the top 15 strategic things that talent management should be doing
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Outlining the most important strategic things that Talent managers should be doing to increase their strategic impact and credibilityTRANSCRIPT
THE TOP 15 STRATEGIC THINGS
THAT TALENT MANAGEMENT
SHOULD BE DOING© Dr John Sullivan
www.drjohnsullivan.com 1
Introduction
Many talent management leaders are risk adverse and although they talk about the need to "be more strategic" they all too frequently find excuses that indefinitely postpone those strategic actions
I suggest that the leadership set aside at least half a day for the team to identify upcoming problems and opportunities and the resulting strategic moves that need to be made
This is a checklist of the strategic talent management actions that I’ve found that the very best corporations should have on their "to do list"
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What keeps CEO’s up at night?
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Let’s start with a question
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What are the business areas where CEO’s expect the most change?
1. Engagement with the Board of Directors
2. Capital structure
3. Focus on corporate reputation & rebuilding trust
4. Organizational structure (including M&A)
5. Investment decisions
6. Approaches to managing risk
7. Strategies for managing talent
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What is the #1 business issue for CEO’s?
PwC 14th annual global CEO survey 2011
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Conclusion - Because CEO’s now know our importance
If you are not currently getting a boatload of money
from your executives… something is wrong!
And realize that… our area is where CEO’s expect the most change
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If you need dramatic change
What are the top 15 strategic
things that Talent Management
can do to dramatically change
their results?
The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
1) Increase the productivity of your workforce Workforce productivity is merely comparing the
output of your entire workforce (the total value of the products and services they produce) with the cost of your workforce (total labor and HR costs)
Many Talent Management departments measure engagement (a precursor to productivity) but they don't measure workforce productivity and even fewer take proactive actions to directly increase it
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
1) Increase the productivity (Continued) Increasing productivity requires Talent
Management to identify the barriers that restrict productivity
And then to proactively provide the consulting advice, best practices and tools that have been proven to increase a team's productivity
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Productivity comes from these 20 key factors that managers can change
1. A great manager 2. Effective plans & strategies3. Clear and prioritized
goals /activities to focus the work
4. Rapid learning / sharing5. Right motivators / rewards 6. The right employee skills 7. 2 way communications8. Performance metrics9. Quality team members
from great hiring & retention10.Collaboration for innovation
11.“Right job” placement12.Processes are integrated13.Information for decisions14.The right tools/technology15.Quality inputs/materials16.Enough budget/ resources17.The work environment is
designed for productivity18.Time devoted to the task19.Outside of work factors 20.ID & removing barriers to
productivity/innovation
More productiveMake internal talent more productive
RetainRetain key internal talent
MoveRedeploy internal talent
BorrowBorrow contingent labor
HR has only 8 options for increasing productivity
Release Weak & excess labor
Use substitutes (Tech, contingent, outsource, cust.)
Buy Recruit regular employees
BuildDevelop internal talent
The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
2) Increase employee innovation Fierce marketplace competition requires firms to
accelerate innovation in product and service areas despite having fewer resources
Rather than targeting a few departments, HR must increase innovation in all areas of the business
Innovation may be becoming more impactful that workforce efficiency
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
Increase employee innovation by: The targeted hiring of innovators
Retaining innovators
Identifying and minimizing the barriers that innovators face within the Corporation
HR must help shape the culture so that the expectation of continuous innovation permeates every business area and function
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
3) Reward great people management Most managers simply don't spend enough time on
talent management activities
Managers are not directly measured or rewarded based on how well they manage their talent. This is true even though HR “owns” all of the key components related to measuring and rewarding (performance management, performance appraisal, competencies and reward systems)
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
3) Reward great people management (Continued) The key action step is to develop a "people
management scorecard" for each individual manager and reward them based on their performance against those standards
Next: An example of a manager scorecard >
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Quarterly people management scorecard
1.Team productivity & quality2.Employee innovation impacts3.Quality of hires4.Retention of key employees5.Development of leaders6.Internal release of developed leaders7.Employee satisfaction with feedback8.Best practice sharingAverage combined rating on the 8 factors ______
Bot
. 10%
Bel
ow a
ver.
Ave
rage
Top
25%
Top
5%
Name _________________ Dept._________Quarter # ______
Key people mgmt performance factors
The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
4) Identify and fix bad managers Research by Google has shown that in most cases,
an employee’s manager is the single highest impact factor on the hiring, retention, innovation, productivity and the development of employees
Yet most organizations have no formal program for identifying weak managers
Strategic actions would include implementing surveys and metrics to identify with managers and to provide general list with proven tools and approaches to improve a manager’s people management performance
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
5) Convert Talent Management metrics into their dollar impact
Unfortunately, most traditional talent management metrics fail to impress executives because they are not expressed in "the language of business", which is dollars
Senior managers care most about increasing revenue, not Over Head functions
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
How to convert (Continued) Saying we have a 12% turnover rate, a 54%
engagement rate or an 87 day time to fill generally won't impress senior managers because the metrics are not expressed in their dollar impact on corporate revenue
In contrast, stating that every percentage point increase in regrettable employee turnover costs us $7.2 million get an immediate reaction. Work with the CFO's office to credibly calculate the impacts
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
6) Calculate the risks of weak Talent Management Risk management is an increasingly important
function throughout the business, but unfortunately, few talent management functions have put anyone charge of risk management
Risk managers identify and quantify the risks associated with potential talent problems (its probability and likely costs)
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
6) Calculate the risks (Continued) Risk managers can show how underfunding
important talent programs can create tremendous economic risks such as losing key innovators to competitors, failing to have enough developed leaders and a weak employer brand that drives top candidates away
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
7) You need to prepare for a leadership gap A combination of increased growth and higher
turnover rates will mean that most corporations will begin to suffer because of a lack of leadership benchstrength
In addition, because the type of leaders that will be needed will also change, the entire leadership and succession program will have to be re-examined and new social media and project rotation tools will need to be developed and implemented
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
8) Speed up internal movement through proactive internal placement
Few things increase productivity, retention and development faster than faster internal movement
Unfortunately, most corporate programs require the employee to initiate the movement and to find the "correct" placement area
A more strategic approach is a proactive one where recruiters periodically identify and then help to correctly place employees that should be moved both for their own and for the corporate good
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
9) Improve internal best practice sharing Talent management leaders spend most of their
time and resources on developing new programs and approaches
Surprisingly, you can have a higher impact faster and at lower cost by simply identifying and sharing "hidden" existing best practices
A superior approach is a proactive one that seeks out these affected practices wherever they might be in the organization. And once identified, they are shared in such a manner that managers easily understand their value and implement them
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
10) Update your retention program Retention programs have been allowed to atrophy
because the economy has reduced most employee turnover to a trickle
Unfortunately, turnover is about to dramatically increase, so processes to prioritize key individuals, processes for identifying who is at risk and retention toolkits need to be reinvigorated before it is too late
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
11) Employee referral programs need to be reinvigorated As the rate of hiring and competition for talent
increase, stagnant employee referral programs need to be re-examined
Because they produce the highest quality and volume of hires, referrals as the percentage of all hires should begin to reach over 40%
Employee referral programs must be closely integrated with the developing social media approaches
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
12) Assess your external employer brand During the economic downturn, the area of
employer branding has been frequently ignored because very little hiring was going on
Unfortunately during the same time the reputation of many corporations has been tarnished as a result of layoffs, salary/promotion freezes and a reduction and development resources
Corporate images in general and in some specific industries like banking, oil etc. have been damaged by recent events and “occupy” type movements
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
12) Your external employer brand (Continued) The growth of glassdoor.com, blogs, Twitter and
Facebook now make it much easier for negative messages to be spread
At the very least, the positive/negative aspects of your employer brand should be measured and monitored before an upturn in hiring begins
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
13) Re-examine your social media approach Although many talent managers have "done
something" in the area of social media recruiting, it's important to now realize that the potential for social media in talent management is much greater than almost everyone anticipated
Plans should be developed to determine how social media can positively impact training, employee development, learning, retention, collaboration, problem identification, crowdsourcing of answers and best practice sharing
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
13) Re-examine social media (Continued) The mobile platform should be examined in a
similar manner because it is rapidly becoming "the dominant communications platform" for employees
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
14) College recruiting needs to be reengineered Communications and job seeking approaches have
changed dramatically on college campuses but college recruiting programs have unfortunately been stagnant for years
Program features that need to be examined include remote college recruiting, social media approaches aimed at college students, mobile platform approaches and marketing research to better understand the needs and the actions of top grads
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
15) Improve non-monetary motivation When compensation and cash rewards are limited,
nonmonetary motivators need to be emphasized
Unfortunately, the compensation function focuses almost exclusively on “expensive" salary, benefits and bonuses… even though a significant percentage of employee motivation comes from… recognition, praise and feedback
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The top 15 strategic actions in Talent Management
15) Improve non-monetary motivation (Continued) Talent management should develop non-monetary
motivation tools for managers that are easy to use and that produce measurable results
They should also target key employees and server them in order to identify “how to best manage and motivate me” plans
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Benchmark firms
Benchmark firms to learn from Many are from the Silicon Valley, which has
already returned to a "war for talent" (Google, Facebook, Zynga all approach talent management using a more scientific approach)
Firms outside of technology have also taken some amazing steps so they should not be ignored (Zappos, Sodexho, CACI, DaVita, Deloitte, KPMG, Pepsi and the U.S. Army have all taken bold steps)
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Other strategic actions in Talent Management
Additional strategic talent actions to consider On top of the 15 major actions, some other strategic actions to that you should consider include: Prepare for VUCA, the new normal - HR plans,
approaches and processes need to be improved so that they can handle the new business environment that we face (VUCA = Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity)
Increasing revenues – examining how talent management actions can directly increase individual employee revenue generation
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Other strategic actions in Talent Management
Additional strategic talent actions to consider Integration of HR functions – an almost universal
weakness is a lack of integration. Talent management functions must more closely cooperate, coordinate and integrate so that they work seamlessly
Hire right before they do – if your firm doesn't have the strongest employer brand, location or glamorous product, you must develop a plan to quickly initiate hiring immediately before your talent competitors. A rapid "explode out-of-the-blocks" plan is also required
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Other strategic actions in Talent Management
Additional strategic talent actions to consider Avoid Corporate Headcount “Fat” - setting up a
process that ensures that the return to hiring doesn't result in a surplus of employees (i.e. headcount fat)
Competitive analysis - identifying the competitive advantage that your talent management practices provide compared to your talent competitors
Prioritizing – prioritizing jobs, managers and talent management programs so that your limited resources provide the highest possible impact
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Other strategic actions in Talent Management
Additional strategic talent actions to consider SWAT team – creating a rapid response team that
can respond to sudden talent management opportunities and problems
Alerts - providing a process that alerts managers about upcoming problems before they get out of hand
Lean or agile Talent Management - adapting lean, CRM and agile business approaches and tools to the area of talent management
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Other strategic actions in Talent Management
Additional strategic talent actions to consider Remote work opportunities – as technology,
communications and social media tools improve, talent management must develop ways that allows top talent to work "from anywhere“
Forward-looking metrics – unfortunately, almost all current talent management and recruiting metrics are backward looking, in that they tell you what happened in the past. Instead, forward looking and predictive metrics that allow for improved decision-making need to replace them
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Other strategic actions in Talent Management
Additional strategic talent actions to consider Reengineer performance appraisals - this is an
almost universally disliked process that requires tremendous amount of time but produces no measurable results. A completely new approach is required
Transparency - throughout the business world there is an increasing emphasis on transparency and openness. The time has come for talent management leaders to reassess their entire approach to secrecy, privacy and the degree of openness with employees and applicants
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Other strategic actions in Talent Management
Additional strategic talent actions to consider Cloud Talent Management - HR and talent
management processes and technology cannot be exempt from the powerful trend to move everything to the cloud
Prepare for the skill gap – the skills required by organizations will continually to upgrade, while the available labor with those skills will continue to decline
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Did I make you think?
Audience Select the #1 “dumb thing” that recruiters do
1. Using active approaches for passive candidates 2. Not identifying their job acceptance criteria3. Not prioritizing jobs 4. Not managing the candidate experience 5. Expecting dull position descriptions to sell6. Not learning the business7. Using the same rec. process for different level jobs8. Making slow hiring decisions 9. Assuming interviews are accurate 10.Not taking advantage of EE referrals