The document discusses how employers can win the talent challenge of the 4th Industrial Revolution by radically rethinking how they harness talent. A survey found that graduates prioritize work-life balance, career progression opportunities, and the ability to make an impact. The top tips discussed are leveraging unique employee skills through strength-based thinking rather than weaknesses, lifelong learning, reverse mentoring to foster cross-generational understanding, collaborative spaces to drive innovation, using empowering language, and making talent a strategic focus by understanding what young people want from their work. Winning requires a new approach to talent to attract and retain creative employees.

1. Master Class:
Winningthe
4th Industrial RevolutionTalent
Challenge
Sunita Malhotra,
CEMSMIMlecturer atUniversiteCatholiqueLouvain,Belgiumand
ManagingDirector atPeople Insights

2. The challenge
Ifemployers hope to create anagile culturethat will set them apart, theywill
need to radicallyrethinkhow to harness suchtalent beyond thetraditional
approach from the first Industrial Revolution.
A globalsurveyofCEMSgraduateshasfoundthattheopportunityforgoodworklifebalancewas
ratednearlyasimportantassalarywhenconsideringanewrole.Opportunitiesforquickcareer
progressionandthechance tomakeanimpactatan earlystagewerealsohighonthelist.Crucially,
theseare futureleaders,andtheyhaveadesiretocreateinfluenceand impactquickly,ona global
scale.
Here are thetop 6 tips to respond to the 2019
TalentChallenge…

3. 1. Leverage your
employees unique skills
Traditionally,companieshavemeasuredperformancebasedonstrengtheningperceivedweaknesses.
However, some companies arenow experimentingwith lookingat performance
ina totally different way using strength-based thinking.
Everyonehastalentand itis possibletodevelopthestrengthsofeachindividual,bylookingatthethings
theyaregoodat,ratherthanthethingstheystrugglewith.

4. 2. Lifelong learning
Innovativecompaniesaremoving awayfromtraditionaltrainingprogramsandmaking
development a continuous process: involving coaching, mentoring, on the
job trainingand communitylearning,even at the earliest stage.
Thismightalsoinclude ‘learningcircles,’whereemployeeslearnfromeachotherbysharing
knowledgeandexperience.

5. 3. Develop a culture of
innovation: Reverse Mentoring
Therearesomebrilliantexamples wherecompanies – includingCEMSCorporatePartners-
arecreatinga cultureofinnovationtoget thebestoutoftheirtalent.
Forexample, reversementoring allowsCEOsandmore experiencedemployeesto
workcloselywithyoungergenerationstobuildtheirknowledgeoftechnology,socialmedia
andcurrenttrends.Youngergenerationsalsogaina moresolidunderstandingofstrategic
decisionmakingandfeelmorevaluedasemployees.
3. Develop a culture of innovation:
Reverse Mentoring
There aresome brilliant exampleswhere companies– including CEMS
Corporate Partners- are creating a culture of innovation to
get the best out of their talent.
For example, reversementoring allowsCEOsand more
experienced employeesto work closely with younger generationsto
build their knowledge of technology, social media and current trends.
Younger generationsalso gain a more solid understanding of strategic
decision making and feel morevalued asemployees.

6. 4. Develop a culture of
innovation: Collaborative Spaces
Collaborativespacesisanotherareawherecompaniescan developacultureofinnovation.
Thinktanks bring bright minds together, internal start-ups drive
growth, innovation funds unitecross-company teams to tackle
problems and hackathons challengeemployees to come up with
collective solutions.

7. 5. Develop a culture of
innovation: Leveraging language
Even thewaylanguageisusedcan triggerinnovation.Traditional words like
competition and winning - can be changedto help employees to focus
ina whole newway by “delighting customers”? Newjobtitlescan workina
similarway - curiositychampion,innovator- are titlesthatcan givepeopledifferent
structureand languagetobuildon thisdigitalandmillennial culture.

8. 6. Make the ‘Talent
Challenge’ a strategic
focus
Taking the talent challenge seriously is fundamental - successful organisations
arepaying attention towhat young people aresaying. All generations want to
findmeaning in their work so, organisations should be asking how
we can strategically put in place systems to
leverage those strengths andbring diverse groups ofpeople together toprovide
creative solutions.

9. Conclusion
Winning the fourth Industrial Revolution Talent
Challenge requires a radically newapproach.
Youmay feel that yourcompany is currentlymiles away from this vision, but
in2019the need for changeis impossible to ignore.
After all, youwouldn’t want yourcreative, talented employees, with their
boundless energyto end up working for your competitors.
So, ask yourself this year - areyou doing enough tomeet
the challenge?

10. About CEMS
Established in1988by four leading Europeanschools: ESADE, HEC Paris, Bocconi University andthe Universityof Cologne, CEMShas grown into Global
Alliance of 32leading business schools, nearly 70multinational companies and NGOs that together offer the CEMSMaster inInternational Management (MIM).
About the Author
Professor Sunita Malhotra teaches on the CEMS programmeat UniversiteCatholique Louvain, Belgium and is Managing Director at People Insights

11. info@cems.org | www.cems.org