Instead of treating a workforce as a single monolithic entity, why not treat each and every employee as a “workforce of one“?

That was the question posed by David Smith, the global managing director of talent and organization performance at Accenture, No. 22 in The 2010 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^®, at DiversityInc’s Nov. 8 diversity learning event in Washington, D.C. The one-size-fits-all approach is fast becoming obsolete when it comes to managing talent and engaging today’s increasingly diverse workforce, he says.

To attend DiversityInc’s March 2–3 event, featuring New York Times Columnist Frank Rich, Ernst & Young Chairman and CEO Jim Turley and others, click here.

To be competitive as the weak economy starts to regain its footing, companies need to understand and respond to the needs of their individual employees.

“We are all realizing that no single rule set, no single way, can meet every single individual in this room, every single individual in your department, every single individual in your organization,” said Smith.

Smith said changing demographics and increased diversity are driving this change, along with a shortage of qualified workers and “more complex knowledge work in which jobs are increasingly difficult to standardize.”

Based on Accenture’s comprehensive study of more than 100 companies, Smith identified some ways organizations can take a more individualized approach to talent management and treat each employee as a “workforce of one.”

Just as marketing professionals have mastered the art of dissecting consumer populations for decades, companies can segment their workforces into discrete groups that share similar characteristics, he said.

According to the Accenture study, “advances in business intelligence and analytics have spurred a revolution in how companies are segmenting their workforces; companies are now creatively grouping their employees on such varying dimensions as learning styles, values, personality, wellness profiles, mobility, behavioral patterns, and even networking and communication styles.”

“Segmentation is a common technique used by marketing professionals in your organization to think about your customers, your customers’ values, your customers’ motivations, so the question is, ‘Can I apply those same concepts to my employee base?’” Smith said. “Your employees are your customers as well.”

Smith said progressive companies are offering their employees a predetermined list of organizationally defined options that enable workers to customize their work experience. He said some companies have also unbundled standard job descriptions and have broken them down into smaller tasks that can then be reconfigured in numerous ways by the individual, based on interest and skill.

For example, take Skyline Construction, a San Francisco–based builder, where eligible employees can pick their own salaries—within a certain range—choosing between lower salaries and a shot at a larger bonus, and higher salaries and the possibility of a smaller bonus, he says.

Companies create rules that are broad and simple and they can be interpreted in many different ways by workers or managers. Smith used the example of Minnesota-based retailer Best Buy that “eliminated time and place.” “No longer do you have to go [to a place] to do your work,” he said. “It’s results- and outcome-driven, and you will be measured on that.”

Smith says this change—eliminating time and place—has resulted in a 35 percent improvement in productivity and a nearly 50 percent reduction in employee turnover.

According to the Accenture study, “data analysis done jointly by Best Buy and Gallup reveals that helping people play to their strengths effectively doubles the rate of increase of employee engagement. This makes a dramatic difference in Best Buy’s financials, since each 0.10 increase in engagement (on a five-point scale) is worth an estimated $100,000 in incremental profit per store, per year.”