DEBATE: Can you truly nurture talent in a virtual office set up?
Tom Harvey, Managing Director of Spoke says No
While our team have done a brilliant job at home, won new clients and delivered great projects, home-working is no substitute for being together in person.
As a creative agency that delivers film, animation, design, illustration and photography, all of our work requires collaboration and a range of opinions. We’ve kept in touch with technology, but the best ideas come from passionate discussion. That’s hard when the call keeps cutting out.
New team members who have joined during the pandemic and others just starting out are missing valuable in-person learning. Being together, seeing how projects evolve and feeding off team experience is vital for developing skills. This cannot be replicated online. Learning also takes place outside the office, whether that’s talking while grabbing lunch or on the walk home.
While things will undoubtedly change – and in some cases for the better – there can be no substitute for being together, sharing ideas and working as a team to create something brilliant.
Rupert Morrison, author, economist and CEO of orgvue says Yes
Nurturing talent in a virtual environment doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of having the right data, being deliberate and showing discipline.
First, the data. What’s each role in your business trying to achieve? What are the skills and competencies required? It’s this that informs what you’re nurturing, be it behaviours, generic business skills or technical skills, and therefore how to approach learning and development.
The onus is then on business leaders to be deliberate about their use of this data by carving out the time to plug their teams’ skills gaps. Virtually nurturing talent is the result of knowing which competencies should be honed, matching them to the person most skilled in that area, and setting time aside to provide the right level of coaching and guidance.
The final part? Discipline. Skills are developed over time through consistent application. Nurturing talent and plugging the skills gap isn’t and shouldn’t be a one-off.