10 Steps to a Sucessful Talent Management and Development Process

There is no cookbook or guarantee for success in business but everyone wants a recipe. Leadership is the competency most needed in any recipe designed around achievement. Teamwork should be viewed no differently than we view organizational effectiveness. This effectiveness, without question, always comes back to the leader. The development of the leadership within any company should be the goal of every executive team.

Companies talk a good game about the need for leadership and people development, but when the water starts getting a little rough, they start treating their people as an expense and don’t hesitate to throw them overboard. Yet, the employee is listing their development and the opportunity to participate in training programs as their number one reason for selecting companies for employment.

10 Steps in Talent Management and Development Processes

Talent Management Means Competent Leadership

Talent Management is an entity that has been slowly evolving within many corporations. Most corporations list the following practices as part of their overall program:

• High potential employee development
• Leadership Development
• Professional Development
• Succession Planning
• Career Planning
• Learning and Training
• Performance Management
• Competency Management
• Retention
• Employee Engagement

Talent Management should concern itself with competencies. Companies should focus on the competencies that make a difference today and will continue to make a difference tomorrow. It means fitting the “right person” to the “right job” and then measuring their impact on the company’s strategy or goals.

In simplest of terms, Talent Management is people development associated with organizational effectiveness. Your middle management controls what employees stay and what employees leave. Your good employees will leave if you don't have a competent manager.

Most companies do not have a clue about what Talent Management means to them and what competencies will provide sustained growth and success. It is important that they focus on their Strategic Development plan now and don’t wait until it is too late. Too late that they do not have the people who are able to learn and perform the roles and responsibilities needed for sustained growth. Do we have the people that can respond to the rapidly changing, highly competitive marketplace?

Most companies have not yet assessed the talent within their organization. How can the learning and training components be applied when you don’t know what is needed to develop the people? People are starting to talk about succession planning only because a lot of key people are leaving the workforce for retirement or alternative careers. I joined a pharmaceutical company in the late sixties and within three weeks, the company has decided that I was a “High Potential”….an HP as we called it back then. A fast track of combined learning and training programs were laid out before me while at the same time, my performance was monitored as if I was under the microscope. It appears that many companies have strayed away from labeling “high potentials” and providing a program to accelerate their careers within the company. Now, I know many companies have accelerated programs and call these designated potential leaders something, like top producers, achievers, or whatever.

It just seems like the same old story. We have been concerned about this problem for many, many years but we have done nothing to provide a fully integrated set of human resource functions that can be called a people development process. We hesitate to assess anyone or anything because it will cause conflict and we can’t have conflict when we need to retain good talent.

Is Talent Management really meeting the needs of most companies? What are we waiting for? The leadership of our companies must step up and focus on a Strategic Development Plan that includes people, processes, and performance. The integration of those three entities often results in employee engagement, motivation, and success.

Human Resources in many companies is defined as the human capital experts. So, when are these so-called experts going to jump up and down and give their leadership team a real assessment of the culture, the people, and the potential to more forward while sustaining growth and reaching goals? It will probably be when all the talent has left.

Small Business Desired Outcomes

It has always been my philosophy to focus on the desired outcome and then determine a plan of action that will ensure business success in relation to that goal or objective. It is apparent that most businesses do not focus on the desired outcome since the majority of employees are not focused on the strategy of the company.

It is imperative that employers focus on their talent management but which of the talent management areas do we focus on first, hiring and selection, retention, engagement, or development? Forget about all the talent management trends and recommended solutions. Create an employee engagement vehicle that will provide the opportunity for the employee to focus on the strategically developed outcomes.

So, what are the challenges facing your organization in the next year or so? Do the majority of your company or corporate challenges center around revenue generation, systematic cost reduction in operating expense, profitability, customer maintenance, etc.?

Now that we understand the company or corporate challenges and we have formulated a strategy to overcome those challenges to provide the desired outcome in terms of revenue, cost reduction, personnel succession, or profitability, isn’t that when we should provide a talent management assessment.

I find that most HR Professionals either are not asking themselves the following questions or they are not being asked by the executives of their company or corporation to provide answers for those questions.

- “Do our employees feel connected to this strategically developed plan of action?” I would review the process to determine if clearly defined goals were established and how far down the organizational chart have they been presented and understood.

- “Do we have the right people in the right places to allow us to accomplish our goals and objectives moving forward?”

- “Do we have turnover concerns at any or all levels within the organization, particularly the front line?”

- “Do we have any key employees leaving the organization over the next twelve months and what does our succession plan look like with those positions?”

There is a real disconnect. When are companies or corporations going to realize that the strength of their organization is based on the strengths of the individual employee? We have not only lost focus of the desired outcome, we have lost focus on what will allow us to grow and to sustain this growth moving forward. It is the strengths of our people from the latest hire to the most senior officer.

So HR Professionals, what does your executive summary and recommendations for implementation of action plans for the strategic development process look like in terms of providing solutions to turnover, engagement, lack of talent or skills, and providing the employee with the needed resources to do the job?

The People Development and Organizational Effectiveness should start with a plan and this plan should be evaluated periodically using an assessment process that tells the company or corporation how they are doing in terms of engagement, skill development, and encouragement using strengths as a basis for success, and sharing information among peers and management to improve communication and outcomes.

The real problem in my opinion is that HR must take a proactive role in the people development and organizational effectiveness and be willing to be measured for achievement in the areas of turnover, retention, engagement, and achievement. Human Resources must exhibit their leadership skills and take charge of maximizing the effectiveness of their employees to achieve the goals and objectives of the company or corporation. Make sure your talent management processes include middle management particularly if they are the hiring manager. Remember to “eat the elephant in small bites” because when we try to eat the whole elephant in one sitting, we tend to have difficulty swallowing”. Start small and look for significant and meaningful results. Focus on the challenges and the talent needed to meet those challenges.

That’s what business is all about.

Talent Management Means Competent Leadership

Talent Management is an entity that has been slowly evolving within many corporations. Most corporations list the following practices as part of their overall program:

• High potential employee development
• Leadership Development
• Professional Development
• Succession Planning
• Career Planning
• Learning and Training
• Performance Management
• Competency Management
• Retention
• Employee Engagement

Talent Management should concern itself with competencies. Companies should focus on the competencies that make a difference today and will continue to make a difference tomorrow. It means fitting the “right person” to the “right job” and then measuring their impact on the company’s strategy or goals.

In simplest of terms, Talent Management is people development associated with organizational effectiveness. Most companies do not have a clue about what Talent Management means to them and what competencies will provide sustained growth and success. It is important that they focus on their Strategic Development plan now and don’t wait until it is too late. It will be too late when they do not have the people who are able to learn and perform the roles and responsibilities needed for sustained growth. Do we have the people that can respond to the rapidly changing, highly competitive marketplace?

Most companies have not yet assessed the talent within their organization. How can the learning and training components be applied when you don’t know what is needed to develop the people. People are starting to talk about succession planning only because a lot of key people are leaving the workforce for retirement or alternative careers. I joined a pharmaceutical company in the late sixties and within three weeks, the company has decided that I was a “High Potential”….an HP as we called it back then.

A fast track of combined learning and training programs were laid out before me while at the same time, my performance was monitored as if I was under the microscope. It appears that many companies have strayed away from labeling “high potentials” and providing a program to accelerate their careers within the company. Now, I know some companies have accelerated programs and call these designated potential leaders something, like top producers, achievers, or whatever.

It just seems like the same old story. We have been concerned about this problem for many, many years but we have done nothing to provide a fully integrated set of human resource functions that can be called a people development process. We hesitate to assess anyone or anything because it will cause conflict and we can’t have conflict when we need to retain good talent.

Is Talent Management really meeting the needs of most companies? What are we waiting for? The leadership of our companies must step up and focus on a Strategic Development Plan that includes people, processes, and performance. The integration of those three entities often results in employee engagement, motivation, and success.

Human Resources in many companies is defined as the human capital experts. So, when are these so-called experts going to jump up and down and give their leadership team a real assessment of the culture, the people, and the potential to more forward while sustaining growth and reaching goals? It will probably be when all the Talent has left.

Hiring Blamed for Poor Performance

A consulting firm in California confirmed that nearly one third of CEO’s say that as many as half of their new employees haven’t been meeting expectations. A principle of the firm noted that most CEO’s have no faith in their hiring processes.

That is the first problem for the CEO. Don’t call it a process. Most companies don’t have a process. I work with small companies and companies with over 5000 employees and none exhibit a real “Hiring and Selection” Process. All expect their hiring or recruitment personnel to just find the right people. Those people are the ones with the skills and training combined with the right attitude and excellent work ethic just waiting to be interviewed. Wrong!

The difference in processes can vary from using a simple HRIS system for only resume retrieval to a type written job description that includes suggested behavioral interviewing questions. I just can’t believe that it’s taking a rocket-scientist to realize that people are failing in the workplace because employers don’t have the proper “hiring and selection” process. Most companies today have yet to realize that finding the “right” person for the right job or just hiring the right person with the right attitude, skill, training, and work ethic takes more than just leaving the front door open.

We have now found the culprit for poor performance. The process that must determine whether someone has or is lacking the skill, training, attitude, and ethics is failing not because of lack of process, but a lack of commitment within that CEO’s company. The tools, methodology, technology, format, and human components are all available but no one appears to have the energy or commitment to put it all together.

Since we can’t find the people to integrate the tools, technology, format, and people to provide a well-rounded “hiring and selection” process, we must take three steps back and again blame it on the process….or is it the people?

If companies don’t take their hiring practices seriously, they will eliminating any opportunity of finding the person with the right attitude, skill, training and ethics that can make a difference!

Bah Humbug - Talent Management

It has been over ten years since McKinsey & Co. coined the phrase, “War for Talent”. We certainly have had the opportunity to research the subject, develop a plan of action, implement the plan and now reap the rewards of our actions. Wrong! We have said, “Bah humbug” to the program and done nothing.

A new a survey offered these key findings:

• Talent acquisition planning is sorely lacking – less than 18% of the respondents report to have a plan implemented.
• Talent management will have an impact on all levels within every organization.
  Identifying and developing leaders within organizations is as important as attracting new, top-flight talent.
• 71 percent of the respondents list retention as a major challenge for 2008
  Other countries are better prepared than we are in the United States.
  
  These findings are based on the “Talent Shortage Survey” conducted by Equation Research on behalf of Stanton Chase International and Birkman, International during the 3rd quarter of 2007.
  
  Maybe it’s frustration or just the timing of the Holidays, but I have contacted over 1000 HR Professionals and no one appears interested in focusing on the development of a Process that can help their organizations with this talent management concern. Is it reality or perception? Are we just saying that we are willing to let our successors worry about solving that problem?
  
  The winning formula is very simple:
• Engage the top level for attracting and hiring talent from all age groups as a routine and ongoing process
• Make a company wide commitment starting at the top to:
• Attract new talent ahead of the crisis of exits
• Retain valuable talent already in the company
• Rapidly develop processes for recognizing and developing leaders within the organization
• Utilize an assessment instrument(s) to aid in both leadership identification and development coupled with coaching/mentoring programs
  
  Bah! Humbug! Nobody’s listening, if you are listening are you acting on it?

…twas the night before…

Be Careful What You Ask For...

It was noted in a study conducted by International Association of Business Communicators that the top three non-financial reasons why workers leave their jobs are 1) opportunities for advancement, 2) work-life balance, and 3) more interesting work.
Why as a society, do we never get it right until we are hit over the head with a sledge hammer? We just don’t get the fact that the American worker no longer wants to do what management wants them to do. We are trying to teach them that as individuals it is the degree of which you understand self-leadership and your own growth potential predicts how you will foster your own success, as well as the success of others.

We are asking people to continue to search for things that are meaningful to them and things that help them manage themselves. People are trying to find the “right” work environment that compliments their beliefs, values and competencies. Isn’t this what EQ is all about? We basically tell people that if they want to play a vital role in the transformation of others or in the transformation of an organization as a whole, they must lead their own development. We tell them that they need to invest in themselves and to find joy in the journey.

We get them going and yet we are not always sure where they are headed. Human Resources, Management or whoever must be there to help them grow plus make sure their growth develops in conjunction with the growth of the organization. We ask them to find a purpose without giving them a purpose. Succession planning and career development are hot subjects in most HR publications, yet it appears that we have no clue on how to and why we should provide a developmental path of our future leaders. We don’t even communicate well yet alone provide leadership for them as demonstrated by their three non-financial reasons for leaving a job.

The management of companies today has to learn to communicate the real message to the employee. We have to share our business strategies with the employee and make sure we have some inkling of their career desires and if they feel our organization can provide them with the opportunities for success. Did you hear me….communicate the expectation or determine the underlying expectation of the employee? Do we ever ask the employee to tell us what “work-life” balance means to them? I honestly believe that work–life balance is a personal choice and should be left up to the employee not to the manager. It is the role of the manager to make sure if possible that we can satisfy that expectation or at least try to provide some measures that will help the employee reach their goals. How do you define “interesting work”? Did we ask in the interview if they were only interested in doing “interesting work”? We could have eliminated the third reason for leaving by just not hiring them.

Why is the management team of so many companies afraid to ask about the employee’s work expectations? Management certainly wants the employee to know what their expectations are……..it’s called performance management. I really think it is a misnomer….shouldn’t it be management performance? Let’s get with it….let’s try meeting on a one on one basis and defining “real” expectations. Interpersonal responsiveness by management should be the number one non-financial reason for leaving a company. It’s time for management to get out from behind their computers and met the people.

The Search For Talent - What Happens After the Boomers?

What are our real people challenges? Starting in three years, “Boomers” will be retiring at a 10 million clip per year for the next ten years. Many will continue to work but will work only where and when they want to work. This will leave us with a lot of part-time employees that require flex-time as a benefit. We will be at their scheduling mercy. The Department of Labor has been forecasting a major labor shortage of young people to fill the ranks. So, where are we going to search for talent?

In an interview The Conference Board of Canada conducted with leading management guru, Dave Ulrich, he emphasized that the 21st century will belong to human resources and to organizational capabilities. I agree with him as did the Conference Board of Canada. For the first time in the history of management, it is the human mind that is the primary creator of value. The quality of people and their engagement will be critical factors to both corporate and small business vitality and survival.

Companies must start building their leadership pipeline by formulating a developmental plan for its people. Leadership must be considered a role rather than a function, and individuals within a company must be called upon to exercise leadership within their spheres of influence internally. Succession planning by position and defining the importance of that position to the overall success of the company is a must. What is your succession plan for the future development of your company? What does it look like?

No market is more competitive than ours for employees. No market is more competitive than ours for management talent. In a tight labor market, like the one in which we are about to enter, a strong employment brand identity must be present. You will have to capture a larger portion of the employee mindshare by setting your company apart from the competition by branding your attractiveness to engagement. You will have to make sure that your employees are engaged and that they understand the real purpose of the organization. In our management development courses, we talk about “connecting the dots” for all employees within the company. Managers must exhibit the ways and means to motivate employees to become engaged and make sure at the same time they are connected to the mission and vision of the company. It is even more important that they understand the purpose. We need to provide an environment where the rate of learning exceeds the rate of change. Not an easy task even for the high achieving manager.

This culture of engagement and purpose can be achieved if we hire the “right person” for this culture. As business owners, we need to develop a Hiring and Selection Process that both demonstrates the flavor of our company in terms of a “brand” that attracts the candidate that is the “right person” for the position. What does your Hiring and Selection Process look like? Are you fitting the candidate to the job or the job to the candidate? You better get ready soon because us “Boomers” are coming and the fit needs to be right.

Author: Richard J. Hohmann Jr.
P:(609) 390-2830

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