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How Having the Right Talent, Culture and Talent Optimization in Kenya Culture Enables Transformation

How Having the Right Talent, Culture and Talent Optimization in Kenya Culture Enables Transformation

by | May 19, 2022 | 1 comment

Corporate transformation necessitates flexibility, business acumen, and the ability to solve complicated problems. Without the right talent and corporate culture, driving business transformation is more challenging than ever. The current corporate environment is unique in its unpredictability. Automation, artificial intelligence, and digitization are transforming business models at unprecedented rates. Factor in the pandemic, hybrid work, and constantly shifting worker expectations, and you’ve got a real navigational issue for business leaders aiming for positive corporate transformation. However, when a business properly manages both its talent and culture, the interaction between the two can produce a virtuous cycle that sparks innovation and enables transformation. Creating the right talent, culture and talent optimization in Kenya and East Africa in general to manage change is, however, not an easy task. According to a global survey by McKinsey, executives said that culture and talent are among the top three most significant challenges to corporate transformations. Let’s take a deeper look into corporate transformation and the role that talent and culture play in it.

What is Corporate Transformation?

what is corporate transformation

Simply put, corporate transformation is the process of fundamentally altering an organization’s processes, people, systems, and technologies.

According to a Deloitte report titled Thinking Big with Business, “transformation today revolves around the need to generate new value—to unlock new opportunities, to drive new growth, and to deliver new efficiencies.”

All corporate transformations call for rethinking how your company generates value now and in the future. As a business leader or manager, you will have to think big when it comes to transformation. Incremental improvements are just not enough to win in today’s highly competitive and disruptive corporate world.

The Opportunity for Talent Management

To survive and thrive in today’s corporate environment, business leaders and companies must recognize the crucial strategic importance of having the right change agents and culture to steer transformation.

Forward-thinking business leaders and companies know that corporate transformation is inherently about having systems that enable them to acquire, develop, and deploy agents around the corporate transformation agenda.

Such leaders and their companies have agile talent management systems that encourage a growth mindset. Transformational talent management removes the stifling effects of common well-intentioned but outdated management processes.

Remember, transformational success is largely dependent on how well an organization can identify and implement growth opportunities, and unleashing talent to create more value for customers. To this end, companies must adopt agile talent management systems and cultures to facilitate corporate transformation.

Acquiring the Right Talent and Developing Transformational Culture

acquiring the right talent

Below is an exploration of several practices that companies can consider to attract, hire, and retain the right talent while also developing the right culture for corporate transformation.

#1- Find the Right Leadership Talent

To enable corporate transformation, you need strong change managers who can affect major shifts and shape how work gets done. The right leaders can use their reputation and networks to help organizations attract exceptional talent. Since leadership can make or break corporate transformation, companies should invest extra time in evaluating and pursuing them.

To attract strong leaders, companies must also offer them entrepreneurial and creative freedom to shape the organization.  Organizations must also free up top talent to support transformation rather than tying them up in near-term corporate objectives.

To achieve transformational ambitions, organizations must be ready to invest significantly in hiring the right leaders. The return on this investment is often directly proportional to the caliber of people in charge of transformation programs.

You might have to hire a dedicated transformation leader. Piling transformation leadership responsibilities on top of a manager’s regular duties can negatively affect their effectiveness in both roles.

The right change leader must possess a mixture of competencies in leadership and business. Although each organization must define the specific competencies it requires, here are some key competencies that a transformation leader must have:

  • Leadership competencies: Judgment, decision-making, strategic mindedness,change management, and collaboration.
  • Business competencies: Analytical thinking, agility, business acumen, and systems-thinking ability

“To achieve transformational ambitions, organizations must be ready to invest significantly in hiring the right leaders. The return on this investment is often directly proportional to the caliber of people in charge of transformation programs.”

#2- Lean into Hybrid Systems

hybrid working for corporate transformation

As employees adjust to returning to the office, it’s clear that in most industries, some level of remote work is here to stay. Many organizations will have to adopt hybrid schedules—which increases the need for teams to hone their collaboration and project management skills.

Here are some tips for a successful transition to hybrid working models:

Create clear policies and procedures: Create policies and procedures that make the shift to hybrid working easier for your employees. This could require starting from scratch or revising an existing flexible working policy.

Update employment contracts: Moving to hybrid working models will necessitate a formal change of terms and conditions of employment at your company. Make sure to update employment contracts accordingly.

Use collaborative working tools: Adopt collaboration tools such as Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace, and Microsoft Teams to improve team communication and collaboration.

Invest in technology: For your team to work seamlessly, make sure that even those working from home have the right equipment for productivity.

With hybrid working models, flexibility is key—there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to it. To effectively enable transformation, organizations will have to design and adopt a hybrid system that fits their needs.

#3- Enable a Culture of Continuous Learning

Continuous learning should be at the core of a corporate culture that supports transformation. In the ever-changing corporate environment, there’s a growing need to upskill and reskill existing employees to close the skills gap.

Building a culture of continuous learning starts with hiring the right people. In your hiring processes, look for curious people who will be open to trying out new things and seeking out new solutions.

Fortunately, the ubiquity of always-connected mobile devices makes it easier for people to learn from anywhere. Employees can take online courses, search expert YouTube videos or podcasts, and read relevant blog posts to quickly learn any desired skill.

Many employees also recognize that the learning curve is closely related to the earning curve. With access to learning materials and tools and the support of their management, they’re willing to pursue learning opportunities that fit their needs and schedules. Business leaders and managers who recognize and support this self-directed learning will enable corporate transformation at all levels.

“Fortunately, the ubiquity of always-connected mobile devices makes it easier for people to learn from anywhere. Employees can take online courses, search expert YouTube videos or podcasts, and read relevant blog posts to quickly learn any desired skill.”

Ready for Action?

Corporate transformation isn’t easy—it takes time, consistent effort, and strategic planning. Having the right talent and building a culture that supports growth, however, goes a long way in enabling transformation.

Equipping your change agents with the knowledge, skills, and tools to drive successful corporate transformation is a crucial part of the process.

Cedar Africa Group is here to support you every step of the way. We can help you attract and hire the right people, develop them with targeted training and retain them with bespoke engagement strategies.

Whether you are a transformation leader, people manager, change champion, or project team member we have a development program specifically for you.

Check out our catalog of programs and services and equip yourself or your organization with the competencies required for corporate transformation.

1 Comment

  1. Dmoi

    Very good article

    Reply

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