Recent News

PAPU NANU - assessing and developing stronger teams

Improving self-awareness using techniques such as 360 questionnaires and feedback are essential in moving people and organisations forward. It's part of an individual's personal development, identifying gaps they might have on a career path and also helping your organisation to understand where its ‘high potentials’ and ‘future successors’ might

But what happens when the feedback flags areas about which the recipient has no insight - how does one structure the feedback session then?

And what about when working with a team or putting a team together - what can their 360s tell you about how they will operate?

We know that the feedback session and the subsequent development activity is the most critical part of any 360 process and our unique and widely used PAPU-NANU approach gives you a way of organising the feedback to make it actionable. As a reminder, it looks at:

‘agreed strengths’ - where both the participant and the raters agree on highly rated areas
'good news' - where the raters score the participant higher than he or she rated themselves: so the participant does not recognise a capability that others do
’agreed development areas’ - where both participant and raters agree on areas of development need
‘hidden talents’ - where the participant rates themselves higher than the other raters - this could be a development need or the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities better.

When looking at a team, think how valuable it would be to be able to see at a glance the areas of competence strength and need - or when you are pulling a team together and you want to see where the gaps are.

Team PAPU NANU is built into our Talent® platform as standard and you can access it through Talent360® but to learn more now, read our full article.

Penna plc appoints Head Light as supplier of their on-line 360 degree system

We're delighted to have been appointed by global HR services group Penna plc, as the provider of their on-line 360 which, in turn, supports their 360 degree service offering to clients.

Gwyn Rogers, Assessment and Talent Director at Penna commented: "Having reviewed the market, we are impressed with both the high level of flexibility the Talent 360® system gives us and our clients, and the robustness of the technology which supports it. Our clients want to understand and predict how their people will perform - and then make their decisions on succession planning and development accordingly. We believe we can help them by using this 360 system."

Penna has a reputation for delivering high impact, high level talent management consulting - and we are proud to support them and to add Penna to our growing network of partners. We both share a commitment to helping organisations better understand and develop their talent and we look forward to adding real value to their offering.

If you are a HR or assessment consultancy and want to make use of the Talent® platform, please get in touch.

Head Light reaches UAE with its new partner, Abu Dhabi University Knowledge Group

The Abu Dhabi University Knowledge Group (ADUKG) has selected Talent 360® to be the on-line platform for its 360-degree feedback service to its clients - our first partner in the United Arab Emirates.

ADUKG looks to provide a hub of high quality, and wide-ranging training and development solutions for business across the UAE and the region. It focuses on helping its clients get the very best from their people through designing, developing and implementing effective talent management.

Nic Cutts, Director of Organisational Psychology at ADUKG comments: "Our 360-degree offering needs to reflect the high level of customisation we offer our clients and offer a high level of professionalism in its appearance and reporting. Talent360® meets - and exceeds - these requirements."

We, at Head Light, are delighted to be working with ADUKG and look forward to supporting them in their work with their clients.

If you're a part of an HR consultancy and want to join this global and fast growing community of HR service providers using the Talent® platform, please get in touch.

Getting ready for Learning and Skills 2012, Olympia, 25-26 January

Learning and Skills is Europe's leading showcase of workplace learning and development and sets out to showcase everything your organisation needs to dramatically enhance its learning programmes.

We'll be there on Stand 186 and also running one of the free-to-attend seminars exploring how best to get the most from your talent management strategy.

For more information about the event, go to http://www.learningandskillsevents.com/

Developing a competence framework - Ten Lessons Learnt

Getting the best from talent management requires developing and implementing a robust, valid and well-designed competence framework.

Developing such a model can be both a costly and lengthy process - and mistakes only add to this.

We've distilled our experiences from years of competence development and research with public and private sector organisations, both large and small. The result is an easy read.

We offer you ten tips to bear in mind when designing or reviewing your competence framework. Read them here.

The Head Light Competence Framework - it's arrived

The world of work has changed - and the language used has changed.

In the past we've helped customers re-shape a competence framework they already have in place - and we've helped others to create a framework and common competence language from scratch.

In addition we want to bring our customers the value of the rigour of an off-the-shelf competence model with the benefit of taking it and branding it as their own.

The new Head Light Competence Framework contains four clusters: Thinking, Learning, Interacting and Delivering. Each cluster contains three competences - each of which includes five easy-to-communicate and understand levels, presented as clear statements of competence.

When developing this model, at the front of mind was the need for simplicity, utility and coverage - and the feedback so far says we have achieved this.

The Head Light Competence Framework is available to all our customers old and new. Please get in touch to talk about this more.

Sales & Business Development Manager

We are currently seeking a sales professional to sell their talent management suite to the HR directors of medium sized organizations across all sectors. The role involves direct sales only, is 100% new business focused though the successful applicant will also go on to manage accounts they win. Though all applicants must have experience in selling talent management software, the successful individual will also receive on the job training for our Talent® software. The role has been created due to an increasing demand for our successful product portfolio, and the growth of the company brings real prospects including promotion, team development and potentially a long-term value-creation incentive.

Learn more here

Is everything in place?

It's October - a key month in many of our customers' calendars. It's a month of 360 degree processes, annual reviews and finalising plans for succession and high potential development for next year.

For us too it's a key month. We're launching one of the most significant upgrades to our online Talent® platform at the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition and we're giving some of our users a preview this month.

We've been working on this new version since the summer - and we're pleased at how effectively we've been able to give users more valuable information. For example, what if you could pull together a team from anywhere in your business and instantly see what Strengths, Weaknesses and Hidden Talents it has? Alternatively, examine the teams you have and create focussed plans to address their shared development needs. This is just an example of what's possible with Talent® Version 6.0!

Soon you'll be able to experiment with Talent® for yourself. We've created a way for you to access a store of people information - fictitious of course - on which you can then draw. You'll experience just how straightforward it is to make the right talent decisions when you have the right information, tools and reports.

Customers continue to come on board and you can read below how DB Schenker is starting out with its 360 review of some of their senior management team. We also welcome Lancashire Police, Ramsay Healthcare and the success in North America for our partner TalentGuard Inc. for their work with Tokyo Electron, using Talent®.

Finally, this month sees the last in our three-part series - Developing your Talent Management Strategy- and our preparations for the CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition next month.

Read more here

Featured:

Talent® - taking talent management to the next level

Talent Performance® - better performing people

"The buck stops here". Managing High Potentials, maintaining coverage for critical posts, ensuring succession - it's all down to you.

Customer case study - senior management 360 at DB Schenker

CIPD Annual Conference and Exhibition - 8th-10th November, Manchester

Developing your Talent Management Strategy - Part Three

September is the new New Year - or so they say. It's a time when everyone is back from holiday and those projects which went on the backburner over the summer can be picked up again.

Succession planning may be one of them. We've seen a surge of interest in succession planning as businesses realise how mission critical it is. We've been evaluating what works and next month we launch a new software module in our cloud-based Talent® portfolio called Talent Successo®. Find out more later.

To give you some food for thought, Debbie Hance, our Head of Business Psychology, outlines how to make the most of this important Talent Management activity and has created a tool to help you get started.

You can read the second in the three-part series - Developing your Talent Management Strategy - and hear about our new competence framework just released.

You can also hear about the successes of one of our business partners - Progress International.

We are running a roundtable discussion and workshop exploring the role of managing employee performance in Talent Management at the inaugural Talent Management Association Conference next month.
For full details visit the website: www.talentmanagementassociation.com

Finally, you may have read the recent article in People Management about performance management; read our additional thoughts in this news.

Read more here

Featured:

Succession Planning and Talent Management- food for thought

Talent Successor® - succession planning in action

Business Partner case study - winning more business with a more competitive 360 service offering

Announcing our new Competence Framework

Developing your Talent Management Strategy – Part Two

Spring has finally sprung and this new season brings with it the opportunity to review, renew and enhance your Talent Management programmes.

Our product portfolio continues to grow and develop and we're currently working on some leading edge talent management tools in our Talent Management Suite that come from the brightest minds in the industry. We have a 'Getting Started' Guide for you. See below for more details.

There is no doubt that a well implemented 360-degree review and feedback process will make a significant and cost-effective contribution to your organisation. But, is now the time? We share what we consider to be the main considerations for maximising the effectiveness of 360 feedback programmes. Find it here.

Finally, we are pleased to welcome Talent Guard Inc, based in the US, as our new Talent Management consulting and service provider partner, using our cloud-based Talent^® software.

If you would like to find out more about any of the items in this newsletter, please contact us using info.request@head-light.co.uk, via our web site at www.head-light.co.uk or at our new Customer Centre on 01932 895311.

Read more here

Featured:

Getting started with Talent Management - Part One.

Head Light goes State-side with Talent Guard Inc.

Talent® Version 6.0 – the next generation of our Talent Management software

Our customers are reporting great successes in using our software technology to improve the ways they manage their people. Read all about their accomplishments in our six case studies.

Our product portfolio continues to be a real focus for our investment activities - after all by keeping our products feature-rich and easy to use, you'll be able to exploit your investment in our technology in more ways than you had imagined. We released Version 5.0 of our Talent Management Suite to our User Group this month and it contains developments in Appraisal, Performance Management, and 360-degree feedback that will create the 'wows!' in your organisation. What's more its available On-Demand to you 24x7, wherever you or your employees are in the world.

Our lead article in this issue will strike a chord with many employees now returning from a long seasonal break - 'where's my career going in this organisation?'. Conventional career planning just doesn't work any more - it fails to develop people cost-effectively and fails to retain them. See what's changed in the article below. What will your organisation's response be?

We typically see an increase in interest in Appraisal software at this time of year and it will be worth a look at our Talent 180® product that provides support for your process, competences, behaviours and objective setting practices.

If you are challenged to create a Competence Framework and need some help on how detailed it should be, then see our blog for some researched guidance here.

Finally, we are pleased to welcome Bedfordshire Police as the latest force to select our Talent Management software.

Read more here