Our growth as a business is dependent on the talent and ability of our managers to deal with not only present challenges but also future ones. For us, recruiting is more than just finding the right skills for a particular job. It is a matter of finding the kind of talent that has an innate ability to learn and which copes well with change.
Great talents are always keen to learn. They work hard to keep their professional or technical knowledge up to date, and are always seeking ways to build on what they already know.
A win-win proposition for talent
Learning at Bekaert combines the efforts of employees, their supervisors and the business organization as a whole. For the employee, we have already highlighted the personal drive to learn as one of the five critical skills we look for in people. Recently, we have been placing increasing emphasis on the role of the manager as coach. A good manager creates the space and trust so that individuals can learn, or gives them responsibility as a means of motivating his team members.
A good coach must give each team member continuously honest, but supportive feedback. These days, management teams review talent development and career progression as part of their regular business reviews. With their input, we can provide training initiatives which are more focused and responsive to individual professional needs. Management teams around the globe now see the development of their talent pool as a way to grow the business.