
• Developing talent in a way that interests and engages the next generation of workers
• Driving performance with predictive, relevant information” (p. 10).

Thus, not only must companies excel at being able to identify the performance and skills of internal employees, they must also be able to do so for temporary workers and collaborators.

As a starting point, this reinforces the need for clear, outcome oriented, time-limited goals within our performance management process. The requirements, however, go even deeper. Organizations must be able to answer the following questions: 

Who is responsible for tracking and maintaining performance management information for contract workers and collaborators?

How is availability of this information, along with individual interests and availability, ensured?

How are standards of performance for these workers defined and modified?

Are project managers adequately prepared to be able to capture all the necessary information (are they given the right tools to do so)?

Who is responsible for discussing progress against goals with collaborators and temporary workers?

References:

Berggren, Erik and Jason Corsello. Talent Management 2017. [www.successfactors.com]. Obtained January 10, 2010.