The race for attracting and retaining blockchain talent is on. An element that stands in the way of attracting and retaining high demand skills and capabilities, is using traditional talent practices built for a previous age: IT platforms and organizational dynamics.
The distributed economy demands pragmatic, evidence-informed yet light touch, resourceful co-creation and learning while experimenting with new models, such as distributed leadership and governance
What this means right now for talent and people development strategies in the digital world
To attract, recruit, onboard, retain and grow the blockchain generation, you need to differentiate your business from others by providing a work experience aligned to the values and expectations of the crypto community, their unique talent market, investors, and customers. This includes thinking about and planning for people strategies that will enable rapid business scaling and change using contemporary models and practices.
Research from the Centre of Positive Organizations indicates that positive leadership and organizations create extraordinary performance through positive climate, positive relationships, positive meaning and positive communications. This does not mean a business where the negative does not get addressed – in fact positive organizations enables organizations to deal more effectively with challenges. Gallup studies shows that positive leadership creates
- a more positive mood
- enhanced job satisfaction
- greater engagement
- improved performance
Applying 21st Century Talent and People Strategies are less costly, more flexible and generate better results
Creating a scalable, human-centered workplace will generate attractive work experiences and create a strong and committed leadership cohort and brand. Examples of new practices include:
- Letting go of old-school job descriptions and instead targeting individuals through matching their strengths with your organization’s strength profile and values. This will ensure better, socially diverse and targeted candidates are attracted and you achieve a higher retention rate. It also creates a better brand and competitive differentiation.
- Recruitment using strengths-based interviews while assessing core traits and experiences from a person’s past, capability – the abilities and technical skills that a person can do and capacity – the strengths, appetite and values that determine what a person would love to do (based on the high potential model from the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology).
- Designing and developing lean, smart and better ways of assessing people by letting go of personality tests that do not predict success. For example, developing a deep understanding of how to assess for motivation and identifying the genuine potential for success through virtual reality or deep learning tools will give you the edge.
- Applying strengths-based, realistic and high potential interviews, and combining it with an assessment of the past, the present and looking to the future, will help you to truly begin to understand a person and your teams’ potential (and areas for unique and customized growth).
- Creative on-boarding for you and your new team member to ensure a smooth integration and clear easy first 90 days customized guidance plan and action steps for team members as well as critical stakeholders, such as clients or investors. This will make a new person feel welcome and productive while you set them up for success.
- Designing your culture with neurosciences in mind to ensure your people are motivated and flourish. Using a behavioral science approach also increases individual, team and organizational awareness and improve decision making.
- Developing team member’s unique strengths to enable them to achieve their full potential, and embedding a strengths-development and solutions focused mindset for competitive advantages in not only talent retention but your growth and profitability.
- Designing management practices, compensation and reward approach aligned with unique talent segments in mind will help you retain the values and purpose your business is found upon. This means fair payment and a commitment to helping them grow their financial wellbeing so that they focus on the task at hand while being empowered to make a positive impact in the world.
- New team onboarding, alignment, and development plans, including team leadership development while working on projects and building your talent pipeline. This means truly valuing teams and cross-functional teamwork in particular virtual teamwork.
- Creating positive exit experiences when people leave the organization. This will promote your reputation and generate a network of loyal alumni.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” Shunryo Zuzuki