People – Exploring the Potential

The previous article looked at idetifying The Satans of Talent – The Talent Blockers. This one looks to establish common attributes of the Talent Accelerators -The Gods of Talent in an organisation.

TALENT ACCELERATORS!

Talent Accelerators are those set of managers that contribute to fostering the organisation’s talent pipeline. They are assets to an organisation’s objective of developing a robust talent pipeline to create a sustainable competitive advantage. A Talent accelerator is adept at identifying talent and encouraging his subordinates to perform to the best of their abilities. A Talent Accelerator should be identified and commended for his performance and the practice should be cascaded to other business units as well. Certain attributes of a Talent Accelerator have been pointed out below:

Recruit and select high potentials even if they’re hard to handle

A talent accelerator is the manager who displays his intent of developing a high performance team by identifying high potential at the time of hiring in spite of being aware of the fact that there could be a need to manage high expectations of the employees. By doing so, he helps inducting hi-pots early into the organisation.

Coach for skills development & Mentor for career development

A Talent Accelerator believes in coaching and mentoring to improve the quality of his subordinates. He draws from his career and experiences to coach his subordinates for skills development and guides them with regards to the career decisions they should take to advance in their professional careers. All this, in spite of being aware of the fact that they would move on from his team for better prospects. He makes up for it by continuing this process to churn out successful professionals over time.

Give totally candid feedback on performance

Unlike Talent Blockers, the talent accelerators are candid in giving feedbacks to their subordinates even on issues that are sensitive and personal. By doing so, they not only earn the respect as straight talkers but also, result in their subordinates understanding the expectations from them clearly. On the flip side, they are open to accept critique on their actions from their subordinates.

Create stretch assignments

To develop the talent under them, the talent accelerators encourage them to take up stretch assignments to explore their potential. In doing so, they identify the talent that can be banked upon and once the talent is identified they expose the talented individuals to develop their leadership skills. This helps in creating a base of ‘ready now’ individuals to take up leadership roles in the event of talent crunches at the senior levels.

 Surrender their high performers for corporate challenges

Talent accelerators firmly believe that their subordinates belong to the organisation and not to them alone. This ideology helps them surrender their best talent to be deployed to the areas that most need their expertise. By doing so, not only do they aid the organisation’s strategic plans but also contribute to the personal development of their subordinates. They are firm believers of talent exchange process and do all in their capacity to contribute to the process.

Reference:

Talent Development, Jeffrey Gandz, Ph.D. Professor, Managing Director – Program Design, Richard Ivey School of Business, September 2006, Ivey Executive Development

Talent in an organisation is susceptible to inconsiderate handling. An ill-managed talent will always contribute to the regretted attrition levels of the organisation. The widely used saying ‘Employees quit bosses, not organisations!’ drives home this point all too clearly.

Talent in any organisation is the ability of its workforce to exceed expectations and deliver value consistently. In an era when technology, strategy or quality benchmarks can be emulated, it is the talent that provides the requisite sustainable competitive advantage for the organisation. In this ‘war for talent’ that has gripped organisations, it is becoming increasing critical to identify the blockages of talent and address them before the actual damage is caused. Conversely it is equally important to identify the talent accelerators to recognize them and reward them for their efforts in developing a robust talent pipeline with a considerable level of stability.

This article in a series, attempts to look at the ‘Satans’ and the ‘Gods’ of Talent Development & Retention in organisations today.

TALENT BLOCKERS!

 The dubious distinction of ‘Talent Blocker’ is attributed to those managers who end up in stifling talent and thereby failing to contribute to developing an organization wide talent pipeline. Most times, the talent blockers are not aware of the damage they are causing to the talent ecosystem. It is more to do with the comfort levels and the lack of mentoring and coaching from senior management in terms of fostering talent in the organization. To broadly lay down specific situations when talent blockers thrive, certain obvious areas that result in the blockage of talent have been pointed out:

Recruiting and selecting easy-to manage people

The process of talent blockage manifests at the very beginning of the employee life-cycle when managers tend to recruit candidates who they think will be easy to manage and will be ‘tooth-less’. This happens because a lot of focus is laid down by the senior management on the working relationship between a manager and his subordinates. Having recruited a candidate who will be easy to manage, the manager tends to overshadow the existence of that candidate in the organization there by maintaining a smooth relationship without any ‘ripples’. This is a sub conscious effort by the talent blocker (manager) to ensure his importance in the setup is not undermined and that he continues to call the shots.

Not coaching or mentoring effectively

 A majority of successful individuals attribute their professional success to the presence of a coach or a mentor who guided them through rough times. It is this quality that is found missing in a talent blocker. Absence of effective coaching and mentoring practices by managers results in a slow development of the talent under them and there is always a possibility of a stunted career growth for the subordinates in an organization under a manager who is indifferent to the growth and development of individuals.

 Lack candor in their feedback 

Feedback is a critical tool of correction.  But it takes a lot of heart to have your subordinates critique your style of management and to give a frank opinion on the subordinates/ performances. Having said that, a manager who does practice candid feedback programmes benefits not only in improving his own management style but also improves the engagement levels of the employees reporting to him. A talent blocker on the contrary is reluctant to indulge in feedback practices as it involves giving frank opinions on sensitive and personal issues and the blocker is hesitant on issues. It requires getting feedback yourself – and this may not be welcome!

Do not reward differentially for success

Performance if not suitably rewarded will result in demotivation and dip in performance levels. But a talent blocker does not believe in this philosophy. He tends to overlook good performances and believes that such performances will sustain only if the expectations of subordinates are kept in check. This results in the absence of any incentive for the subordinates to perform for the manager or the business and in spite of having promising potential, the subordinates end up as work horses or ‘solid-citizens’ under the talent blocker and eventually quit as a result of pent up frustration.

Horde the people who get the job done

The most common characteristic of a talent blocker is the hoarding of talent and masking it from getting exposed to the talent exchange process. In his selfish bid to maintain performance, a talent blocker tends to horde the talent under him and thereby prevents their progression to lateral movements or promotions. This is the most critical blow that an organisation suffers. On the talent being blocked from further growth by the talent blocker, the subordinates (talent in discussion) tend to get frustrated and end up either as workhorses devoid of any enthusiasm or in more critical cases quit the organisation.

Reference:

Talent Development, Jeffrey Gandz, Ph.D. Professor, Managing Director – Program Design, Richard Ivey School of Business, September 2006, Ivey Executive Development

Talent is crucial to any organisation. But how can we improve something that cannot be measured? Talent is something which is innate to an individual. It is the ability and the capability to achieve results. So it is fair to assume that talent precedes results. Taking this relationship forward is Dr.Sullivan who makes a fair attempt to measure the value of talent in this article. 

Contrary to the positive connotation given to the clichéd “Well begun is half done” this article intends to generate curiosity to look at the other half as far as talent management is concerned. Organisations all over have been openly supportive of driving a performance based culture where the best are treated the best. Talent assessment activities are being carried out on a war footing at many an organisation, taking stock of talent issues if any and drawing out comprehensive plans to improve the pitfalls. Corporate world is caught in a frenzy to identify its top-class talent and quarantine the grey areas to ensure that priorities and privileges are set realistically. Half job well done. It is the other half that bothers.

If many have not guessed yet, it is the set of activities that succeed the assessment. All the reports generated, information gathered and plans drawn are not finding the light of day thanks to the absence of robust talent development strategies at the desired levels. Organisations finding gaps in competencies and performance are lacking in developing training programs that result in an effective plugging of these drawbacks. The importance of strategic talent development is overshadowed by the day-to-day activities in the organisation today. Companies are so engrossed in tying the loose ends up that no alignment of strategic training and development with the business requirements is ever attempted in an earnest manner. Any lack of competency is nullified by ushering in requisite talent from external sources. And at what cost!

There is a visible lack of drive and initiative in presenting a sound case for developing a strategic learning and development wing at organisations to ensure the prime-mover churns out talent to sustain a long term competitive advantage.  Barring firms like Deloitte PLC (featured in the Top 10 Training Hall of Fame, Business Source Corporate, February 2009) who seamlessly integrate training programs with individual’s job requirements, there are many firms who either do not see sense in spending to develop their workforce’s competencies or develop ‘one-size-fits-all’ plans that are unable to address specific competency gaps in individuals.

The problem stems from the lack of leadership in senior management positions that can drive this initiative. There is no idea buy-in when it comes to identifying training and development as a strategic concern. Training and development (T&D) always contributes to a lag effect and thus is inadvertently thrown to the backburners. Insufficient indicators in real time that can reaffirm the importance of T&D lead to this aspect of talent management ending up in mere lip talk than action. Top thinkers and management moguls have always voiced their support in favour of talent development & training programs as an effective tool to improve business performance. So much so that, IT majors like Infosys and Wipro have dedicated training centres with world class facilities to foster training and employee development in a comprehensive manner. These efforts have paid rich dividends in developing talent bench that is ready to take up challenging assignments thanks to the developed capabilities and more importantly the developed competencies to deliver value.

There is a compelling need for leaders in senior management to focus on not just assessing the talent but invest in developing the same inside out. This will take patience, spending and a long-term view in copious quantities. 

Talent management is a notion of the MNC and not the luxury of the Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Talent management is the prerogative of the HR and not the job description of a business manager. Talent goes where the money draws it to. Connect the statements….

All myths!

Talent Management in today’s scenario is not restricted to a particular type of organisation or a particular function in an organisation. Talent management is not as simple as doling money to attract good employees. It’s much more than that. Talent Management (TM) has undergone evolution to emerge as the competitive differentiator among equals. TM today includes an entire gamut of activities that are wide and highly impacting in both scope and depth. It is an organisation wide phenomenon ferociously being driven by senior management to ensure that the organisation braces itself for the tremendous opportunities and more importantly for the deepening economic crisis the world faces today.

Like any other beliefs, the belief in TM and its impact on business can be superficial or realistic. Lip-talking organisations tend to tow the line of Talent Management purely to portray themselves as a short-term attractive destination for good talent. It is perhaps the tactical ploy of the management to create an atmosphere of talent recognition and development while all the way believing that if situations get worse, the initiative will be the first in the line of cost cuts. The outcomes of such short-term strategy are equally miniscule. Perhaps, the short term attractive proposition may actually result in fresh talent acquisition; the retention of the same will be a lost cause. Organisations such as these result in demoralising the workforce and driving them towards their own competition thus spelling doom on themselves. Such organisations fall prey to their short-sighted action plans and complete lack of strategic thinking.

High employee turnover rates are not a rare phenomenon nowadays as organisations struggle to retain talent. Turnover rates among CRM companies in India are bordering around 30%. It is interesting to note that smaller turnover rate along with low labour costs were the competitive advantage as far as competing with the US firms was concerned. But this advantage seems to be waning away at a scorching pace. Companies today are deploying task forces and external consultancies at a premium to understand this very phenomenon and the causes that lie beneath. Most companies today are aware that their workforce is the only differentiator when capital, assets and focus on cutting-edge technology are becoming rapidly duplicable.

Talent Management is more of a necessity than luxury if an organisation expects to thrive looking at a long term perspective. And this long term perspective is very important given the distortion caused by the severe downturn in the economy. Companies are developing their Talent Management frameworks tailored to the business needs and working on roadmaps to develop and sustain talent in the organisation. While some companies have put their hiring plans on hold and are busy cutting costs, the talent conscious organisations are seizing the opportunity to acquire quality talent at cheap prices (given the level of frustration at B Schools). While some short-sighted organisations blame the recession on the wrong doings and flamboyance of so called ‘Talented MBAs’ from premier B schools, the more established and strategically planning companies are cutting hiring at lower value chains and are concentrating on acquiring best MBA minds who they believe can lift their organisations out of the slump. It is this mindset of the companies that will see them sustain and retain talent over a longer period of time. Walk the Talk is the name of the game. If a company does not display and practice its focus on Talent earnestly, it will not be able to create a successful marriage with the talented lot, who will turn out to be the differentiating factor in such troubled times.

Bill Gates was not wrong when he quipped “Take away our 20 best people, and I will tell you that Microsoft will become an unimportant company.’’

Walking on the picturesque Gulf Street in Kuwait, it was amazing to see myself liberate and free myself in the mind and soak in the vast Arabian Gulf by my side. It so happens that a visit to a marine drive always makes one feel good. In this moment of liberation me and a couple of fellow interns started talking about working hours in different countries, their work ethics, the challenges one faces at workplace and above all what mistakes employers normally end-up making.

One such discussion thread was about how promotions in organisations can backfire. The first thought that came to mind was the Peter’s Principle which describes that normally people get promoted to a level of incompetence. A friend observed how in most organisations, various levels are filled with people who have stagnated and are not promotable any further. The most prominent mistake employers do is by awarding employees with a good performance record with a promotion without bothering about his potential and competency fit with the job he is expected to do. This leads to him/her reaching a level in the organisation where his performance dips and emotionally drains the employee as a once good performer changes to a mediocre cog in the wheel. The other two sides of the catastrophe is the effect upwards and downwards.

The dip in performance leads to slip in business performance that affects the senior management strategies and increases the deviation from business plans. What was once a decision by the senior management to improve performance and employee satisfaction and engagement ends up in doing exactly the opposite!

The downward effects are found in the way the subordinates feel to work under an incompetent boss. An incompetent boss is unable to manage his subordinates and their expectations. And this results in employees losing faith in the abilities of their boss to resolve issues and manage results. This disconnect results in misalignment of strategies with employee expectations. Employee engagement at the subordinate level suffers and leads to attrition and bad equity for the organisation in the job market.

But not all is dark and scary in today’s corporate world. To counter this very situation, companies are taking proactive measures to ensure that individuals with competencies that match the expectations of a role are promoted. Thus there are a number of organisations that spend a lot of time,money and effort in identifying the ‘right’ people for the ‘right’ job. Succession planning, competency mapping and various organisational development tools go a long way in dispelling the concerns that loom over making incorrect choices. Other tools used by employers is to develop mentoring programs where senior management help in identifying and guiding potential leaders to develop their competencies and slide into senior roles with ease when the time beckons. To sustain such a mechanism, the much relevance is stressed on maintaining a strong talent pool in the organisation with the record of good performances and the potential to manage the managers. The talent pool needs to be developed and nurtured with regular reviews and assessments to ensure that the talent is ready for the next stage. Given the rapidly changing market dynamics, this ready-to-go talent pool acts as a great differentiator. A recent survey by a reputed consulting firm confirms that the Top 20% of the most preferred places to work had a sustainable talent pool in place to mitigate the risks of a continuously changing environment. This arrangement has a spin off effect on employee engagement and job market equity. It’s no rocket science to realise that its not enought to teach a man to fish, but to ensure that his son learns to fish as well! Keeps the restaurant open all days!!

Ah, I totally forgot to tell you about how great the Hard Rock Cafe on Gulf Street was!!!

The world is changing! And the corporate world is changing its outlook towards HR. Amongst all the metamorphosis that is happening around us, one prominent element that stands out is the focus on people…. The ‘Right’ people.

The old notion of people being an asset to an organisation has undergone a paradigm shift. Today is the era of lean mean fighting machines and in such a competitive environment the onus on organisations is to cut out the flab and maintain and flexible and value adding work-force. There is no room for mercy or charity in this race to be the most efficient and effectively managed institution. Companies around the globe are today focussed on restructuring their three Ps – Process, Performance and People. Bouts of ‘right sizing’ and layoffs have hit the headlines of many a newspapers recently. In this context it comes extremely critical for an HR practitioner to objectively identify the ‘right’ workforce in terms of quality, quantity and mix. Age, ethnicity and value alignment are of critical importance as HR around the globe tries to tackle workforce aspirations and business performance in multinational organisations.

Talent Management has become a burning topic of discussion at coffee tables across. A very reputed HR portal (Bersin & Associates) has voted talent management enabling issues as the Top 22 among a list of 62 issues identified. This just goes to accentuate the huge impact talent management has on business performances of corporations globally.

Talent Management is a stratified into talent acquisition, talent auditing & assessment, talent retention and talent development. All these set of activities are used to ensure that the machine is kept running through out the life-span of an employee in the organisation. Beginning with getting the right people in, the talent management practice begins to support the business practices. Identifying the right candidates using various assessment tools like competency based interviewing and psychometric tests etc, the people with the right attitude and aptitude are inducted in. The recruitment and selection process is followed by a well planned induction and on-boarding process that ensures that the new recruits are exposed to the culture, values and systems of the organisation. The talent prevalent in the workforce is consistently being assessed using various tools like assessment centres, talent reviews etc to ensure that the rotting apples are identified and proactively repositioned to ensure that productivity doesn’t suffer. In this regard, a renewed focus is being laid on lead indicators to ensure that modifications are carried out proactively. This calls for metrics that can be tracked and constantly monitored on dashboards by senior management. HR metrics hereby are the drivers of the talent management practices. This attempt to quantify and assess HR performance in terms of talent management has resulted in C-level Business leaders acknowledging HR as a strategic partner in their business vision.

Finally based on the talent levels of the workforce and the criticality of the roles, development programs are sketched out to ensure that the employees are being groomed into becoming future business leaders with the right mix of values, competencies and performance potential. Succession planning is an obvious next step in ensuring that the critical positions do not go unfed in the event of talented workforce leaving the organisation. To facilitate a robust succession planning exercise, organisations around the world are ensuring that the critical roles are identified and the required ingredients in terms of the competencies are chalked out in an objective fashion. Once the roles are identified, the challenge is then to assess the workforce and identify a talent pool that fits the bill. Talent pool depth and coverage play a crucial role in justifying ROI on the entire gamut of talent management activities being carried out in an organisation. A visible spin off of a robust ROI in terms of human capital management is a healthy sense of engagement among employees. An employee looks for good career opportunities, a compensation that suits the effort and the outcomes he delivers and an opportunity to develop his competencies to move to bigger and better things. An employer who facilitates these opportunities for its employees has reason enough to believe that his business stands to perform exceptionally.

“Henry Ford, Jack Welch, Bill Gates….. All practitioners of Talent Management.”