How to simplify and improve your talent management process - Part 2

8/6/2019 How to simplify and improve your talent management process - Part 2

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w w w . e m P e r f o r m . c o . u k

Simplifying and

Improving Your TalentManagement Process

Including common traps & pitfalls

(and how to avoid them)www.emPerform.co.uk

PART TWO


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[email protected] and improving your talent management process emPerform

w w w . e m P e r f o r m . c o . u k P a g e

Introduction

Following on in part two of the Simplifying and

Improving Your Talent Management Process white

paper we look further at a number ofimportant areas to

review and the fundamental questions we need to ask

when developing a talent management process

including:

The Content What should you include and howshould you evaluate your people?

Reporting & feedback How are you going toaccumulate your results and with whom are yougoing to share them?

The Nine Box Talent Matrix How can thismatrix work for your organisation?

360 Degree Feedback Does this need to bepart of the process?

We will look at each of these areas in turn.

Please note: the following text makes the assumption

that you are looking at automating the talent and

performance management process or already have

something in place.


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5.0 Content

Content is the biggest area of confusion and debate;

and it is almost certainly an area that needs to be

simplified. By content we are referring to the forms that

are being used and the items within those forms that

are the basis for the talent or performance evaluation.

We find that there is usually too much focus on writing

the perfect descriptive narrative or writing the perfect

competency definition and far too much content, rather

than focusing on how it actually relates to required

behaviours.

What is most significant is that the employees

understand the content, they can relate to it, and

importantly, that managers can evaluate it effectively.

5.1 Content - Competencies

Competencies are a set of attributes and behaviours

required to be successful in a position. Think clearly and

make sure that the competencies that you set make

sense for your organisation. HR and not the external

vendor or the consultant must develop these

competencies.

There is often a belief that organisations need to work

with high-priced consultants to develop competencies or

that the software vendor should supply the competency

library. There is also a belief that huge long competency

lists are required that cover every behavioural aspect of

the role within the organisation.

Remember:

People should

understand thecontent and be able

to relate to it,

especially managers,

so that they can

evaluate it

effectively. HR needs

to own this content,

not the vendor or the

consultant. It doesnt

have to be

complicated or

excessive, but must

relate to observable

behaviour.


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The real solution is to develop simple competencies that

relate to business drivers. In terms of quantity, four to

six competencies are the right amount. Any more than

that and you are losing the focus, any less and theylose importance.

Think in terms of what the business needs from a

particular role e.g. Sales Rep and link behaviours to

that position.

The most important thing about competencies isnt the

description, the quantity or how they are assigned, but

the fact that they must include observable behaviour.

They are a set of attributes and behaviours that anyone

should be able to witness, to see or to observe. The

best competencies are the ones that use lots of

behavioural examples. Below is a good example:

Example - Teamwork Competency:

Description:

Someone who effectively co-operates and workswith others in order to achieve specific objectives

Behaviours:

Shares experience and expertise with the rest ofthe team

Is respectful of other team memberscontributions and knowledge

Has the intent to learn from others Makes sure that all team members are part of the

decision process

Understands the appropriate time to communicateideas


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If we back up each competency with observable

behaviours and we come up with four to six

competencies that relate to our business drivers, then

we are creating an effective framework for internalperformance management.


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5.2 Content - Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives are an important area in theappraisal process but there are a number of serious

traps and pitfalls:

Goals are created but with no reference tobusiness drivers - these are not proper goals

but personal development initiatives. Goals mustbe related to business objectives and drivers

Employees and Managers have a set them andforget them mentality. Goals are set, then onlyat the end of the appraisal year do the employeeand manager get together to review.

Many managers rely solely on the employee towrite the goals. This is simply shifting

responsibility. It should really be a collaborativeprocess with some tangible milestones ornumbers so there can be an effective assessment

as to whether employees have met their goals ornot!

What we want people to think about is linking to

organisational objectives. Goal setting should start with

the organisations overall objectives for the year and

the employees goals and objectives should be aligned

to this. By doing this we ensure the business driver

linkage. Goals need a timeframe and they need a

commitment to be reviewed more than once a year. We

recommend a quarterly review.

Goals also need a success measure. How do you know if

the person achieved the goal? It is important to agree

on what success means. Three to five goals per year

are realistic. Anymore than that and it is confusing for

the employee, any less and theres no motivation.

Remember:

A commitment to

quarterly check-inswill help ensure that

both managers and

employees are

staying on top of set

goals and objectives.


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Heres a good example:

Example: Employee Goal

The salesperson will conduct one newdemonstration every week and log it in CRM. Thiswill help contribute to the organisational objective

of increasing new customers by 10% over theprior year

Here we have:

A time frame: weekly A success measure: one new demo/week Linkage to an organisational objective: increasing

new customers by 10% over the prior year

5.3 Content Rating Scales

Ratings scales are a very confusing area for many

organisations. This is because this is where weassociate the employee with some form of rating and as

humans we dont like to do that all the time, so it is a

delicate area. Some of the common traps and pitfalls in

this area include:

Rating scales that dont relate to content Belief that the rating scale must be the same for

each section of content

A predictable use of the ratings: Meets, Exceedsand Significantly Exceeds

Cont..


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One of the significant problems is that many managers

dont understand the difference between Meets,

Exceeds and Significantly Exceeds when we rate a

competency or goal. Most organisations dont take thetime to spell out the difference between good, better

than good and great! This is confusing for managers

because they are all positive ratings.

We recommend that you put rating scales in place that

make immediate sense to the people that are using and

reviewing them. Significantly, ratings should be

supported by behavioural examples and should alwaysrelate to the content.

Example 1 Goal Rating Scale

The following rating is black and white and makes it

simple to understand.

Goal Achieved:o All milestones and success measures have

been achieved Active Goal:

o The goal is still in progress, somemilestones may have been achieved

Goal Not Met:o Timeframe for Goal has been met; however,

some or all milestones and successmeasures have not been met

Goal Deferred:o For timing or business reasons, this goal

has been deferred

Cont.


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Example 2 Competency Rating Scale

Consistently Observed: This competency isobserved on a constant basis; everyone in contactwith this person would observe excellence in this

area Observed: This competency is observed, please

continue to focus on it so that it is observedconstantly without exception

Observed Sometimes, DevelopmentOpportunity: The competency is observed on aninfrequent basis, there is a clear development

opportunity here Needs Immediate Improvement: The

competency is seldom observed

5.4 Content Career or Personal

Development Plans

There a two notable traps and pitfalls:

Not used everywhere like Goals andCompetencies

Discussion usually happens although concreteplanning and documentation is often missed andnot recorded.

It is important that career development is linked back

to the competencies and behaviours that have been

created. A process needs to be set up, just like goalsand objectives, were we set, monitor and evaluate the

career and personal development plan.

Cont


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w w w . e m P e r f o r m . c o . u k P a g e 1

The questions that you should be asking employees

include:

Do you feel ready to take on more responsibility? What position in the organisation would you like

to strive for?

Do you see yourself as a leader within theorganisation?

These are all important manager potential questions.

A critical area for effective appraisals, but nearly alwaysmissed off or forgotten by organisations, involves

asking the managers for specific employee potential

feedback. For example, is this employee ready to take

on more responsibility in the next 6 months, the next 3

years, is this employee promotable, do you think this

employee is going to leave the organisation in the next

12 months? This information is important because it is

used for succession planning.

There is a simple tool that makes use of the answers to

these questions, it is called the nine box talent matrix

and is discussed in the following section.

Once we have all the information in place, we want our

automated system to provide us with a lot ofreporting

and analytics. We see a lot of focus on compliance-

based reporting but not a lot of focus given to analysis

and metrics. What is the information telling you? Often

these reports are not used. They sit in the HR

practitioners office but are not shared with the

executives and managers.


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What we recommend is, before you put a Talent

Management system in place, think about the output

first. Before you think about the content, think about

what you want that system to tell you. Think aboutresults such as:

Trends, comparisons, counts & averages How many people are highly rated and in what

competency categories?

Where are the gaps? What skills are being used to address the gaps? How many goals have been met? How many people are working on an

organisational goal?

Is the achievement of organisational objectiveslopsided in the favour of one or two of the five

goals and only a small number of people workingon the other three?

Which employees should you cycle out of theorganisation?

These are all answers that you want to get from your

talent management process. You want your automated

system to tell you something!

The reporting tool is really important here and it is vital

to make sure that any performance management

system that you put into place has good reporting

capabilities. Not just canned reports, but ad hoc reports

with lots of visuals and most importantly, once youve

generated these, that you share these with the

management and executive team. This is where it all

comes together, at the end of the process the simplest

and most effective gauge of talent is available, but

always under used.


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6.0 Nine Box Talent Matrix

What we recommend is that you introduce and use the

Nine Box Talent Matrix. Use it as the basis of your

succession planning and your talent reviews and you

will be easily and quickly ready to act upon your results.

Here is an illustrated example of a nine box talent

matrix:

Behind the scenes how does this work and what is

happening here? We have used our simple content and

ratings related to Competencies and Goals/Objectives tocalculate a performance score and put employees into

this Nine Box grid. This performance score is correlated

with answers to the potential questions that were

asked in the Career Development plan.

Cont.


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The employees in the top right hand corner are the

successors in the organisation. Anyone who appears in

the bottom left hand corner should be cycled out of the

organisation as they are not performing and potentiallyharming the business. The people in the middle need to

be developed and worked with.

Now we have a easy-to-understand nine-box talent

matrix; a simple, easy to build report, which can easily

be shared with executives, managers and potentially

even employees. Everyone can understand this and it

can easily be related to compensation, training anddevelopment, talent pools, leadership and succession

plans. The nine box is critical, it is what makes the

process come together by combining all the information

we have collected. It creates an analytical approach to

talent management that is simple and easy to present

to others.


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7.0 360 Degree Multi-Rater Reviews

On the back of the nine box, we recommend that you

run a 360 degree review on all employees with

potential, in order to ensure that you are eliminating

any managerial bias.

Another common pitfall of talent management and

performance appraisals is irregular or limited feedback.

360 degree multi-rater reviews offer the easy full-circle

solution.

More and more organisations are choosing to

incorporate these types of assessments into their

overall talent management process, and if youre

looking for a more holistic approach, then a 360 tool

might be something to keep in mind. Not only do 360

degree evaluations maximise results by collecting

observations from multiple sources (including peers,

supervisors, internal and external customers, and self-assessments), they help highlight employee strengths

and weaknesses, making it easier to provide valuable

feedback and modify employee behaviour when needed.

If implemented correctly, 360 degree reviews can be

extremely effective and executing a 360 degree review

is simple.

Cont


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The 360 degree evaluation process can be summed up

in three simple steps:

1. Develop survey questions, create customisedforms, and select your participants

2. Administer the assessment and review theresults.

3. Use the feedback that youve received to follow-up with relevant training and development plans.


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8.0 Summary

In conclusion, there is no talent management softwareyou can simply buy off the shelf and no consulting guru

who can jet in and solve all your talent management

and people challenges. Furthermore, the more

expensive and more complex the software the more

likely it is to lead to failure. We believe that quite often,

the simpler the solution the greater the level of success.

Remember, everyone needs to be trained and

understand how to use it. Dont make life too

complicated for yourself; simplicity is key for aneffective talent management process.

Every organisation is different and has its own approach

to talent management, however the key to talent

management should remain the same: establishing a

clear vision, core values and reason for existence. Its

about valuing your employees and their overall

contribution to the organisation.


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How to simplify and improve your talent management process - Part 2