Talent Managemnt [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

What is Talent Management? Talent management is an integral part of human resource management. Talent management can be defined as a deliberate approach implemented to recruit or hire, develop and retain people with required aptitude or skills to meet the present and future goals or needs of the organization. It is the creation and maintenance of a supportive and pro-people organizational culture. Talent management is, therefore, the commitment of an organization to recruit, develop, retain the most talented and qualitative employees available in the job market. Objectives of talent management     

1.Identify the key gaps between the talent in place and the talent required to drive business success. 2.Develop a sound integrated talent management plan designed to close the talent gaps. 3.Facilitate and support management to implement accurate hiring and promotion decisions. 4.Develop talent to enhance performance in current positions as well as readiness for transition to the next level. 5.Develop a succession and retention plan to sustain organizational excellence 6.Measure business impact and workforce effectiveness during and after implementation

Importance of talent management Talent management is not just a simple human resource key term one will come across. It is also committed to hire, manage, develop, and retain the most talented and excellent employees in the industry. In fact, talent management plays an important role in the business strategy since it manages one of the important assets of the company—its people. That is why companies should make the effort to effectively manage the employees to help them develop their skills and capabilities in order to retain them. Here are some reasons why companies should invest in talent management. 

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Attract top talent Having a strategic talent management gives organizations the opportunity to attract the most talented and skilled employees available. It creates an employer brand that could attract potential talents, and in turn, contributes to the improvement of the organizations’ business performance and results. Employee motivation. Having a strategic talent management helps organizations keep their employees motivated which creates more reasons for them to stay in the company and do their tasks. In fact, 91 percent of employees shared that they wanted more than just money to feel engaged and motivated, as revealed by Chandler and Macleod’s survey. Continuous coverage of critical roles. Talent management equips companies with the tasks that require critical skills to plan and address the important and highly specialized roles in the workforce to its employees. This means that the company will have a continuous flow of employees to fill critical roles to help companies run their operations smoothly and avoid extra workload for others, which could lead to exhaustion. Increase employee performance. The use of talent management will make it easier for the companies to identify which employees will be best suited for the job that can lead to less performance management issues and grievances. It will also guarantee that the top talent within the company stays longer.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

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Engaged employees Talent management allows companies to make systematic and consistent decisions about the development of staff, which guarantees the employees’ skills and development. Furthermore, employees will feel more engaged when there is a fair procedure for the development, which helps in increasing the retention rates that helps companies in meeting their operational requirements. Retain top talent. Well-structured on-boarding practices create higher levels of retention which saves the company on its recruitment and performance management cost in the long run. Improve business performance. Talent management helps employees feel engaged, skilled, and motivated, allowing them to work in the direction of the company’s business goals, which in turn, increases client satisfaction and business performance. Higher client satisfaction. A systematic approach to talent management means that there is an organizational integration and a consistent approach to management. When systems are more integrated, client satisfaction rates are usually higher, since they are dealing with fewer people and their needs are met more rapidly.

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Babita, 09, MBA(F)

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

Talent Management Process People are, undoubtedly the best resources of an organization. Sourcing the best people from the industry has become the top most priority of the organizations today. In such a competitive scenario, talent management has become the key strategy to identify and filling the skill gap in a company by recruiting the high-worth individuals from the industry. It is a never-ending process that starts from targeting people. The process regulates the entry and exit of talented people in an organization. To sustain and stay ahead in business, talent management can not be ignored. In order to understand the concept better, let us discuss the stages included in talent management process: 

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Understanding the Requirement: It is the preparatory stage and plays a crucial role in success of the whole process. The main objective is to determine the requirement of talent. The main activities of this stage are developing job description and job specifications. Sourcing the Talent: This is the second stage of talent management process that involves targeting the best talent of the industry. Searching for people according to the requirement is the main activity. Attracting the Talent: it is important to attract the talented people to work with you as the whole process revolves around this only. After all the main aim of talent management process is to hire the best people from the industry. Recruiting the Talent: The actual process of hiring starts from here. This is the stage when people are invited to join the organization. Selecting the Talent: This involves meeting with different people having same or different qualifications and skill sets as mentioned in job description. Candidates who qualify this round are invited to join the organization. Training and Development: After recruiting the best people, they are trained and developed to get the desired output.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

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Retention: Certainly, it is the sole purpose of talent management process. Hiring them does not serve the purpose completely. Retention depends on various factors such as pay package, job specification, challenges involved in a job, designation, personal development of an employee, recognition, culture and the fit between job and talent. Promotion: No one can work in an organization at the same designation with same job responsibilities. Job enrichment plays an important role. Competency Mapping: Assessing employees’ skills, development, ability and competency is the next step. If required, also focus on behaviour, attitude, knowledge and future possibilities of improvement. It gives you a brief idea if the person is fir for promoting further. Performance Appraisal: Measuring the actual performance of an employee is necessary to identify his or her true potential. It is to check whether the person can be loaded with extra responsibilities or not. Career Planning: If the individual can handle the work pressure and extra responsibilities well, the management needs to plan his or her career so that he or she feels rewarded. It is good to recognize their efforts to retain them for a longer period of time. Succession Planning: Succession planning is all about who will replace whom in near future. The employee who has given his best to the organization and has been serving it for a very long time definitely deserves to hold the top position. Management needs to plan about when and how succession will take place. Exit: The process ends when an individual gets retired or is no more a part of the organization.

Talent Management process is very complex and is therefore, very difficult to handle. The sole purpose of the whole process is to place the right person at the right place at the right time. The main issue of concern is to establish a right fit between the job and the individual. Talent Management ─ Methodology Every organization has a different methodology for talent management. The following diagram shows the complete cycle of talent management which involves Planning, Acquiring, Developing, and Retaining of able and skilled personnel for the organization. The steps are as follows: 1) Planning ─ It involves identifying, defining, and setting criteria for required capabilities as well as examining the current talent levels. 2) Acquiring ─ It utilizes a varied range of strategies to attract talent. 3) Developing ─ It involves providing opportunities for career development and training, managing employee performance, coaching and mentoring. 4) Retaining ─ It involves providing long-term incentive, a flexible and positive work environment, and opportunities for advancement of good remuneration. 1) Planning Talent In this methodology, the organization establishes defined competencies and sets criteria to measure the talent skills. i) Focus on Talent: Once you know what your organization needs, you can start thinking about what type of talent potential to focus on.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

ii) Define Competence: Competencies are lasting individual attributes that cause high levels of performance. In this stage, the organization clearly defines the specific and usable skills and talents its employees need, so as to realize organizational goals and objectives. iii) Measure Criteria: There should be a set of criteria to evaluate, measure, and develop specific competency. You need objective criteria to measure competencies effectively. iv) Talent Audit: An audit may include different types of activities designed to evaluate the level of competence. Methods include psychometric tests and questionnaires, in-depth interviews, case studies, and analysis of the most recent performance reviews. 2) Acquiring Talent In this stage of methodology, the organization promotes its values to attract talented people to apply and join the organization. It includes interviewing, selecting, and onboarding employees. i) Attracting: Organizations promote their culture and values to attract talented and skilled people from the industries to work with. ii) Recruiting: A recruiting brand reflects the core values of the organization and communicates the advantages of working for the organization. iii) Selecting: This process involves multiple steps such as interviews, tests, and background checks. iv) Employing: It is the final stage of hiring the skilled and talented people in the organization. 3) Developing Talent It includes talent management readiness, career development and training, performance management, and coaching and mentoring. These are the core objectives of this phase. i) Talent Readiness Training: These competencies help the organization attract, identify and develop talent. ii) Career Development & Training: Training program is useful for upgrading talent and skills of the employees and prepare them for future challenges. iii) Performance Management: Performance management incorporates setting goals, giving performance reviews, and providing feedback. iv) Coaching & Mentoring: Coaching and mentoring develops talent by encouraging people to excel at their work and to learn on the job. These techniques engage people on a more emotional level. 4) Retaining Talent The longer you retain talented people in your organization, the greater the return on your investment. Retaining, the fourth phase of methodology, is to define several strategies that can help retain talent. i) Long-term Incentives: Long-term incentives such as stock options or paid vacation or other benefits increasing over time can encourage employees to coupletheir careers and personal goals with a long-term commitment or association with the organization. ii) Career Planning: This involves providing genuine opportunity for advancement to the employees to retain talent in the organization. iii) Flexible Working Arrangements: When working arrangements are inflexible and fixed, the options available to employees are limited – forcing them to choose between staying with or leaving an organization.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

iv) Talent Culture: Positive work environment is a key factor to retain talent. Management needs to monitor these levels of satisfaction so they can forestall problems before people leave an organization.

Talent Management System Talent management systems (TMS) integrate key areas of talent management, creating one hub for recruiting, on boarding, performance and goal management, learning management, compensation and salary planning, career development, and succession planning.

What is a talent management system? Talent management in general focuses on the management of people within a company and bringing the best possible value from employees. It’s the part of HR that is the most business oriented, and as such the business has high expectations for its success. It’s no surprise then that most talent management activities directly link with the business’ goals. They involve (but are not limited to):     

The hiring, on boarding and development of employees Connecting employees and driving collaboration Managing performance, career development and succession plans Providing learning and retraining to employees Performing employee assessments, appraisals and compensation management Talent management systems aim to make these talent management tasks more unified and integrated for companies. Typically, they integrate key areas of talent management, by using software to simplify and create one hub for recruiting, onboarding, performance and goal management, learning management, compensation and salary planning, career development, and succession planning. They also reduce the admin time required from HR teams, and make talent management smarter through data, providing reporting, analytics and machine learning on topics such as goal management, performance management, talent pools, employee engagement, candidate management and more – all through one HR portal. Since talent management is centred on the employees, talent management systems also provide a holistic view of employees and anticipate the future talent and skills needs across the organisation. In consequence, HR people in charge of talent management (often known as HR development managers), are aided by talent management systems, as they can help answer questions such as:

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How can I ensure my recruiting attracts the best candidates? Does my on boarding contribute to higher retention? Does my internal mobility strategy reflect my succession planning needs?

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

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Am I planning for the long-term to avoid skills gaps? Talent management systems are, of course, used by employees too – not just HR, and so it’s important that they are user-friendly. To be successful, any talent management software being implemented should have an excellent user experience, be accessible through mobile devices – not just desktop, and be fast. Companies should also think about elements that employees might be used to in their everyday tech interactions – like chatbots and recommendations through predictive analytics, which could further improve the talent experience. So, what are the benefits of implementing a talent management system? If companies choose well and integrate a successful system, they can expect benefits such as:

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Attracting top talent: recruiting systems will be simpler and more efficient for recruiters and candidates alike, improving employer branding and reducing time-to-hire Boosted employee motivation and engagement: management will have a better means of identifying learning needs among staff and supporting their career progression – ensuring employees have greater job satisfaction and support. Management can also determine the best internal employees for leadership roles and ensure they are on track for those positions Lowered risk of skills gaps: with a holistic view of employees, HR will be able to see where the company is at risk of having skills gaps, where employees need to bolster their skills to avoid gaps, and what kind of people may be best to hire to avoid talent shortages all together Improved talent retention: from an excellent hiring process, to slick onboarding, to seamless employee management – a good talent management system makes for a great employee experience and can improve retention. This also lowers costs associated with employee turnover and hiring Greater business performance and client satisfaction: more engaged employees perform better, and better performing people keep clients happy and improve business performance Improved HR processes: for talent management to be strategic, HR processes like onboarding, performance management, etc, must run smoothly. In addition, the talent management system has to include the most modern methods to engage employees: AI-based recommendation in training and succession, transparent mobility, ongoing performance reviews with regular conversations and social feedback. This optimises processes making them more efficient and effective

Who uses a talent management system?

Talent management systems are used by any company that wants to better engage their employees. Since many companies invest in people (starting with their salaries), it makes sense for companies to also invest in a talent-centric approach that can bring consistency and broader benefits than a bigger pay cheque can. Used properly, these systems can bring many benefits to management, HR, and employees generally such as better talent attraction and retention, improved goal management, fewer empty job roles, better business performance and more. All of these groups also feel the benefit of how the software-based system can tie together formerly disparate systems into one HR portal – creating a single hub for people management.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

So, how might different people in a company use talent management software to achieve these benefits? Everyone uses it differently, but the below snapshot summarises the key users: 1. The employees themselves need talent management software to access the required learning in their progression plans, share knowledge among each other, apply to open positions internally, give feedback on their peers, and more. With so many of the talent management system’s benefits affecting this group, it’s important that they have simple, convenient, user-friendly, and mobile-ready access to the system at all times. 2. Managers need talent management system access so that they can have a clear view on their team, evaluate people’s performance, give feedback to others, assign training courses and more. 3. The HR team needs an efficient system that gives them a comprehensive view of skills and competencies across the entire organisation, an ability to plan global activities (training, performance reviews, and more), a means to anticipate and plan for skills gaps, and a way to manage the future workforce and recruitment for it 4. The C-suite uses talent management systems to have a consolidated view of all the company’s employees, to perform advanced searches of people within the organisation and their abilities (e.g. who has the best competencies to manage a new project?), and to plan a global talent strategy for the company 5. External partners, resellers and clients may also use a company’s talent management system in order to access particular information and to communicate with the organisation (for example, to be trained on new products or give feedback) As is clear, talent management systems can be used in many different ways and by many different groups within the organisation. From a strategic standpoint, HR and recruiting teams will use it the most, alongside management teams, but every employee within an organisation will end up feeling the benefits of it – not just HR. It’s important, however, for those buying talent software for a company to conduct a proper assessment before investing in it to ensure they’re looking for the best possible system for their organisation’s needs. Strategic HR is a competitive market and new companies are popping up every day to help companies in the war for talent and employee engagement – so research is critical to make sure your company doesn’t end up with something unsuitable. A talent management system is also the best way for HR to measure the impact of its workforce on the business. Through advanced analytics tools, organisations are able to have accurate data and metrics on their employees. Success measures can be HR-centric (for example, figures around retention, employee happiness, recommendations, compliance risk reduction, etc) but also business-centric (for example, being able to benchmark talent performance against other companies, being able to build a competency-based project team, etc.)

How to implement a talent management system?

Implementing a talent management system is an excellent step for companies to improve their employee engagement, management processes, recruitment and retention, and overall business performance. However, the first step before implementing any talent management system is to identify what your company truly needs it for. What are the goals of doing this implementation? What do you hope to achieve

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

as a result of having talent management software? Using these questions as a basis will help inform what is important, what your company needs to prioritise in choosing which vendor to go with, and whether you need a complete overhaul of your existing system or just some ‘add-ons’. Once you’ve set your goals, it’s also important to look at all vendors with usability and accessibility in mind. You should always request a demo of the talent management software you are considering so you can get a feel for the platforms first hand, rather than having to rely on the descriptions alone. Everyone is now used to responsive, quick, easy-to-use technology, and your talent management system should be no different. As a starting point, some things you may wish to ask yourself as you search through providers and undertake demos are:        

Does the vendor provide a mobile-friendly platform? Is the interface and user-experience intuitive? Can I navigate this without instruction? Is the interface responsive and adaptable to desktops, tablets, and mobile? Can we customise or brand any elements of the system for our employees? What do the reports look like? Will it be easy to see and pull reports from the talent management system? How often does the software get updated with new features or products? How will this software be able to scale if the company’s workforce grows significantly in number or by country? Is the software offering rich and flexible analytics, including measurement of HR performance and AI-based recommendations? Aside from goals and the interface itself, it’s also important to consider which vendors can best support you through the talent management system implementation process. What help will they give you? How long will it take? And can they recommend any partners to manage the project? These are very important questions, as you don’t want to buy your talent software, only to find you’re left on your own to make it work in the best way possible. Talent management software can be a big investment, and the management team will expect a return on investment. Without support on implementation and on the change management within your organisation, you could be in hot water. The best software vendors will be sure to advise you on the right system integrator for your implementation and will also continue to support you even after the initial implementation is done. They’ll have a clear commitment to ensuring you get the most out of the software and understand how to use every part. You may feel that you do not need or want such support, but it’s a good idea to regularly engage in conversation with the software vendor and others to learn best practice and optimise how you manage your company’s talent. The Seven Components of Talent Management System Talent management includes seven components that, when implemented strategically, combine to keep an organization on the leading edge. 

Strategic Employee Planning. Developing your organizational goals and strategic plan is the first step. Next you must think about how to reach your goals and implement the plan. More specifically, you must identify the key roles and personnel who will get you there. You may already

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

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have the positions and people in place, or you may need to adjust the current structure to fill the gaps. Talent Acquisition and Retention. Bringing new talent into your organization is important, yet equally so is recognizing and cultivating talent you already have in-house. Hiring from within your organization is more cost-effective, so when you’re working at talent pooling, remember to look internally as well as externally. Performance Management. Aligning the right person with the right role is the heart of performance management. Its ultimate goal is to ensure that roles align with business strategy to achieve goals. It enables you to ensure that you’re aligning a talented employee with a role that suits them, develops goals for success, supports their development, and moves the organization forward. Learning and Motivating. Semantics become important here, because learning is more than training. Learning is the acquisition of information and skills, which yields knowledge and experience. Implement learning programs that include activities and tasks that support the organization’s culture and initiatives. When employees see how their growth impacts the organization, they’ll see just how valuable their role is. Compensation. Alignment remains the important concept. Aligning your strategic goals with incentives means recognizing employees, rewarding contributions to success, and acknowledging their value to the organization. Career Development. This ties back to the talent retention component and the notion that hiring from within is not only an option, but often preferable. Nurture potential leaders by providing professional development tools that can advance their career. Succession Planning. Knowing the talent within your organization is a start. Knowing the key roles essential to its success is equally vital. Which roles are critical to success? Who currently fills those roles? What happens when those positions become available? Having a plan in place means that the decisions are already made, and that the organization will continue to run smoothly if a key position must be filled quickly.

BENEFITS OF TMS 1.Connecting and Sharing Data The right TMS can integrate and align core HR processes. While much of the data collected through a HRIS is stored in silos and can be difficult to reach and analyse, an integrated TMS shares data across the entire system allowing for easy access. This gives a clearer understanding of what that data means for your business and enables you to make informed, strategic business decisions. 2. Strategic Hiring Process Having a TMS can help you recruit those really talented candidates that everyone is after. By integrating tasks such as posting job descriptions, tracking applicants and making it easy to manage offers, a TMS streamlines your hiring process, allowing you time to focus on the candidates. 3. Improved Onboarding Experience An organised and efficient approach to onboarding is achievable with a TMS. You can create employee profiles which hold all of the information and data collected during the recruitment and hiring processes. Automating the new hire paperwork can save both you and the new hire time which you can then use to focus on the new recruit.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

4. Retain Top Talent Once you have the best employees, you need to keep them. With all of the employee information hosted on one platform and neatly organised into an online profile, you can track performance reviews, goals, skills and career aspirations to make sure your employees are happy and on the right track. Having a TMS in place to capture all of that data makes it easy to analyse and report on which employees need developing, monitoring or even promoting. 5. Employee Development A good integrated TMS should include options for employee learning and development. It enables employees to take courses, develop skills and in some cases pursue certifications relevant to their professional development. TMS solutions also collect data on what skills an employee has and allows the HR team to assign training which the employee can then access from their personal profile. 6. Improved Employee Experience As we know, employee turnover is something to be avoided at all costs. A TMS that integrates with payroll improves the employee experience by allowing access to payslips, holiday requests and management of sick leave. Organisational charts can also be included, letting employees know the reporting and management structure of the company. 7. Increase Employee and Manager Engagement If you’re looking to increase engagement in your company, implementing a TMS can help. The employee profile empowers employees and managers to interact with the employee’s professional career progression. An integrated TMS solution encourages them to invest in the organisation and align their daily work with the business goals while also focusing on their personal goals. Talent Management System Challenges 1) Poor Hiring Strategies: The beginning of the talent management system begins with the filling of an open position with a talented professional. To fulfill such a task it is essential for the company to have a strong staffing management plan. A lack of good management and plan might result in a few difficulties that affect the further talent management process. The businesses often face difficulty in attracting talent and influencing them to accept their job offer. The major reason behind this is the too long hiring process. Such ineffective hiring strategies make it difficult for the company to source the top talent and to attract them to join the firm. 2) Encouraging Passion: The talented professional loves to be part of the firm whose environment suits their values, attitude, and expectations. Good salary and hike is not only their primary objective and the reason for being part of the company. The real talent does care for the firm that cares for their talent in return. They like the firm that engages them in a worthy task. Most of the employers do not consider such needs and fails to employ talented professionals in their organization.

3) The inexperience of Technology: Since today's world is technology driven thus it becomes essential to remain updated. It is very important for the HR department and other employees to actively participate in learning new technologies and software introduced in the company. The talent management system uses an applicant tracking system that helps the hiring team to post jobs, send emails to multiple people, and to organize the candidate's resume. The lack of knowledge about

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

novel technologies and software results in ending up the talent management and put a hold on businesses processes.

4) Ineffective Leadership: Good leadership quality is the foundation of talent management. The manager and top employees play an effective role in hiring and retaining potential candidates. An ineffective leadership among the managing department results in delivering improper guidance in developing talent and inefficiency in carrying out talent management.

5) Employee Turnover: The major objective of talent management is to focus on the development of an employee. Proper growth of an employee in terms of knowledge and skills help them to feel valued, challenged, and satisfied with their jobs. If the talent management is not implemented in the right way then a business could experience a high employee turnover rates, this might result in employee resignation that increases the business needs and compel them to start over their talent management process. This would be highly challenging if the list of employees leaving the company includes manager and high-level employees. In such cases, there is an increasing risk of failure in the talent management process.

6) Tightening talent market- When the unemployment rate skyrocketed back in the late 2000s, employers were easily able to find talented new recruits because the pool of applicants was huge. Now that it's fallen to less than 5 percent in some countries, however, it's much more difficult to find new personnel. If you don't have the resources to offer the highest compensation package, your company might consider other appealing job perks like flexible hours or remote positions.

7) Unappealing company culture- Younger employees (millennials, in particular) expect a different work environment than their predecessors did. Most recent grads aren't happy to sit at a desk, fulfill their job duties, and go home at the end of the workday. They're looking for jobs that offer perks like a relaxed, open communication policy; flexible scheduling; and meaningful job tasks with clear objectives. Companies that don't meet at least some of these demands will be hard-pressed to find suitable employees.

Ways To Overcome Challenges 

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Smart Hiring Strategies: Since the primary objective of the recruiter is to hire and retain the potential and best candidate who played a major role in the growth of the company. For this, it is essential for the recruiter to spend more time on shortlisting the candidates who can add to the businesses. Follow the best hiring practices and invest time in learning hiring strategies that help in attracting talent and in convincing them to work for your client. Enhancing Technological Experience: The recruiter must be aware of using applicant tracking software. Such technology automates these processes with software and help in accelerating the recruiting process and in searching the right talent for the company.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

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Developing Leadership Qualities: Although it is difficult to improve the current leadership it is possible to find and hire the talented manager. A company with good leaders help in recruiting the employee that fits best for the company. Also, the talented manager presents a good picture of the company and enhances business qualities.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

Key takeaways from the survey:

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

1. Talent planning is a powerful business driver. The survey found that the fastest-growing, best-performing middle-market companies place more importance on talent planning than their slower-growing peers. These companies were also more likely to engage in a full suite of talent planning activities. Researchers found that companies with an annual revenue growth of 10% or more were significantly more likely than slower growing organizations to say they performed “very well” or “extremely well” at talent planning initiatives. Those initiatives include identifying critical positions and can’t-lose players within the organization and engaging senior and line management in the talent planning process. Fewer than half of middle-market firms reported that they are currently implementing critical talent planning strategies. 2. The size and structure of an organization has a significant impact on how talent planning is conducted. The survey found that, as firms grow, they tend to put greater emphasis on talent planning and to adopt more formal talent planning processes. Businesses with private equity investment were more likely to follow guidelines for talent planning. By contrast, many family-owned businesses reported that they have kept their talent planning processes relatively informal. Researchers found that challenges among firms vary by revenue segment. Large middle-market firms tend to be more concerned with aligning talent and business strategy. Smaller middle-market companies tend to focus more on identifying and retaining their can’t-lose players. 3. There is room for improvement in the talent planning process. On the survey, many middle-market leaders gave their companies less-than-optimal ratings on their current talent planning programs. Only 14% of firms gave themselves an “A” grade for overall talent planning effectiveness. More than four in 10 companies graded themselves a “C” or lower. The most common weaknesses reported were succession planning, identifying skills gaps, and having processes in place for identifying/developing high potential employees. 4. The single most important thing companies lack is a systematic framework for talent planning. The study found a clear correlation between process formalization and how well companies perform at talent planning. It also discovered a well-defined link between the number of activities implemented and overall talent planning performance. Only 22% of all middle-market firms reported having a formalized talent planning process in place. Among companies that considered themselves the best at talent planning, 39% said that they relied on a formalized process. The survey also found that the fastest-growing, best-performing middle-market firms are more likely to have a defined process and to coordinate multiple talent planning activities. 5. Successful talent planning involves four core elements. Based on survey results, the researchers developed a framework for effective talent planning. This framework includes a comprehensive list of talent planning activities, which can be divided into four main categories: • Aligning talent strategy with corporate strategy • Building sufficient processes to ensure systematic talent planning efforts

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

• Involving leadership in the process as opposed to handing off to human resources • Engaging employees in talent planning and ensuring they recognize the value of the process 6. Succession planning, programs for high potential employees, and identification of skills gaps are critical areas for improvement. The study found that middle-market companies view these activities as important to the success of talent planning. However, the performance of companies in these areas was found to be lacking. Researchers concluded that making improvements to these aspects was likely to have the greatest overall impact on talent planning success in middle-market companies.

Succession Planning and Management Five-Step Process Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing new leaders who can replace old leaders when they leave, retire or die. Succession planning increases the availability of experienced and capable employees that are prepared to assume these roles as they become available. Taken narrowly, "replacement planning" for key roles is the heart of succession planning. Succession planning is the process of developing talent to replace executive, leadership or other key employees when they transition to another role, leave the company, are fired, retire or die. It is relevant to all companies, from the largest to the smallest, in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. The planning process is meant to create a talent pipeline of successors that will keep the organization running with little to no interruption when inevitable staff changes occur. STEP 1. Identify Key Areas and Positions Key areas and positions are those that are critical to the organization's operational activities and strategic objectives.  

Identify which positions, if left vacant, would make it very difficult to achieve current and future business goals Identify which positions, if left vacant, would be detrimental to the health, safety, or security of the Canadian public

STEP 2. Identify Capabilities for Key Areas and Positions To establish selection criteria, focus employee development efforts, and set performance expectations, you need to determine the capabilities required for the key areas and positions identified in Step 1.   

Identify the relevant knowledge, skills (including language), abilities, and competencies needed to achievebusiness goals Use the Key Leadership Competencies profile Inform employees about key areas and positions and required capabilities

STEP 3. Identify Interested Employees and Assess Them Against Capabilities Determine who is interested in and has the potential to fill key areas and positions.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

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Discuss career plans and interests with employees Identify the key areas and positions that are vulnerable and the candidates who are ready to advance or whose skills and competencies could be developed within the required time frame Ensure that a sufficient number of bilingual candidates and members of designated groups are in feeder groups for key areas and positions

STEP 4. Develop and Implement Succession and Knowledge Transfer Plans Incorporate strategies for learning, training, development, and the transfer of corporate knowledge into your succession planning and management.   

Define the learning, training, and development experiences that your organization requires for leadership positions and other key areas and positions Link employees' learning plans to the knowledge, skills (including language), and abilities required for current and future roles Discuss with employees how they can pass on their corporate knowledge

STEP 5. Evaluate Effectiveness Evaluate and monitor your succession planning and management efforts to ensure the following:    

Succession plans for all key areas and positions are developed; Key positions are filled quickly; New employees in key positions perform effectively; and Members of designated groups are adequately represented in feeder groups for key areas and positions

DESIGNING A SUCCESSION PLANNING PROGRAM 1) Step One: Identify Your Talent Management Business Goals Before you can create a valid talent management strategy, determine the one to three primary reasons you are implementing (or updating) a talent and succession management program in the first place, because the way you will design and measure the program will be very different based on your business goals, as shown in Table 13-1.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

Table 13-1 Business Goals and Focuses To identify and validate your primary succession planning goals, you will want to work with executives, line managers, HR business partners (especially the recruiting and organizational development professionals in the company). To begin planning a successful succession planning strategy, some organizations form a talent steering committee, composed of business leaders and HR professionals, to work together to create the strategy, to monitor the progress of the program, and to provide feedback, review results, and make continuous improvements. 2) Step Two: Establish Metrics and Baseline Data It may seem odd to establish metrics as a Step Two phase of the process, but in order to be able to demonstrate the business results and cost savings of your succession planning process, this is the time to identify the metrics to be used and to gather “before” baseline metrics, to create a comparison starting point. Before starting your succession planning process, you will want to gather the following baseline data: • What is the current internal fill percentage of open leadership positions? For example, currently open leadership positions are filled with internal candidates 25 percent of the time and with external candidates

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75 percent of the time. You might then set a goal to increase the internal fill of leadership positions by 10 percent over the next 12 months as one of your succession planning metrics. • What is the current percentage of leaders who will be eligible to retire each year? For example, 10 percent of your leaders will reach retirement eligibility in the next 12 months, 5 percent more will be eligible to retire within two years, and 25 percent more will be eligible to retire within three years, then you know the time period to prepare and develop successors, and you can look at the lines of business with the highest retirement eligibility percentages in order to focus efforts in the areas with the highest vacancy risk issues. • How much does it cost to replace a leader with an external candidate at the manager level, at the director level, at the vice president level, and at the executive level? This information is needed to calculate the cost savings to be achieved through your succession planning program. • What is the current turnover rate of employees in leadership positions in the organization? Compare the retention rate of high-potentials, successors, and experts identified through your talent review and succession planning process to the overall retention of leaders across the organization to ensure top talent is retained at the highest possible rate. It is important to obtain this basic measurement to compare retention changes over the coming years as succession plans and high potential development programs are executed. • What are our basic leadership statistics? Gather and document all the basic information about your leadership population, such as the ratio of leaders to employees in each department, in each geographic region, at each organizational level, and so on. This basic information may be needed at a later point in conjunction with one of your other metrics in order to formulate business results and conclusions. • What will our leadership staffing needs look like in the next year, in two years, and in three years? In addition to replacement planning to address vacancy risk issues, a succession management strategy should factor in the leadership staffing changes and/or growth needs expected within the next few years, at minimum. As part of your metrics and planning process, you will want to interview leaders and work with the recruiting management team to understand the workforce staffing strategy and the leadership competency and position needs for the future of the organization. 3) Step Three: Develop Your Scope, Criteria, Definitions, and Policies Formulate at least a three-year plan to define the scope of your succession planning efforts and to define successors and high-potential categories and selection criteria. This action will set appropriate expectations and create a workable plan that fits the most urgent talent and business needs. Even though it would be ideal to be able to create succession plans for every leader in the organization within the first year, for most companies this type of goal is too large to accomplish successfully. It is more important to implement a smaller scope succession strategy in the first year, allowing sufficient time to develop plan actions for these successors. A sample three-year plan might look like that in Table 13-2 (depending on the size of your company and the talent management resources, budget, and staff available).

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Table 13-2 Three-Year Plan Notice how the scope of the succession planning strategy (and the amount of work, budget, and resources involved) increases each year. Many organizations make the mistake of thinking that they can hire one talent management professional to handle the succession planning and leadership development strategy for multiple years. In reality, as successors and high- potentials are identified, more demands are placed on the talent management professional to not only complete talent review and succession planning processes but also work with internal recruiting professionals for internal placement and work with leaders and organizational development professionals to develop the successors and high-potentials. It is important to identify the budget, tools, and people resources needed within the three-year plan to ensure the program continues to be successful and sustainable. During this phase of the planning process, it is also time to identify the categories of successors by readiness level and/or by leadership level, and creating behavioral definitions for each category to enable leaders to accurately identify successors based on valid performance and potential factors. If highpotentials or experts in the organization will be identified, you will need to create (or purchase) behavior definitions, assessment tools, and criteria for leaders to use as they are nominating individuals for these talent categories.

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Documenting and communicating successor categories and definitions also increases the consistency of your processes and provides a fair and legally defensible succession planning strategy. All leaders in the organization will be referring to the same definitions and criteria as they are selecting successors, resulting in the identification of successors and high-potentials that will also be more successful moving across the organization rather than just moving and growing in a silo fashion within one department or division.

Table 13-3 Behavior Definitions An example of a successor category with a behavior definition is shown in Table 13-3. Don’t forget during this phase to also discuss and update your internal recruiting policies with business leaders and the recruiting department to help avoid issues and misunderstandings after your first succession planning cycle is complete. For example, once successors for leadership positions have been identified, will you still post these positions to all employees when they become vacant or will the successors have the first opportunity to interview and fill the positions? To avoid a “cherry-picking” problem where managers start to directly recruit individuals who have been identified as high-potentials, does your current internal recruiting procedure require managers to talk with each other before contacting the internal candidate directly? These are the types of policies you will want to either create or update to align with your new succession planning design. 4) Step Four: Creating Tools for Assessment and Successor Tracking During the preparation phase, either create or purchase tools and systems to assist leaders with the talent assessment and successor identification process, and create or purchase tools and systems to store the successor information, along with talent profiles and the development plans for the selected successor candidates. Your decision to create or purchase these tools will depend on your budget, your company size, the complexity of your organization, and the geographic spread of your organization. As another option, you can use either an internal technical team or an external software development designer to create custom tools that specifically meet your needs. Even if assessment and tracking tools consist of basic spreadsheets, you will need to design these tools and determine the best method of delivering the tools (along with instructions and Help information) to the business leaders. There is the school of thought that you should first create your succession planning design and wait to purchase a talent and succession planning and tracking system to match your design. There is another

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school of thought that it is much easier to purchase a talent and succession system that already provides much of the structure, tools, and definitions needed for your succession planning design. The right decision for your organization will depend on your budget, previous experience in succession planning, the complexity of your organization, and the urgency level of your succession planning needs. 5) Step Five: Communicate and Launch! You Cannot Communicate Too Much! Put together a documented communication plan that includes online tools and information, opportunities for training and presentations for leaders (virtual sessions or in-person meetings), and hardcopy materials as applicable to your culture and needs. A sample communication plan is shown in Table 13-4.

Table 13-4 Communication Plan A common mistake in the succession planning design process is to forget the importance of the communication plan and tools that can result in confusion, inconsistencies, and even suspicion of the succession planning strategy. Allow four to six weeks just to implement your communication and training plans. Ready to Go! Now that you have completed a thorough design process, you are ready to implement your strategy and procedures with confidence. Although it may seem a lot of time is spent on the planning process, creating a solid foundation before launching your succession planning program will enhance the reception from business leaders, the consistency of procedures, and the results achieved.

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TALENT DEVELOPMENT BUDGET For growth, the talent development budget is more important than any other budget. All organizations, regardless of size, should prepare a TDB for the long term as well as for the short term. The long-term TDB may be prepared for more than one year to allow sufficient time to plan major expenditures for acquiring Talents, keeping Talents, and training Talents. This budget may help to determine the goals of the organization. By preparing a TDB, organizations improve effectiveness and avoid poor allocation of resources. After an organization sets its goals, it can estimate how much to spend on acquiring, holding, and developing the Talents to meet the goals. A shortage of key Talent will lead to severe problems. If management spends more money in one low-priority area of business, the whole business suffers. Often Internet startup companies spend lots of money in advertising, which puts a company into a deep financial hole. Similarly, organizations cannot bear excessive costs on Talents. A TDB is not the same as a training and development budget. A training and development budget is not allocated for attracting and holding Talent or replacing Talent. For example, if your CEO quits and goes to a competitor, and you have no budget to replace that CEO, you suddenly must incur a significant, unbudgeted expense. If you don’t have the budget, you don’t know what to do when you suddenly lose a key person. And yet it is foolish not to anticipate losing key Talent occasionally. For example, when a Fortune 10 company announced its new CEO after one of its most successful CEOs retired, three other people in consideration quit immediately. They assumed that in the next ten to twenty years they might not have a chance to become the CEO of the same organization. So, they accepted positions in three different organizations. The company might have anticipated this, but if it did not have replacement costs budgeted at that time, it would have had to use unbudgeted funds, which is always awkward at that level. Even if it promoted internal executives to fill those positions, it would still incur a heavy replacement cost. Flawless hiring of key executives is one of the critical factors for success. To achieve flawless hiring, you must dedicate sufficient time to select the right people, hire them, and bring them into the organization. You have to invest a lot of money. You can’t just put an advertisement in Fortuneor the Wall Street Journal and be done. The CEO needs to be involved in interviewing candidates and talking with their references. If you are considering hiring me, for example, and I listed someone as a reference, I would expect you to call my reference and say, “I have interviewed Mr. Chowdhury. He listed you as a reference. Could you please spend a few minutes with me about him, or could I meet you in person to talk about him?” Most senior managers don’t do that because it costs money. Senior managers should have access to money in the TDB to recruit Talents or replace Talents who leave. The cost of attracting and holding Talent and the cost of replacing Talent are two critical costs beyond training and development. Typically companies place training and development costs within human resources; but they should spend more money to attract, hold, and develop Talent. High-potential Talent should receive the lion’s share of the Talent development budget. Suppose seven of us work at a manager level in seven different divisions. Of the seven, maybe two of us are identified by the company as very talented people. So, rather than allow each of us $5,000 each for training and development, the organization should spend more money on the more talented of the seven. Give them growth opportunities. Make a special case for top performers who are the future of the company. Of those seven people, if the five other people leave, the organization may not suffer as much as if the two more

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talented were to leave. The Talent development budget can be sufficiently flexible to allow different spending levels for different people. The resulting disparities may cause the human resources manager some difficulty because of the apparent inequities. But that is the nature of attracting and keeping Talent. Talents are free agents. After a company sets its goals and knows its capability, its management can prepare a TDB and plan to fund its key resources to meet the goals. For example, if a company plans to implement a Six Sigma initiative, its management may set goals to train three thousand employees in two years, spend $2 million on training and developing key Talent, and save $20 million on the projects. After the company sets such performance goals, management then allocates budget money to be spent in that way. Corporations now prepare production budgets, sales budgets, cash budgets, and capital budgets. It is very easy for managers to prepare those budgets because they can easily determine the value of hard assets such as machinery, buildings, land, and other physical resources. But they cannot so easily prepare a TDB because the value of Talent is hard to quantify. Talent can make a significant difference in any business. For example, if you give the same brush and paints to an ordinary person and to a very talented painter, you will see the difference in their artwork. Similarly in business, outstanding Talent can produce outstanding results using the same resources. To meet their goals, managers should decide if they should bring in new Talents or train existing Talents. They should calculate the return on investment in attracting, holding, and training Talent. A TDB has three parts: 1. The cost of attracting, hiring, and holding Talent 2. The cost of replacing Talent 3. The cost of developing and training Talent The costs of attracting and hiring include salary, benefits, and recruitment costs. Holding costs include salary, compensation, and all other benefits related to retaining Talent. Replacement costs include severance pay and all other benefits paid to Talents who will be replaced and all other costs associated with bringing in new Talents to those positions. Development and training costs include all costs related to training Talent. The first part of the Talent development budget is the cost of attracting and holding Talent. A Talent may say, “I am doing this much work” and challenge you or threaten you, saying, “If you don’t give me this, I will quit today. I have a much better offer.” If you need that person in your organization, that is a sudden and unnecessary cost. If you don’t have a budget, how can you spend the money? Often managers lose some of their best people over a small amount of money. Spend money to keep a key Talent. If the Talent is demanding—if somebody with a high performance rating threatens to leave—management should spend money to keep that Talent. This “retention bonus” is like a re-signing bonus. If a Talent has been working with distinction for an organization for five years and has not been well rewarded for her achievements, she will look for a better offer. When she receives one, she may use that offer to negotiate a better deal with her current company. A retention bonus is not a bribe but more of an incentive to stay.

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Employees who ask for more money must present a solid business argument. If you feel the argument is valid, then use the budget and spend the money, especially if you cannot afford to lose that Talent right now. Calculating the true value of a Talent is not easy. Management should decide the value of a Talent based upon performance, success, and goodwill. Hiring and holding good people with the right value are challenging. It is difficult to determine, for example, the exact value of your company’s president. Difficult though it may be, the art of determining the value of Talent and preparing a TDB will be the key to success. Value-Driven Cost Structure You can determine the acquisition and replacement cost of Talent using a value-driven cost structure. The cost of Talent is a variable cost because Talent cost always changes. For example, the quality of work performed is more important than the quantity of work performed. When Talents are seen as a fixed cost, they will leave. Talents should be seen as a variable cost. Most yearend bonuses depend on how many problems you solve temporarily, but talented people who create longterm value should be rewarded more than those who create short-term value. Most organizations give a big bonus to the firefighters. Suppose I am a firefighter, and you are a fire preventer. You are trying to design the product in such a way that the defect would not exist in the first place. Both of us report to the same boss, and he comes to me saying “This is a problem. Can you please solve it within six months?” I solve the problem. You say, “I can’t solve this problem in six months. I need nine months to a year.” But when you solve the problem, that defect will never come back because you will solve it by eliminating the defects from the root. In most cases, our boss will reward me instead of you. Your reward should be five times more than my reward. As it is, there is no reward for you, even though you are the true Talent. The cost of Talent is highly variable. Organizations should pay their people based on a performance measurement unit, the evaluation of performance being the key element for determining salary. Performance should be based upon the quality and quantity of work. Often, managers analyze short-term operating performance but don’t assess long-term value, and so they don’t know how much to spend to bring in talented people. Value here means the price you pay for Talent relative to returns on your Talent investment. Because there is no definitive market value for Talent, it is hard to hold good people with the right value (price tag). Performance measurement varies for different activities. For example, you cannot use the same measurement or “metrics” in design engineering as you use in sales and marketing. In the design and engineering department, performance is measured against optimization of design, defects rate, customer’s preference, and satisfaction. In the sales and marketing department, performance is measured against percent of sales volume increase against cost of sales. Determining the acquisition and replacement cost of Talent and the total value of Talent is an art, not a science. It’s never easy to determine the value of the people in an organization. When an organization wants to acquire new Talents, management should estimate how much it should spend to acquire those Talents by calculating the value of those Talents from past success and any goodwill created by the Talents. Organizations should measure the performance of their Talents. Based upon the performance and past

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success and goodwill, management should put a price tag on Talents. If managers want to acquire new Talents who don’t have any experience or past success, they should implement a flexible, performancebased salary structure. Contingency Plan for Talents Hiring talented people is costly; in fact, the hiring process itself is costly and time consuming. There is a time gap between losing and hiring Talent. Opportunity loss is large for an organization. As the gap becomes bigger, loss becomes bigger. An organization’s goal should be to minimize this gap. Managers can minimize losses that occur during this time gap by having a standby team, making a proper contingency plan, and accelerating the hiring process. If you don’t have a contingency plan, you will lose much time and money. The time gap between when you lose a person and when you hire a person will widen. It might widen to even three or four months. This gap represents a high opportunity cost, a huge opportunity loss. A contingency plan can reduce the damage from a loss of a key Talent. Once a friend called to tell me his number one man in Japan had just quit. My friend had a meeting with a client, and the employee who just quit had managed that client’s account. “We are trying to expand our consulting service within this client, and, now, our lead guy is gone. Can you assist me in any way?” Luckily, I found somebody from our office to support my friend. If he had had a contingency plan, he would not have been so desperate. He would have just sent another person he was developing in the event that such a situation arose. Management has to be ready for Talent shifts by having an alternative plan for key Talent. If you lose key Talent, you need to know what immediate actions you can take. If you have an alternative plan, you can minimize the impact of losing key Talent dramatically in terms of both time and cost. In preparing a contingency plan, management should first identify its key Talents in each area. Then management should identify the next-level coworkers of those Talents. Encourage key Talents to share their knowledge and strategies with coworkers by facilitating learning. Involve next-level Talents in some critical projects to develop their strengths. Each organization should have a contingency plan so that if it loses people in key positions, others can step in immediately until the organization finds new Talent for those positions or those positions can be run without bringing in new Talents. Well-conceived contingency plans will take care of most unanticipated staffing problems. How much money would a contingency plan save a large company like General Electric or Ford? It could save them millions of dollars. After one manager quit one of the leading U.S. automaker’s profitable division, it suffered badly. The Power of Developing Talent When John Martin, CEO of Taco Bell, applied the power of developing people, his company grew exponentially. He notes: Every business is faced with a mandate of reducing costs while improving service. To become more service oriented and competitive, you need a workplace full of people who are empowered, self-sufficient, and

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highly motivated. Where can you find a work force like this? The answer is that you don’t find it—you build it by providing your people with the tools, training, environment, and freedom they need to take charge. You build it by trusting that people have a strong desire to succeed. Why don’t more companies do this? Fear. I know firsthand what this fear feels like. At Taco Bell, we spent years doing everything possible to keep our workers “under control,” which resulted in high turnover, low morale, and slow growth. Fortunately, we recognized that our company would only go as far as our people would take us. Martin recalls that in the 1980s, Taco Bell was in trouble. The company had experienced several years of negative sales growth. The stores were dark, menus limited, and advertising flat. The industry joke was that Taco Bell was such a well-kept secret that most people thought it was a Mexican phone company. “When my management team came on board, we began a change, starting with the way we listened to and responded to our employees and customers. We asked them what they wanted, we listened, and we realized that the products, systems, and prices that may have served us well in the past wouldn’t satisfy our customers in the future. Following extensive market research, we implemented the first phase of our value program and turned our business upside-down to give our customers better quality, better service and greater convenience—and all at a lower price.” With the help of new technology, Taco Bell moved much of the slicing, dicing, and cooking that took place in the back of its restaurants to consolidated sites to allow employees to focus instead on final product assembly and service. Martin reports: These initiatives helped ensure food quality, order accuracy, speed of service, enhanced safety, and improved quality of life for our people. The key to our success is the empowerment we have given to our people. Our empowerment philosophy is based on the premise that to change what people believe they can do, you must first change their experience. We felt that our people could do far more than our industry gave them credit for. If we were serious about reaching our goals, we could either build a work force of unmanageable proportions, or we could create an environment that encouraged self-sufficiency and empowerment. We chose the latter. We committed ourselves to leveraging the talent of our people, and the more responsibility we gave them, the more they wanted. At every level, our people exceeded our expectations. They were turned on by the opportunities we presented and inspired by the challenges. We are striving to break down the functional silos that limit what our people have been told they can do. Today we are seeing more initiatives coming from the field. By empowering our people, we have sent the message that everything within our business is fair game. We are creating a rich pool of highly-confident, self-sufficient, empowered individuals. I urge you to instill an entrepreneurial spirit within your organization. And when you do, you’ll discover a tremendous new world of performance, prosperity, and personal reward. Strengthen Your Future: 4 Steps to Identify and Develop Your High-Potential Talent According to a 2011 study by Harvard Business School, only 15 percent of companies in North America believe that they have enough qualified successors for key positions. Is your company one of the 85 percent that will face a shortage of talent for key positions in the coming years? How can you ensure your company is ready? Develop the talent you already have.

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Development cannot be solely an HR or training function. Alignment must come from the top down and across all areas of the company. Influencing business operators to see the benefits of investing in a long-term development program will be necessary for all support roles. The reduced turnover, lower recruiting and training costs, and deeper engagement will only serve to fund the growth of your best people. Development cannot be solely an HR or training function. Involving the business unit leaders in all stages of talent development, including specific follow-up roles, is vital to creating commitment to the success of your company’s programs. These team members are your foundation for exceptional long-term results. Most organizations have some way of identifying their high potential associates, but identifying talent alone is not enough. The following four steps will help your company create a culture that fosters and grows potential into quality leaders for the future. 1. Implement a Formal Identification Process Make it an annual or twice-yearly event in which all areas of your organization can participate simultaneously. It needs to be a simple yet thorough process that business unit leaders can calibrate to identify their top performers. The criteria should be well-rounded. Avoid using only financial or performance metrics; include the behaviors that represent your company values and the competencies required for future initiatives. Include the behaviors that represent your company values and the competencies required for future initiatives. Ensure that everyone knows what the criteria are and how people are identified as high potential. Make this identification something people aspire to achieve . Once selected, ensure they are formally told that they have been identified and the specific reasons why. This process serves as recognition of the hard work and commitment they have already shown. 2. Build a Personal Development Plan Identifying your high potentials should jumpstart the process for their individual growth. Begin the discussion about their long-term goals. Assign a mentor to work directly with them on their development. Capture the actions and steps they will take to continue their progression. Identify what they are already doing for themselves and incorporate that development as well. Define what success looks like, the competencies for the next level and a time frame for each step’s completion. Schedule regular update meetings to discuss what they are learning, how they are applying it and why it matters for future roles. Identifying your high potentials should jumpstart the process for their individual growth. 3. Challenge Them Give your high potential talent new and unique opportunities. Assign them bigger, more meaningful projects as they become available. Invite them to meetings or discussions, and ask for their input. Expose them to

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situations that will stretch and engage them to think in innovative ways. Debrief after these sessions to understand their takeaways and progress. 4. Establish a High Potential Program Build high-potential talent groups to expose them to other top performers outside their day-to-day work areas. Create an environment for these groups to share ideas, their learning and successes. These groups are an excellent way to show that you see them as different from other associates. Establish six- to 12-month development programs that hit on key leadership or competency topics. Tailor the groups and programs based on development need and current level. Create a system that allows for ongoing growth and graduation to higher courses of learning. The use of external resources can be a wise investment for these programs, especially if your company does not have the internal resources to support them. A third-party firm can also provide insights and connections from outside the immediate industry to further round out your best players. Build high-potential talent groups to expose them to other top performers outside their day-to-day work areas. The benefits are numerous for having a process for identifying your high-potential talent, building a development plan, exposing them to new areas and including them in a dedicated program for their growth. These top associates will recognize your commitment to them and reward you with deeper engagement, longterm loyalty and higher productivity. Solidify your company outlook and fill your future key positions with quality leaders. FIVE STEPS STRATEGY

TO

INTEGRATING

COACHING

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YOUR

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Coaching means many things to many people. Many times a certain technique that is referred to as “coaching,” isn’t really coaching at all; it’s actually counseling or feedback. For example, you may have heard or had this happen to you – a manager will say, “Let me give you some coaching around ABC,” and they proceed to explain to an employee why the employee failed to accomplish a task. The manager then explains the way ABC needs to be done. More times than not, the recipient of this so-called “coaching” walks away disillusioned by what they think was a coaching experience and perhaps, deflated and unmotivated. As a result, coaching can get a bad rap and employees may begin to disengage. So what does a real coaching conversation look like? Well, something like this: “So, how do you think your presentation on ABC went?” The employee is given time to reflect, respond and be an active participant in the conversation. The manager continues to ask thoughtful questions such as: “What would you have done differently?,” ”What actions will you take?,” or “How can I support you?” Do you notice the difference? This is a coaching conversation—the employee is empowered to act while being supported by their manager. The employee gains confidence knowing that they own the outcome while feeling acknowledged and supported by their manager. Now more than ever, there is a great opportunity to bring coaching into organizations. According to Gallup’s study on the global workplace, only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work or are psychologically committed to their jobs and likely to be making positive contributions to their organizations. Therefore, 63% are “not engaged.” If this is the case, then why not integrate coaching into your talent management strategy, not only to increase employee engagement, but to achieve other talent

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development goals such as developing certain competencies like problem-solving, strategic thinking or filling your talent pipeline with ready-now talent for upward or lateral assignments? In order to integrate coaching into your talent management strategy, the following five steps should be taken: 1. Educate Your Leaders: Start at the top and educate your executives on the differences and benefits of coaching versus counseling. Interview them on their perspectives on coaching and assess their willingness to participate and support a coaching initiative. Explain the benefits of coaching and ask them where they see applications for coaching inside their organizations. 2. Identify Coaches, Participants and Executive Sponsors: Look for individuals and managers that can become trained to be internal coaches inside your company. These individuals may be inside your talent management and organizational development areas or could exist inside the business itself. Consider having talent management or Human Resources executives trained and credentialed by the International Coach Federation as professional coaches. As a result, they will be in an excellent position to coach executives in the company. Alternatively, you may choose to utilize external coaches. If so, you can submit a request via the International Coach Federation Coach Referral Service website or ask colleagues for recommendations. Simultaneously, you will want to identify candidates to participate in the coaching program. Therefore, review your succession planning and consider top talent managers, directors and executives. Participants should be excited to be part of the program and willing to make a commitment. Just as important as identifying the coaches and participants is to make certain that you have executive sponsorship. Determine which executives would like to sponsor the program and be a participant. Request that they support you in your coach and participant identification, marketing efforts, during participant enrollment and throughout the program’s life cycle. 3. Manage Expectations: Be sure to clearly set expectations with your internal coaches, individuals being coached, the executive sponsors and, of course, your managers and colleagues. It is best to run the initial program as a pilot and build upon its success. Make certain everyone is clear on the goals of the program, time commitment and their roles and responsibilities. 4. Train: Enroll your internal coach candidates in a coach-training program that is designed to train individuals that work inside companies as a coach. If you choose to enroll internal employees to become coaches, ensure they’re being coached by a coach with experience coaching internal coaches. In addition, be sure to train the individuals who are to be coached on the role and responsibilities of the participant. While training your coaches, be sure to establish a clear and consistent process for enrolling clients, coaching time and exiting clients. The key here is to ensure that everyone participating has a similar experience. 5. Measure Success: Prior to starting the program, determine how you will measure its success. It may be done simply by using a Net–Promoter score or setting up a simple impact study. It doesn’t have to be a rigorous measurement such as ROI. If your program is embraced and utilized (coaching clients show up and participate in the coaching), then that’s a great sign. Interviewing them or surveying them on the benefits they received is also an excellent idea. In addition, be sure to ask the managers of the program’s participants about the changes they may have noticed in their employee’s behaviors after being coached.

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In a time where we’re surrounded by change and have so many demands on our personal and professional lives, the need for coaching is at an all time high. Coaching is a model for engagement, empowerment and accountability. It teaches those being coached to be responsible and to “own” their results. By engaging in coaching, you’re making a decision to replace mediocrity with highperformance. So let’s ask ourselves, who and what company doesn’t want full engagement and highperformance? Ways to improve employee retention Every area of the employer-employee relationship in your organization deserves your attention. Embrace these key strategies to improve your organization's employee retention and boost employee  satisfaction: 

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Onboarding and orientation — Every new hire should be set up for success from the very start, from the first day of work to the first week and beyond. The job  orientation is just one component of onboarding, which can last for weeks or months, depending on your organization. Aim to develop an onboarding process where new staff members not only learn about the job but also the company culture and how they can contribute and thrive, with ongoing discussions, goals and opportunities to address questions and issues as they arrive. Mentorship programs — Pairing a new employee with a mentor is a great idea for onboarding. New team members can learn the ropes from a veteran with a wealth of resources, and the new hire offers a fresh viewpoint  to experienced staff. Mentors shouldn't be work supervisors, but they can offer guidance and be a sounding board for newcomers, welcoming them into the company culture.  Employee compensation — It's absolutely essential in this competitive labor market for companies to offer attractive compensation packages. That includes salaries, of course, but also bonuses, paid time off, health benefits, retirement plans and all the other perks that can distinguish one workplace from another. Every employee should have a full understanding of all the benefits they receive from your organization.  Recognition and rewards systems — Every person wants to feel appreciated for what they do. Make it a habit to thank your direct reports when they go the extra mile, whether it's with a sincere email, a gift card or an extra day off. Show your employees you appreciate them, and share how their hard work helps the  organization. Some companies set up rewards systems that incentivize great ideas and innovation, but you can institute recognition programs even on a small team with a small budget. Work-life balance — What message is your company culture sending? If staff are expected to regularly work long hours and be at your beck and call, you'll likely run into issues with employee retention. Burnout is real. A healthy work-life balance is essential, and people need to know that management understands its importance. Encourage staff to take vacation time, and if late nights are necessary to wrap up a project, see if you can offer late arrivals or an extra day off to compensate and increase job satisfaction. Many companies offer telecommuting or flexible schedules to improve work-life balance for their employees. Training and development — In any position and industry, professionals want the possibility for advancement. Smart managers invest in their workers' professional development and seek opportunities for them to grow. Ask each of your direct reports about their short- and long-term goals to determine how you can help achieve them. Some companies pay for employees to attend conferences or industry events each year, or provide tuition reimbursement or continuing education training.  Communication and feedback — Keeping open lines of communication is essential for employee retention. Your direct reports should feel that they can come to you with ideas, questions and concerns, and likewise, they expect you to be honest and open with them about improvements they need to make in

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

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their own performance. Make sure you connect with each staff member on a regular basis — don't let issues build up for the annual review.  Dealing with change — Every workplace has to deal with unpleasant changes occasionally, and the staff looks to leadership for reassurance. If your organization is going through a merger, layoffs or other big changes, keep your staff informed as much as you can to avoid feeding the rumor mill. Make big announcements face to face, and make sure you allow time for their questions. Fostering teamwork — When people work together, they can achieve more than they would have individually. Foster a culture of collaboration that accommodates individuals' working styles and lets their talents shine. Do this by clarifying team objectives, business goals and roles, and encouraging  everyone to contribute ideas and solutions. Team celebration — Celebrate major milestones for individuals and for the team. Whether the team just  finished that huge quarterly project under budget or an employee brought home a new baby, seize the chance to celebrate together with a shared meal or group excursion.  A final tip: Remember to assess your employee retention strategies at least once a year. You’ll want to stay current on market salary rates and benefits, and best practices in developing workplace culture and manager-employee relations. Doing so will help you keep staff morale high and turnover low while guaranteeing your organization’s success.

Employee Retention - Role of Motivation An employee, who has performed exceptionally good, must be appreciated immediately. The top performers must be highlighted, awarded and rewarded and must be in limelight, which make the employee for feel indispensable for the organization. Simple words like Good, Well Done and Keep It Up, are actually the motivating factors for the employees. It is very essential for making the employees loyal towards the organization for delivering their best. Employee retention benefits both the employer and also the employee. Employee retention involves a simple process that encourages and uplifts individuals or teams within an organization to remain engaged with the Company in the long term. Retention of employees depends on four major motivating factors − 

Remuneration and Rewards

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Work Atmosphere

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Growth Opportunities

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Bonding and Timely Support

Let us now discuss these four motivating factors in detail. 1) Remuneration and Rewards Remuneration plays the biggest role in the process of motivating staff, which in turn, leads to retention. It takes a clever hand to compose a compensation package. The best packages include − 

Bonuses

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Allowances

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Basic Salary

Babita, 09, MBA(F)

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Retirement Benefits

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Incentives

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Employee Assistance Programs

2) Work Atmosphere An organization should serve as a second home, as most of the employees spend a maximum of their time at work here. It is not always about retaining an employee but about managing one’s surroundings at work. It is about offering appropriate facilities and services to staff. The following points play a major role in making the employee feel connected to a corporation − 

Engaging employees in decision-making

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Friendly and lively culture

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Ethical values

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Personal and Professional Balance

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Health, safety and well-being

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Reliability and dependence

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Learning environment

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Credit and recognition

3) Growth Opportunities Growth is an integral element of an individual’s career graph. If there is no scope of growth within a Company, an employee seeks external opportunities. The essential aspects that an individual looks to grow in are − 

Training for personal development

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Personal zeal to develop

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Profile of Job

4) Bonding and Timely Support Providing a personal or professional supportive work culture is sometimes overlooked by Management. This results in demotivation due to the decrease in interest in work in a particular team or a Company as a whole. To craft a good, reliable, long-lasting bond between the management and an employee, it is important to − 

Recruit an individual only if necessary

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Provide support at the time of need

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Respect the individual

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Acknowledge individual targets and create growth opportunities

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Recruit leaders who can promote team work and enhance relationships

Empowering employees, making them realize their importance and value to the organization, appreciating their efforts and appraising them for their performances will induce self-motivation and help reduce employee attrition. Therefore, it is very important to motivate employees at the workplace in order to retain them.

Babita, 09, MBA(F)