Summer Newsletter 2008

In this issue

Our lead article this month relates to fairness - with some difficult times ahead looking likely, some difficult decisions will need to be made.  We have drawn together some research on fairness and its application in Talent Management processes.  Did you know that your strongest advocates could become your most energetic saboteurs with one small slip? Read our article here for some pointers.

To help you find articles and news items that match your specific area of interest more quickly, we have have separated this newsletter into the main Talent Management categories - Performance Management, Development, Retention & Engagement and Recruitment.  For this newsletter we consider elements of the performance appraisal process, two types of learning and development diagnostics, employee engagement 'in themselves' as a technique and an invitation to join our assessment project.

In 'Other News', we would like to introduce to you Myriad HR, based in the south of the UK who is now working with us in the area of 360 review.  For those in the force, we have an update on the police 360 trial.

We hope you enjoy this newsletter and if you would like to discuss any items within it, please contact me, Ian Lee-Emery, on 0845 054 2364 or 'reply' and your note will find its way to me.

Performance Management

Does your performance appraisal process suffer from a lack of objectivity, consensus of opinion, an absence of focussed development plans or worse, is viewed as box-ticking?  Do you also struggle under the mountain of paper to be able to make sense of trends, to identify department/role/location/grade oriented performance issues or development needs?  When a company wide employee appraisal process is in full swing, do you know who is getting on with it and who needs help or chasing?

Our performance management tool, Talent 180, has benefited from a major upgrade in functionality to bring it in line with our leading 360 review product.  Talent 180 is specifically designed to facilitate a better performance appraisal by drawing attention to role-based behaviours that support or undermine performance.  Importantly, we have paid special attention to the people-side of this process - too many systems, in our opinion, take control and allow for very little discretion. 

As a result of a Talent 180 review:

• you as the HR lead will have the depth and breadth of performance data at your finger tips together with comparison and charting tools to analyse and compare against benchmarks, plus a dashboard to check progress
• your management population will be better equipped to deliver both praise and constructive criticisms taking the heat out of some difficult situations
• your employees will have benefit from a  succinct description of the behavioural requirements of a role and a candid assessment of their performance.

We are offering those interested in the introduction of competence-based performance reviews a complimentary half-day consulting on the subject. 

If you are interested, do let us know via our Information Request page here.  Find out more about Talent 180 here.

Personal Development

How can you improve the quality of personal development plans?

Too often we see personal development plans that lack any overall direction, or appear to be little more than a list of courses to go on or have some rather flat statements around improving a particular (and usually current) skill.  The manager and/or employee (usually both) have clearly run out of ideas and inspiration. With a little help in setting some direction and picking up essential behavioural and skill developments, the process of defining and agreeing a development plan could be much more purposeful.

See the image on the right here (it will open a bigger pdf) for an example of how a personal development plan could be directed. It is an extract of a report generated for an employee by Talent Navigator showing roles that match their future aspirations and highlighting their develop areas to meet the requirements for the role. It also enables individuals and their line managers to find roles that would provide the opportunity to develop specific experiences.

Imagine how this information could help your managers develop the potential of their people.  Find out more about Talent Navigator here or contact us via our Information Request page here arrange a demonstration.

Organisational Development

The use of 360 review and feedback has been well established for many years now and leaving aside the debate about the relative merits and pitfalls of generic vs. bespoke questionnaire diagnostics, we would like to draw your attention to the power of the summary data that can be gathered and analysed.  We will 'take it as read' that the questionnaire is right and that resources and capabilities have been put into place to allow folks to make sense of and create personal develop plans. 

So, after a review, perhaps role/job family or grade based has taken place, what overall conclusions could you draw from the review process as a whole?  Can you tell if a particular capability development programme has in fact increased  capabilities in this group?  Can you tell who out of this group might be suitable for more rapid promotion or secondment?  Have you had the situation whereby a manager puts forward one of his team because they think they are a potential 'high flyer' and you are not convinced but don't have any data to support your view?  Can you develop a training plan, based on robust evidence, with an evaluation strategy built in that will be difficult for the board to ignore?

Welcome to the Comparison Reports available within Talent 360 (and Talent 180 for that matter) that will allow you to sound a resounding 'Yes!' to all the above.  Contact us here for a sample.  Find out more about Talent 360 here.

Retention & Engagement

Engaging employees in your organisation around vision, mission and values is all very well but have you also considered appealing to the 'selfish gene' as an engagement strategy?  Such a strategy clearly focussed on 'What's in it for me' is a sure-fire winner and their career in your business is most definitely common ground.  If you were to ask a sample of employees from across the business, how many do you believe would be able to articulate any sort of career plan? 

If you have Graduate Development programmes, these graduates are even less likely to know and with many of them now being 'fickle' Generation Y'ers they'll turn that question around to you and expect you to provide the answers for them!

Talent Navigator is the perfect solution for those in middle management and below to find ways for themselves to progress onwards in your organisation.  This is more than just internal job postings - Talent Navigator contains your role definitions, suggested paths between roles and assessment tools (both competence-based and work/life/preference oriented) and your employees can explore and develop potential career paths for themselves using the tool.  (Those Gen Y'ers will expect this tool to be available and in place no doubt!).  At appraisal time or at key points during their development programme, these career paths can be reviewed, revised and plans initiated to bring them about. 

Engagement aside, this is a key employee retention tool - research suggests that a perceived lack of career opportunities is the 2nd most common reason for employees to leave their organisations.

Find out more about Talent Navigator here or contact us via our Information Request page here to arrange a demonstration.

Recruitment & Selection

Would your organisation be interested in having free access to a simple, on-line assessment which you could use to identify employees with management potential?

We are looking for companies to contribute to development by providing access to a sample group of recently appointed first-time managers.  Please contact us here to register your interest on our Information Request page by selecting 'Contact me'.

Other news:

Talent 360® - Police force trial

We are pleased to report that 25% of the UK National police forces are now trialling a 360 review and feedback process using our Talent 360 software and a leadership diagnostic questionnaire developed for Hertfordshire Constabulary.  If you would like to know more about this programme, please contact us via our Information Request Page here.

Myriad HR partners with Head Light Communications

We continue to create value-adding partnerships and in this newsletter we would like to introduce you to Myriad HR, an innovative HR consultancy which focuses on delivering improved business performance through effective talent management.

They are now offering our Talent 360 service to ensure development potential is realised within the wider organisational framework.

Myriad HR are specialists within the finance sector, are based in the south of the UK and work with a wide range of private sector organisations at all stages of the HR cycle.

Do contact them on 01425 485450 or www.myriadhr.co.uk

Past articles

The following articles featured in earlier newsletters are now available as pdfs:

Choosing your assessment strategy - which assessment instrument?

Keys & Eyes - designing 360 questionnaires that will really tell you something

Positioning 360 - creating 'pull' from the business for a 360 feedback programme

Introducing a 360° Review - Keys to success

What 'good' looks like - finding a consistent way to describe it

Appreciative Inquiry - a technique for extraordinary results

The cost of e-learning - key principles for pricing bespoke e-learning programmes

Motivation to change - dealing with different attitudes to change

Competences & business planning - developing competences to deliver a business plan

If this newsletter is the first you have seen, past issues can be found on our web site in Media Activity.