Summer Newsletter 2009
In this issue
This newsletter begins with the first of a three part series on how to systematically analyse and improve your HR processes, starting first with a look at the unintended cultural impact your current processes could be having on your staff.
Robert Coles, Solutions Director at Optima Group outlines their new ground-breaking psychometric 'RQ'. Unique and delivered as a 360 diagnostic (using Talent 360), it has been designed to assess strengths and development areas relating to the ability to form 'Amazing Business Relationships' that are critical to business success.
With a lack of structure in many organisations between Induction and that first key review, our career planning tool Talent Navigator could provide that much needed focus to those early development and progression discussions. See later for more details.
In 'other news', we are pleased to announce that Horsham District
Council has selected our very own Talent 360®
software. We also unveil the latest release of our Talent®
software
applications.
The Lad vs. Dad iPod winners from our March issue were 'Lad' and
Emma Thoday from Coversure Insurance Services. See what all the fuss
was about
here.
We would like to remind you to try Talent FQ, our new and unique 'Feedback Quotient' assessment. If you do try it out, you could also qualify for a complimentary place at a feedback training course - see below for more details.
Finally, we have updated our Client Engagement pages on our web site to keep you up to date with these developments.
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.
HR Processes exposed - what do they say about your culture?
What feedback do you hear about how your managers and employees engage with your HR processes? Does this feedback sit well with how your organisation is promoted to potential new recruits?
With HR's role as leader of the development of organisational culture, are your processes, or the way that they have been implemented undermining your efforts?
We examine why that might be, and what action you could take here.
Amazing Business Relationships
What do you do if you have heard that in your business is a team of senior and experienced people who 'can't even meet successfully, never mind make a collaborative decision'!
This can only undermine the organisation's competitiveness, create divisiveness and worse.
Whilst businesses may have tolerated some of this during the good times, now it's completely out of the question. Read about what can be done when conventional techniques prove to be ineffective here.
After Induction - Engagement & Retention
Having been meticulous in identifying, screening, negotiating with and hiring new employees (and let's face it the headcount wasn't that forthcoming!), are you relying on existing strategies to keep these hard won employees on board? What do you have lined up for them after their Induction?
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 so clearly focussed on the '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 realistic career plan or vision? What evidence does your Performance Appraisal process provide?
Your new employees are even less likely to know how to manage their time with your organisation and with many of them being 'fickle' Generation Y'ers they'll turn that question around to you and expect you to provide the answers for them! Lining up neatly post-induction is our career planning and development tool called Talent Navigator - it is the perfect solution to help those who want to help themselves progress onwards in your organisation.
See the image on the right here (it will open in a new window) for an example of how a personal development plan could be directed. It is an extract of a report generated by an employee using 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 and skills.
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. Tight labour market or not, no-one wants to lose their highest performers and rising stars and these folks are always in demand.
Find out more about Talent Navigator here or contact us via our Information Request page here to arrange a demonstration.
Test your Feedback Quotient with Talent FQTM
It is widely acknowledged that the actions taken as a result of the feedback are closely tied to how the feedback was delivered; get it wrong and resentment and denial are a very real possibility, get it right and the scene is set for real and lasting change.
If at least one person from your business has taken this test and your business decides to take our 360 feedback course, then one place will on us!
Staff from organisations as diverse as Kent Police, Signet, Leven Bridge, Simply Health, elexon, and o2 have tried this for themselves.
Why not try it for yourself?
Test yourself here. Contact us here to request more information, including a full course outline of our 360 feedback course.
Other news:
Horsham District Council select Talent 360®
Horsham District Council, seeking to embed a new set of Management Capabilities, has selected Talent 360 as their performance appraisal platform.
Through 2009, Horsham District Council will roll out and implement the 360 review methodology as part of its performance management strategy.
We hope to bring you a case study in the near future.
Talent® Release V3.5
May 1st 2009 saw the announcement of a landmark release of our Talent® application suite. This suite comprises Talent 180, Talent 360, Talent Navigator and Talent Spotter, each playing their part in the improvement of Talent Management HR processes.
Available at no-cost to all of our current partners and customer licensees, specific upgrades include:
- Greatly enhanced Personal and Comparison reports
- More workflow configuration options giving you the ability to tailor the review workflow
- More import and upload features
- Technology and performance upgrades
With this release, we are confident that Talent 360 now comfortably surpasses all other commercially available 360 software tools, and Talent Navigator retains its No.1 position as a Career Planning tool of choice.
Contact us here to arrange to see the evidence for yourself.
Resources & Articles
The following resources and articles are available as pdfs on our web site:
The Importance of Personal Resilience & Mental Toughness - nature, nurture and assessment.
The Impact of Feedback - make the most of feedback and avoid the pitfalls.
Review Rating Scales Tool - select the scale that's right for your assessment.
Talent & Employee Engagement - you can't ignore the connection!
Are your Talent Management processes fair? - advocates and saboteurs!
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
If this newsletter is the first you have seen, past issues can be found on our web site in Media Activity, if this is the last you want to see __UNSUB__.