A Practical Guide for Talent Professionals
The Past, Present and Future of Predicting and Promoting Workplace Positivity and Productivity
This book will provide objective and practical insights to help understand and navigate the increasingly complex and dynamic galaxy of assessments available to people managers and talent professionals. It will also review the evolution of occupational testing, analyze the current challenges and opportunities and look forward to new approaches, tools and protocols to enable the employers and employees of the future to thrive. The book will also assess and evaluate the opportunities and threats afforded by new technological tools, such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Virtual Reality and indeed the entire “metaverse” and how they relate to the future of talent assessments more generally. Most importantly, it will aim to cut through the HR jargon, outdated myths and hackneyed industry cliches to establish an authentic and pragmatic guide to using assessments as a means to realize the full potential of our collective human potential.
Since commencing writing this book, the world of work has been fundamentally disrupted by the advent and spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. This revolution is ongoing and the full implications are not fully understood at present. Clearly it has accelerated some of the evolutions already underway due to the adoption of new technology at work under the umbrella term of the “fourth industrial revolution”.
Some industries may never be the same again and some jobs have disappeared forever or become unrecognizable overnight. Working remotely has become the new norm for many and the implications for positivity, productivity, collaboration, innovation, customer experience, social and environmental sustainability are not yet fully crystallized.
The aftershocks on how our cities operate, commercial real estate and globalization are still being worked through, although the implication for our talent landscapes are also undergoing tectonic shifts. The role of formal education to generate knowledge, competence and confidence was already being challenged and this has exposed less flexible and rewarding methods of learning provision across all modalities. How we attract, retain, engage, develop and recognize talent is open to new approaches and methodologies, challenging the continued relevance of anachronistic “best practices” more associated with the early to mid-twentieth centuries than our current challenges and opportunities of the mid twenty-first century.
Operating at the confluence of the latest organizational psychology, data science insights and the forefront of technology, Mercer Talent Enterprise offers assessment tools and solutions which promote more meaningful, positive and productive working lives. Our unique combination of innovative assessments, delivered through our flexible and immersive Lighthouse platform by our team of organizational psychologists, builds self awareness, delivers better career decisions and promotes labor market efficiency for all involved in the world of work.
David Jones (April 2023)
