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Published September 2007

Optimizing Talent While Managing Growth and Change

Tim Shell

 

According to research, most companies look to technology to achieve organizational efficiency. New technology does not come with prepackaged, competent employees, however. To use technology to its fullest extent, talent managers must properly manage seven areas.

With the economy growing and changing the face of business today, most companies need to update their processes and applications fairly often.

As enterprise is at an all-time high and still expected to climb, companies are faced with the challenge of increasing profits while balancing the precarious need for innovation and efficiency.

As you walk the talent management tightrope, retaining and training new employees can be tricky. The phenomenal growth of commerce compels leading organizations to stay ahead of the curve by retraining and retooling their staff often. This provides a huge advantage over the competition. Organizations must exploit technology to remain a leader in their field.

In the Economist Intelligence Unit's study "CEO Briefing Corporate Priorities for 2007 and Beyond," the annual research routinely defines management challenges from the world's corporate leaders.

The latest study showed that a top-ranking concern is how in-house process-improvement and process-innovation initiatives are expected to be the most important way to lower costs within their organization in the next three years. Addressing process improvements at the same time as lowering administrative costs necessitates becoming as effective as possible at managing adaptation.

Pushing your company through these new levels of growth molds a more skilled workforce able to withstand the rapid adoption of new technologies, processes and strategies. As the Internet business practice has shown — and as new technologies grow — your workforce needs to be prepared to master these changes in business applications and software. Commanding a training system that implements the most expedient software adoption available is critical to success.

Expertus, a global learning outsourcing company, released a study in March titled "Training Administration & Operations." It found more than 70 percent of respondents overwhelmingly think the largest administrative efficiencies could be gained by upgrading technology.

Unfortunately, new technology does not come with prepackaged, competent employees. You must deduce the best ways to manage these new changes because rapid command of evolving technologies will help you win the race to becoming an effective, efficient organization.

Although smart executives focus on best practices relating to leveraging revenues, superior program management can accelerate technology rollouts and help overcome obstacles faced with a workforce resistant to change.