Talent Predictions for 2015

2015 will be the year of agile innovation, agile learning and agile careers.

Speed will be the single largest determinant of success in 2015. Whatever you do, do it fast seems to be the mantra in an impatient world. Agility in responding to customer needs. Speed to market will matter more than ever. Businesses will have to deal with increasing levels of complexity in the race to grab market share. Such business environments demand people who have deep expertise and who can continue to learn by listening to early signals. Agile innovators will demolish the slow and unsure to grab their market share. Here are three predictions in the talent landscape that 2015 will see.1. Rise of the specialists: As markets get more fragmented, the need for creating niche products and services will raise the demand for specialists. This will mean creating more specialist career tracks. Millennials like to experiment. They are bored with routine. Providing global careers will be a great way to attract and retain talent. With millennials as a growing percentage of the workforce, expect to see specialists in managing millennial careers. 2. Grow your own talent: When firms operate in a volatile and ambiguous environment, they cannot rely on buying out talent. No matter who is hired, the person will need to learn and reinvent himself or herself continuously. Many millennials are products of an education system that is lagging behind the pace of the real world. The need to make them employable will increase. Firms will need to develop a culture of mentoring as the ever changing business environment renders many experienced employees unable to rely on the past for guidance. The learning & development department will be a major source of competitive advantage. 3. Sunrise sectors: The early days of the IT & ITES industry saw many innovations in talent management. They were forced to take bets on people who were not a hundred percent ready. They hired people with unconventional backgrounds. This led to the development of untried career paths that traditional employers hesitated to craft. History repeats itself. In B Schools and engineering colleges, the buzzword this year is eCommerce. As the impatient millennials join this sector in droves, they will force employers to create agile careers that look more like a series of projects.The rising eCommerce sector now has enough critical mass to experiment with new talent management practices. They have the advantage that only a novice can have. They are not burdened by convention. 2015 will be their year to chart new practices of talent management.What is your prediction for this year in the talent management arena?Read what others have predicted about Talent in 2015  in The Economic Times dt 13 Jan 2015----------------Join me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduri