The post-pandemic world has seen talent play a crucial role in enabling companies to stay ahead of the curve. Critically, companies with access to the right talent and technology could remain relevant and productive during the pandemic. For many, growth and recovery after years of tumultuous business environment now lay on the shoulders of their talent. 

A similar sentiment was echoed by Sandeep Chaudhary, CEO, PeopleStrong, leading a fireside chat on 'The future of managing talent' with Jason Averbook, CEO & Co-founder, Leapgen. The conversation was part of 'HR Tech 4.0: Driving the Talent Economy', an HR virtual conference hosted by PeopleStrong and People Matters.

"It isn't the lack of capital but the lack of talent that threatens the growth of the top companies today," Sandeep noted. By recognising the role of talent in their growth story, companies can better address their people strategies to acquire, retain, mentor, and skill their talent. 

Focus on employee experience

One of the significant shifts is looking at talent management practices from an employee experience lens to understand how such practices are designed and executed. 

The future is dependent on companies having the right talent now. This means companies have to pay close attention to employee engagement. And experience is the cornerstone towards driving that change.

For Jason, this shift in focus on experience stems from the "need to be felt at their workplace". 

'What employees need to feel today is that they're in a trusted place; they need to feel safe and feel they can bring their best selves to work,' he noted. This remains at the root of transforming talent management practices focused on employee experience. 

Addressing organisational culture is an imperative

The panellists agreed on how companies need to evolve their work culture to build strong employee-centric talent practices. "Many companies are still in a manufacturing economy culture," noted Jason, "where the machines matter more than people.' In some ways, companies still treat employees as an afterthought to their machines and processes. This leads them to ideate at the macro level, looking at general trends, headcount reports etc., to make talent decisions. There is no personalised attention given to the employee or their experience within the company.” 

Talent is a key partner in the organisation's success. With the rise of the knowledge economy, there is a shift in how companies treat their employees. This is a culture where companies pay close attention to how they make their employees feel valued and important. Or, as Jason puts it, 'it's a shift from counting people to making people count.'

Jason added that this mindset is not necessarily bound by geography. Rather, it remains a cultural problem that remains widespread. addressing it would be key to building employee-centric talent practices that empower the employees

Technology should add value to the employee.

Technological advancement in the form of Software as a service (SaaS) has been able to bring capabilities closer to employees and managers. Never has it been easier to provide the employee with a robust talent management system that addresses their skill needs, keeps them engaged, and contributes to their career growth. It also empowers managers and leaders to enable their employees to be achievers. And employees have welcomed this shift with open arms. 

"This trend is across Southeast Asia and India where young people are becoming more comfortable using cloud-based solutions to build capabilities", noted Sandeep.

Today, however, there remains a gap in technological developments and their talent applications. 'Today, the technology we're exposed to outside of work has completely changed our expectations of how we expect to operate inside our organisations," explained Jason. "Technology platforms like PeopleStrong helps put tool and capabilities back in the hands of employees, managers, and leaders in a relevant and impactful way." 

When talent management practices are quickly becoming outdated, many require technology to enable employees to be better at work. "They should add value. Technology should make their work easier, bring better capabilities, and ensure work is done smoothly and efficiently," noted Jason. But to make technology truly beneficial for employees, they need to add value not just to the HR but also to the employees.

Get access to all of the event recording sessions and hear from over 14 global thought leaders as they share about how HR technology plays the centre stage in transforming employee experience and building people-centric workplaces for the modern talent economy.

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About PeopleStrong

PeopleStrong is Asia Pacific's leading and the most comprehensive Human Capital Management SaaS platform. PeopleStrong tech capabilities span across the employee lifecycle from hire to exit, including Human Capital Management, Payroll, Talent Acquisition & Management, and Collaboration. 

PeopleStrong has simplified work life for over 500+ large enterprises across the emerging economies of Asia Pacific. Today, PeopleStrong empowers the lives of 2M+ employees with a mobile-first, AI & ML-powered talent operating system. 

PeopleStrong is rated among the Top 5 in the Asia Pacific on Gartner Peer Insights and named Customers' Choice of HR Tech for 1000+ employee enterprises in the Gartner' Voice of the Customer' Report.