Talent management process

Attracting talent into library and knowledge roles in the healthcare sector and identifying existing talent is the first part of the talent management process.

It is critical to identify and attract employees whose talent enables them to offer a first-class service and deliver the Knowledge for Healthcare vision that:

‘NHS bodies, their staff, learners, patients and the public use the right knowledge and evidence, at the right time, in the right place, enabling high quality decision-making, learning, research and innovation to achieve excellent healthcare and health improvement’.

This talent management process spans the whole of our workforce, from those providing frontline customer services to those developing knowledge strategy for the twenty-first century.

It is important that we actively identify the values, skills, knowledge, experience, attitudes or behaviours required to fill talent ‘gaps’ and to build and sustain high quality knowledge services and enable healthcare organisations to innovate.

Tools to help identify talent

“Recognising Talent: a resource for librarians and information professionals in healthcare settings” (available in the Downloads) provides a framework to enable managers and professional leads to distinguish between talent and those consistently doing a great job day-to-day.

The Recognising Talent tool depicts 6 competencies which can be assessed as novice, professional or world class.

‘When recruiting, organisations traditionally focus on competencies, knowledge, skills and qualifications as these are generally easier to articulate, identify and measure. However, values, traits, behaviours and motivational drivers are equally - and in some cases more - important. While the competencies and knowledge provide valuable information and insight about an individual’s readiness for a particular role, traits and drivers help to reveal a person’s potential…’ (Kings Fund, 2015)

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (2015) published an article exploring the behavioural science of recruitment and selection, outlining ways in which harnessing knowledge about how we actually behave can help those engaged in recruitment to improve outcomes for organisations. The report explores ways to attract candidates best suited to the job and the organisation’s broader needs; the use of key selection and assessment tools, and the biases and errors of judgement that may occur when using these tools; and the experience of the candidate during the recruitment process, including the impact of stress and the knock-on effects of the candidate experience on the employer brand.

Professional Bodies

There are a number of professional bodies whose approaches and resources you may wish to consider when recruiting and selecting talent.

• The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is Europe’s largest human resources (HR) and development professional body, supporting and developing those responsible for the management and development of people within organisations. The aim of the CIPD is to drive sustained organisation performance through HR, shaping thinking, leading practice and building capability within the profession.
• The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) is the leading body representing the information professions. It supports its members by supporting the development of skills, knowledge and excellence. They provide unity through shared values and advocate on behalf of the information professions.
• The Federation for Informatics Professionals (FEDIP) in Health and Social Care, is a collaboration between the leading professional bodies in health and care informatics supporting the development of the informatics profession. The federation brings individuals and organisations together to establish professional standards in health informatics and maintain a public register of experienced practitioners - offering greater confidence to employers, clients, colleagues, government and the wider society, both UK and overseas. The institutions licensed to award FEDIP offer their members registration at 4 levels (Practitioner, Senior Practitioner, Advanced Practitioner, Leading Practitioner) dependent on the competence, knowledge and experience of the applicant in the field of health informatics

Recruiting using Social media

Organisations are increasingly using social media and networking as a means of attracting and recruiting talented individuals into posts. Use the following resources to get some ideas about use social media to improve recruitment.

• Getting social media recruitment right HR Magazine 2015.
• The JobVite UK Social Media Recruitment Survey.
• Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) Considerations for social media recruiting.

The development needs of talented individuals can be met in a variety of different ways and are not limited to formal training courses. Our ’60 Ways to Develop’ guide gives an insight into the approaches you may wish to consider.

Read the 60 ways to develop guide.

It is important to match development to an individual’s learning style to maximise the effectiveness of the development intervention. Honey and Mumford (1982) developed a learning styles questionnaire which is widely used.

It may be that those who are identified through the talent management process are deployed outside their library and information role to deploy their talents most effectively. Considering opportunities for secondments, ‘acting-up’ into more senior roles or becoming part of project teams or task and finish groups can ensure that individuals’ talents are deployed effectively across organisations and systems.

There are 5 factors which contribute to retaining talented staff in the NHS according to Brook (2015)[5]. These are to:

•  focus on strengths
•  appreciate employees
•  connect with employees
•  allow employees to make meaningful contributions
•  build a positive, motivational work culture

Leadership development may positively encourage talented employees to remain in their post and sector and with the organisation. Some librarians and knowledge specialists may be able to access leadership training within their healthcare organisation. Meanwhile, the NHS Leadership Academy offers a range of programmes. CILIP members and members of other professional bodies will be able to access training through these bodies of NHS library and knowledge staff will have access to the national continuing professional development (CPD) programme.

The knowledge and library services lead for your geography will also be able to advise.

The development needs of talented individuals can be met in a variety of different ways and are not limited to formal training courses. Our ’60 Ways to Develop’ guide gives an insight into the approaches you may wish to consider:

Download the 60 ways to develop guide.

Listen to the 60 ways to develop podcast.

Contact the Knowledge for Healthcare team via emailing [email protected] for the guide in an accessible format.

It is important to match development to an individual’s learning style to maximise the effectiveness of the development intervention. Honey and Mumford (1982) developed a learning styles questionnaire which is widely used.

It may be that those who are identified through the talent management process are deployed outside their library and information role to deploy their talents most effectively. Considering opportunities for secondments, ‘acting-up’ into more senior roles or becoming part of project teams or task and finish groups can ensure that individuals’ talents are deployed effectively across organisations and systems. Further suggestions can be found in the ’60 Ways to Develop’ guide which is part of this resource.

Once a talent management conversation has taken place, use the talent conversation evaluation for to reflect and evaluate the talent conversation. The talent management discussion review section of the evaluation form can be used to identify actions which can feed into the individual’s personal development plan.