Talent Maximiser

What a bird told me about managing talent

I hope the recent HR feature on organisations failing to fill critical talent pipelines acts as a prompt to get organisations thinking about how they can use their existing staff to fill those critical but all too often, hard to recruit for roles. 

Obviously the article is promoting the use of talent management software to gather the necessary talent intelligence on critical talent roles, but it is not a pre requisite.  There are still many companies (even large ones) that spend time meeting with their managers and leaders to gather the information and store their insight in nothing more complicated than Excel.  There are pros and cons to both but that's for another blog posting!

Personally, I think it is great that organisations are being prompted as to importance for considering other ways, other than the obvious but arguable higher risk option of recruiting externally for hard to recruit talent.  It means all those individuals languishing within organisations who have more to give, are in need of a new challenge, feel trapped because of the economic climate, or simply want to develop in a new way stand a chance of being considered.

Employees are often not given the chances they seek because they are not performing well enough in their role to be considered high potentials, but what if that is down to the type of work they are doing?  In my experience of working with individuals who have derailed, or want to maximise their talents, in the majority of cases, they are not performing well because they are not playing to their strengths, or are in an environment that is conducive of success for them personally.  Tweak or change what they do, where they do it and watch them go from 'average' to 'exceeds'.

Organisations who want to change the "war for talent" paradigm into "an excess of talent" will take a longer look at who they have, what their aspirations are, their development needs and how they could be better deployed.  Maximising what you have is a much more efficient strategy for growing your talent pipelines then simply trying to grab it from somewhere else.  And as the old adage goes "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". 

Why TV and shopping can be good for female talent

I have just finished catching up on my TV viewing of the latest Mary Portas offering "Queen of Frocks", where she "defiantly redefin[es] middle age as the most desirable age bracket to be in".  She shows shop owners how to sell to this lucrative market, while providing an excellent female role model both for shoppers and organisations.

I love Mary Portas on a number of levels.  She makes great TV, she has taste, but most importantly because she gets how important people are, and the importance of their development. In her recent three part series, she is shown looking for people's strengths, she pushes, challenges and stretches people. She is a natural spotter of talent. What a great example of a leader (and dare I say in these pc times, a women too). Mary proved on her recent show that if you invest in your people (along with other key elements, such as knowing your customers) you will excel in meeting your business objectives.  In the world of fashion, where reportedly bitchiness often wins the day and at a time when the 30% Club are championing for more women leaders in the work place. Women (and organisations) would do well to take a good hard look at the great female role model that Mary Portas is shown to be.

Female leaders, what is your style?  Do you nurture and grow the talent that works with you, or do you seek to grind it into the ground? 

Organisation, what are you doing to ensure there are opportunities for your diverse talent to shine?  In our forthcoming book 'Innovative Talent Management' we have a great case study of how one organisation through their new approach to development, driven by business need, realised they had also created a genuine opportunity for female talent to release more of their potential.

New ways of training required to develop internal talent

 I recently read an article on HR morning that reported on a new study saying "some talent development programs could actually increase turnover rates," that immediately got my attention. Initially, I thought, this could be bad news for organisations seeking to develop their internal talent. But on reflection, I believe it should be used to provide the impetus and evidence for a move to a more appropriate and more sustainable model of development; and one that helps individuals to directly apply their learnings to their work.  

People are likely to move on whether they have professional development training or not, if it doesn't help them develop their career within in an organisation.  Traditionally, training courses have been about knowledge dissemination, so it's unfair to expect them to guarantee a person's future career development, or internal promotability. But, if the claim is against professional development that is delivered through 'on-the-job' training (in part or in its entirety) then it's more of a concern, but I expect not.

There are some exciting opportunities for the Learning and Development (L&D) functions to rethink how they provide solutions to meet the business needs and employees requirements.  Hard skill/professional knowledge training will probably still needed to be done as a traditional course, or an e-learning/m-learning module, (until we can get knowledge implants!), but for many other topics such a leadership, development planning, time management, strategic thinking, change management, there is a real opportunity to move to new models of learning that takes a more blended or bite sized approach to professional devlopment that crucially includes an experiential element.

For more examples of what is coming up in the world of L&D and how to use it to better harness talent, take a look at Paul Fairhurst's (Institute of Employment Studies) recent thought-leadership paper.

The power of an engagement conversation

Here is a comment I found by a women who wrote in response to a blog, detailing 6 reasons employees leave an organisation (@expresspros) that I really wanted to share with you.


"The above are all reasons that I am walking after 18 years - particularly the immediate supervisor. I have been rated in the high 90s consistently, receive national recognition and ignored recruitment attempts until this past year. I never thought I would leave my home but I can hardly wait."

She sounds like a talented individual who will be missed by her organisation.  Harvard Business Review's article (May 2010) 'how to keep your top talent' identified regular and open dialogues as being one critical component of a talent development programme, in order to monitor star employees' development and satisfaction. 

In the many years of working with managers on how they engage with their talent, I believe that many managers know the importance of having regular and open dialogue with their employees, but many don't.  Why not?

A key challenge is having a credible and purposeful reason for meeting with talent on a regular basis to discuss their engagement without it simply degenerating into a 'how are you getting on conversation' or worse 'what training do you want/need'.  Enquiring about the wellbeing of an individual and their development needs is important and needs to be asked, but not to the exclusion of a broader set of questions.  Such as the areas an individual rates as important for their workplace satisfaction vs how well the business is delivering them.  Managers often need the core skills, some hand holding, and a little push before they fully embraces the subtleties of holding an engagement conversation.  If not, then their employees are much more tempted to listen to the recruiters. 

Providing your managers with the skills and focal points to have an 'engagement' conversation with your employees is a simple process that is often underrated and under used but provides a real opportunity to maximise value from the managing of your talent.

Everyone can benefit:

• The act of having an engagement conversations in itself, helps an individual to feel more engaged
• Employees are waiting (and wanting) to have these conversations and once done they will be willing to give more of their discretionary effort
• Managers will be given insights that only come from showing a genuine interest and focusing on areas that the individual flags as important
• Employees feel valued and are more likely to stay, which frees everyone from the grind and expense of constantly recruiting

Tips - to maximise talent management - part 4

Following on from my previous posts, explaining how to go about maximising the value from talent management initiatives, here is the fourth and final 2.5 areas to consider:

Confirm the development delivers - does the development initiatives stretch or cosset? Tip - give identified talent real business issues to address and or put into critical roles, even if they are operating in a shadow capacity.  Often the talent pool are given additional responsibilities or projects to help them grow and profile their talent, but they are overly engineered to ensure very little chance of failure.  They need to experience a challenge first hand and embed the learning to carry the lesson.  It is a fine and difficult tight rope to walk, in terms of getting the right amount of feedback and on-going coaching and mentoring support.  But if they are given too much when they come off the 'spoon fed' programme, if it is not replaced with something else they feel abandoned and they are actually not able to think for themselves in any significantly different way, leading to demotivation and probably departure.  If the development is not up to the job then it is unlikely that internal talent will be promoted.

Define measures of success - are there clearly defined measures of success?  Tip - measures of success can be simple, such as the level of recruitment spending, the number of internal promotions, the size of the talent pool for future leadership positions, the levels of talent engagement and the number of talented employees departing over the past year.  Setting goals will keep the focus on what is important and ensure tracking against the strategic objectives.

Bonus thought - Deliver value over complexity - is the process more complicated than it needs to be?  Tip - At each stage of the process consider what value will be delivered to the business from the implementation of choosen models, tools, technology etc.  Often we can get caught up with creating a (perfect) process that is does not meet the business needs.

Tips - to maximise talent management - part 3

Following on from my first and second post, explaining how to go about maximising the value from talent management initiatives, here are the third 2 areas to consider:

Identify the owners - who is running the show?  Tip - there are a number of key stakeholder and they all have an important role to play.  It is important to define the responsibilities of each.  Typically the role of HR/Talent Manager is to tease out the objectives, provide the framework to achieve the desired outcomes, oversee the process and support implementation. The leaders' role is to reinforce the importance of the process, to act as the role models for the behaviours they want and need the rest of the organisation to demonstrate, while the line have the vital role of helping to deliver the talent management initiatives and manage the talent on a day to day basis.  Whatever the final allocation of roles and responsibilities, the most important thing to maximise the value from your talent management process is to ensure that everyone is clear about their role and the critical part they play in engaging, developing and retain talent.

Ensure useable technology -  is there useful intelligence being produced?  Tip - consider your needs, how complex is your process going to be in the outset?  As you evolve your talent management process you will undoubtably need more technology.  Technology can enhance the process but too much technology is likely to remove richness from the insight and make it a tick book activity that simply has to get done. In the first instance, many companies can still get by using the basics such as a spreadsheet to gather and display the information they need to make decisions. Beware of wasting valuable resources on creating a 'white elephant' that the business does not want to use.

Tips - to maximise talent management - part 2

Following on from my first post, explaining how to go about maximising the value from talent management initiatives, here are the second 2 areas to consider:

Determine eligibility for inclusion - is it open to everyone and can people put themselves, others forward, or is it shrouded in secrecy?  Tip - open nomination sends out more positive messages, is preferred by talent and acts as safety net for picking up potentials.  Not everyone wants or is ready to put themselves forward for a talent programme, so it is unlikely that you will be inundated, but employees report that it is important for them to know that it could be open to them.  If you go down the open route, then having a clear selection and participation criteria is critical for helping people to decide their eligibility. And for those who make it into the talent pool it is also important that they know they have been selected.  Talent often report to being told they are part of the succession plan only when they depart.  Note - participation criteria for being in a talent pool can make clear it is not a life committment.  If employees do not feel they are being given a fair chance to develop and be recognised they are more likely to leave to pursue a career elsewhere.

Decide on the implementation - is it 'done to' employees and are they told what to do and expect, with little opportunity to say whether they actual want to be included?  Tip - engaging all stakeholders in the creation process and putting talent at the heart of the process will ensure it is not just a 'best in class model' but is something that is embraced and made to successfully work within the organisation's culture.  Otherwise it becomes a costly investment that goes nowwhere.

Tips - to maximise talent management - part 1

For my first post, I figured I should start by explaining just how to go about maximising talent management initiatives. Then over the coming posts I will talk more about each area and how they have and may change in the future through evolution or innovations.  I will also pepper the subsequent posts with commentary about how to maximise talent potential and how you not only retain talent, but also keep talent engaged.

So here is my list...

(On settling down to write my list, I found there was a lot to say, so I am going to spilt it over four posts, so please come back for more if you like what I say!)

Here are the first 2 areas to consider to ensure you are maximising the value from your talent management initiatives:

Be clear as to your definition of talent - is talent a concept applied to a percentage of employees or everyone?  Tip - you ultimately decide and programmes can be developed to account for either definition, although it is worth considering that the top 16% of employees generate 60% of revenues, while the bottom 16% of employees cost the company 20% in revenues Source: HiringSmart. In the same way that not everyone wants to be a leader, employee are motivated by knowing that people will be recognised if they put in added effort to attain a level of achievement.

Clarify the scope of your talent management programme - will it cover the whole of the organisation, just the leadership team, or pockets or levels of your organisation?  Tip - focusing only on the leadership team makes it more of a succession planning exercise.  Depending on the need of organisation, this may be the place to start, but if your challenge is say, hard to recruit technical experts then the talent programme will probably look very different. Knowing where you are going to start and how it may evolve will ensure clearer communications.