Why organizations need a holistic talent partner

Closing the potential talent gap

All organizations face distance between where they are today and where they need to be to succeed. At Korn Ferry, we refer to this distance as the ‘potential gap’.

Partnering with a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) provider can help close this gap, provide a solution for complex talent needs and create an agile organization, ready to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.

Jan Mueller of Korn Ferry RPO’s global leadership team unpacks below what a holistic talent approach involves and reviews several successful cases where these RPO solutions have been implemented.

The value of a holistic talent approach

The potential gap cannot be closed by tinkering around the edges of your recruitment process. Mueller argues that organizations can gain much more value through a holistic talent approach to people strategy, including the application of robust talent science.

To Mueller, a holistic talent strategy is made possible through Korn Ferry’s unique four-tiered business model: “We are the only firm that is an organizational consultancy, a talent management firm, a talent acquisition firm and a digital technology firm. We bring together the knowledge and insights from all four lines of business into our solutions, partner with clients to develop and execute a holistic talent strategy, then work closely with them to explore and assess their current and future state approach to talent.”

Korn Ferry’s approach to talent is based on 40 years of experience and talent science, underpinned by unrivaled data to achieve results for clients. These insights are leveraged by working together with clients to create a holistic talent journey, encompassing everything from internal talent mobility and development to external acquisition.

How Korn Ferry created a comprehensive talent journey for a global pharmaceutical company

Korn Ferry recently developed a European RPO solution for a large global pharmaceutical company. The client wanted to understand its potential gap by benchmarking the organization, its leaders and individuals against Korn Ferry’s best-in-class Success Profiles. Using data to clearly define what ‘good’ looks like for every role, Korn Ferry and the client were able to envision what the best possible team should look like for the company.

This foundation was then used to create a holistic talent approach incorporating internal mobility, external talent acquisition, talent assessment and ongoing talent development.

Implementing an end-to-end approach delivered game-changing outcomes that would not have been possible if any one aspect of the talent strategy had been addressed in isolation.

How to support organizations with complex talent needs

Complex talent situations – such as those that exist in global organizations – require a robust and agile RPO strategy, a unique solution and highly specific industry knowledge.

Mueller stresses that any RPO provider that attempts to roll out a "one-size-fits-all" solution will fail to understand the holistic talent challenges unique to each organization.

“At Korn Ferry, we have people all across the globe – recruiters, advisory professionals, organizational consultants, executive search experts – who can reflect the local requirements”, he says. “We bring in the innovation and best practice and partner closely with clients to address their immediate and future needs. We are able to go deep into the organization, then systematically roll out a very clear process and structure that is agile enough to take these local specificities into account and future-proof any solution.”

The case of a global technology firm: rebuilding the plane while flying

Korn Ferry partnered with a global technology firm that sought a solution for managing 5,000+ hires per year across all continents. The client’s existing approach to talent acquisition was a combination of internal TA and no fewer than seven RPO providers. In addition, they wanted to implement a new Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

Faced with this complex environment and an organization with a disconnected approach to talent across geographies, Korn Ferry took the following steps:

• Completed a deep diagnosis + helicopter view of the client's current state of talent
• Worked with client teams across functions and geographies to jointly pinpoint their strategic direction and the changes that would be required to get there
• Redesigned the strategy and all global holistic talent acquisition processes
• Used Korn Ferry’s success profiles to match against the existing job architecture. The client had its own competency model but wanted the additional value and insights Korn Ferry could bring based on its talent science
• Supported the ATS rollout together with the client

“The client was awesome,” says Mueller. “Together, we built a completely new approach to talent acquisition, rebuilt the plane while it was flying and didn’t miss a beat. This is how you achieve success in these complex organizations: by digging deep, understanding their needs and being absolutely clear together about where you want to go.”

Helping organizations keep pace with an ever-changing business landscape

Across every sector, organizations are needing to rethink their processes and adapt to a constant state of change. New ways of working have led to an increasingly complex and dynamic talent environment that impacts every level of the organization.

“That’s why there’s a growing need for a talent partner that can think, strategize and innovate holistically; at a whole-of-business level,” says Mueller. “Talent partners must be able to understand how businesses change, along with what good looks like and how this has to adapt in a changing world. They must have the technology to enable talent mobility, talent management and talent acquisition strategies and should know how to bring all that together to get the best talent outcomes while reacting flexibly to changing client needs.”

Industrial clients: Redefining the talent landscape in a period of rapid change

Korn Ferry’s clients in the industrial space are currently going through a period of intense change, driven by Industry 4.0, the Cloud, IoT, Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) and other transformational trends.

With the goal of reinventing itself to become a more agile organization, a major industrial player engaged Korn Ferry to redefine what the future needed to look like in its workforce and attract profiles it had never hired before.

Korn Ferry helped clarify which profiles the client really needed and advised how to change the approach to holistic talent acquisition to attract cutting-edge digital professionals and integrate them into the organization’s culture. Importantly, processes were also put in place that would help the whole organization learn from its new digitally savvy talent.

Korn Ferry enabled this industrial organization not only to adapt to change, but to thrive in this dynamic environment and prepare for the future by helping it rethink, redefine and rebuild its talent acquisition strategies.

For more information on RPO solutions, get in touch

Transformation is constant and however you evolve, Korn Ferry has a solution to grow with you. Learn more about Korn Ferry’s holistic RPO approach and discover how to close the potential gap, create a solution for complex talent needs and build the flexibility needed to adapt your talent strategy in a period of rapid change.