This article 21st-Century Talent Spotting, which was written by Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, explains the evolution and changes that have taken place in the world of employment. The purpose of this article is to give a description of how, in ancient days, employers made choices based on the physical attributes of candidates. The attributes, however, become irrelevant with time, but sometimes they are used unconsciously. This later moved to the second era, where employers were more interested in intelligence, experience, and past performance records. Currently, it is in the third era where employers are more focused on a candidate’s competency before offering a job.
The article also has tried to look at other aspects that need to be met for an employer to be more productive. Some terminologies have been used to describe different aspects. The first is talent spotting, which is an organization’s ability to identify and nurture talents. When the company gets new employees, it will bring new talents, which will bring a big difference that will make the company competitive in the market (Fernández-Aráoz, 2015). The second is smart retention, this means an organization should focus on keeping its employees, because competitors may attempt to poach them away. Lastly, stretch development has also been used, which means that a firm should ensure the employees live up to their full potential. This can be done by offering development opportunities to move them out of their comfort zones.
From the article, it is evident that most companies have an established program that helps them identify employees. Through these programs, they can track the promising people who will serve as managers or be given promotions. They can use records of previous performance and assume that the performance will be the same even in the future. Through this, it is possible to identify potential by looking at the motivation of a candidate and the commitment to pursuing unselfish goals. (Fernández-Aráoz, 2015). Commitment is considered because of its stability and its unconscious quality. The article’s author proposed that if one wants to know if the employee has potential, it can be checked by mining personal and professional history. Through in-depth interviews and career discussions, one can demonstrate whether the person has or lacks the qualities needed.
The practical implication of this article is that it is harder to ascertain the potential than competence. This will cause most organizations to face the toughest employment markets in history, affecting the employers, not the employees. There have been reports of high unemployment rates across the world, and the forces of advancement in globalization, demographics, and pipelines will make the situation even harder (Fernández-Aráoz, 2015). Managers can use the information from this article to improve their organization. The managers will use the insights given in this article on the world of employment to help them get top talents to their organization. For instance, the article states that when choosing a senior member, most candidates always have the necessary credentials. Therefore, according to this article, they should call for an assessment of motivation, determination, and other important considerations.
My opinion is that it is very true that the world is moving so fast. With the change in technology, most routine work has been simplified. This has even made the qualities employers seek in candidates to also change. An employer will prefer a candidate who has some knowledge to do with technology. From this reading, I was surprised that it was possible for an organization to find a good candidate with qualifications, but later after hiring, the individual’s potential does not match with the qualification.
One could be wondering how the future of the job market will be. Following the insight given that the market will change so drastically to an extent it will be harder to navigate. This is because employers should change their strategy and look at the potential of a candidate, not the current qualification. Also, since technology has been impressive, how will employers adopt it and start to impress it even in identifying the best candidate?
Reference
Fernández-Aráoz, C. (2015). 21st-century talent spotting. Harvard Business Review. Web.