Start Finding Overlooked Talent – Coaching for Leaders

Johnny Taylor, Jr.: Reset

Johnny Taylor, Jr. is President and CEO of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management. Johnny is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors a weekly column, “Ask HR,” in USA Today.

Johnny was chairman of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and served as a member of the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board during the Trump Administration. He is the author of the new book Reset: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval*.

In this conversation, Johnny and I highlight the current challenges in discovering talent and the populations that have been historically overlooked. We discuss what SHRM’s research and experience are showing to help leaders make better decisions on finding talent. Plus, we explore how to best handle incentives, so that we create the kind of culture that we will value inside our organizations.

Key Points

Both line managers in organizations and human resource professionals agree: finding a deep enough talent pool is a big problem.
Historically, attracting overlooked talent felt right, but may not have been essential to be competitive. Those times are ending for most organizations.
Studies show that organizations who discover talent in older workers, differently abled workers, veterans, the formerly incarcerated, people of color, and LGBTQ populations see positive, long-term results.
The incentives for finding overlooked talent often are transactional. To ensure sustainability, leaders must establish this as a value in their organizations.