Improving Company Profitability by Optimizing Talent Planning
Talent planning and management is the process of planning your staff training and development so that when you need to open three new stores, for example, you have 3 experienced managers to transfer into the new stores, three deputy managers ready to be promoted to replace the 3 being moved, three supervisors ready to be promoted to deputy managers and three sales associates or management trainees ready to be stepped up to supervisor roles. That’s 12 transfers and promotions to support one job role in just 3 new stores. But the new stores will also need deputies and supervisors, so the knock-on effect is large.
This is one objective of talent planning. Making sure you have enough people ready to make all these moves when needed. Of course, not every vacancy will get filled by promotions from within. Some will and should be filled from outside, so that the company gets injections of new blood who bring knowledge of how other companies do things. So, a level of outside recruitment should be mandatory, but the largest part should be internal promotions.
The ability and “system” to do this is one, but only one, significant aspect of upskilling and reskilling a company. If you are contemplating starting on this journey, you need to start with a well thought out pilot project focusing on a job role or roles that can deliver a big enough bang for the buck.
A good store manager taking over a less than average performance store can lift sales by 30%, even in times when company same store sales growth is 3% or 4%.
If upskilling effectively is important to your company, look out for an upcoming announcement on a free event that will provide a comprehensive success guide. Email Sue.ostler@martec-international.com and say “I’m interested” and we’ll send you more details when they are ready.-
Posted by Brian Hume
21st February 2025
