My working definition of talent management

Believe me, there are tons of frameworks for talent management out there. Many of them are quite complicated with multiple parts and fancy words. I am going to introduce one that is a bit easier to work with and get your arms around.

Talent management starts with performance management. If you don’t know what levels of talent you have to work with, the rest of the processes will be pretty much useless. Performance management helps you identify solid performers who are the bread and butter for your company operations, star performers who will be your future leaders, and low performers you need to deal with one way or another. This part of performance management is useful for talent management purposes. (Do not forget that real performance management that drives performance happens on a daily basis and is dependent on skilled managers. Performance ratings have nothing to do with this aspect of performance management!)

Once you have visibility to your performance levels, you can turn on follow-up talent processes. Smart companies practice differentiated investment in their talent: Their best talent gets the most rewards as well as special developmental plans that can feed into the leadership and expert pipelines. Investment in strengths has the highest return. Talent management feeds into rewards planning, annual training planning and succession planning. It creates company rigor around individual development plans as well as career plans. One branch of talent management feeds into the HR process of performance improvement plans: the low performing talent will improve or will be managed out.

Let’s look at the beginning of the talent management process. For companies to have A talent, they must grow or bring A talent in. Talent management secures a robust selection process that aligns with the organization’s talent goals. Companies with a good talent culture do not compromise in their selection process just to fill an opening. They also have a comprehensive onboarding process, which is part of talent management.

To enable a well functioning talent management process, a foundation of clear competencies and metrics is needed. Competencies are based on the organization’s core values, top performer qualities, future strategies and functional requirements. As any world-class process, continuous improvement requires solid metrics for monitoring progress.

An essential part of an organization’s competitive edge comes from its culture. Talent management intentionally monitors and manages the culture, the employee engagement and the diversity of its workforce.  If you have introduced any new process or initiative, you know well that process compliance only gets so far. A true talent culture is in the fabric of how every employee and manager thinks and acts. When talent is perceived as truly the most important asset of the organization, you are starting to get where you need to be with talent management.

If you need help with talent management processes, contact Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks at liisa@forteconsulting.biz or at 512-484 8263.

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How’s that warm body strategy working for you?

What's your hiring criteria?

Many companies that are suffering from high turnover strive to fill the open positions as quickly as possible. If the hiring process is truly optimized, that’s all fine and well. If the speed is achieved simply by picking the first candidate who meets the minimum requirements, it’s called the ‘warm body strategy’.  Although it may bring short term relief, it can also amplify the original problem. The new hires who don’t fit the company culture and are not necessarily high performers are likely to quit or frustrate their coworkers. The vicious cycle continues.

To break the cycle, hiring managers must turn their attention to the quality of hire. It is easier said than done, when the team is working overtime, or an important deadline is looming around the corner. Some key elements to increase the quality of hire are being specific about what you want, assessments, skilled interviewers and good follow-through.

Culture fit is the highest determinant for long term success for the candidate. You must be clear on what types of behaviors it takes to thrive in your organization. Add specific functional competencies, and your recruiter can source much better matches to start with.

The interviewers’ time is valuable. The best practice is to narrow down your candidate pool by assessing the candidates before interviews. This way, you only interview good matches. There are multitude of assessments to choose from, depending on the position you are hiring for, ranging from cognitive and psychomotor tests to skill and personality tests. Make sure that the tests are valid and reliable, to avoid inadvertently discriminating against any candidates.

Hiring an employee is an important investment for your company. It is surprising how often those who interview candidates do not take this investment decision with the appropriate seriousness. The interviewers should also keep in mind that they are creating the first impression of their organization. All who interview should coordinate their questions ahead of time and reconvene or submit comments afterwards. HR or recruiting often takes the lead in coordinating this process. The interviewers should be trained in behavioral and situational interview techniques. One of the most in-depth interviewing techniques is topgrading.

When you have done all this work to identify a truly excellent fit to the company and the position, don’t drop the ball on day one. The highest turnover takes place in the first 90 days. Focus on the onboarding process and ensure that the new employee feels welcome, gets clear direction and the tools to get productive fast. Now you have much more than a warm body working for you.

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Have you captured the hearts and minds of your new employees?

According to an Aberdeen report, the best-in-class companies that have a formal onboarding process improve their new employee engagement by an average of 31% and reduce their time-to-productivity by 24%. Engaged employees in turn are more likely to be top performers, and companies with an engaged workforce have higher profits. Onboarding is much more than a 2-hour session where the new hires fill out the mandatory HR forms.

With new technology, the best companies allow access to a new employee portal and important company and career information even before the start day.  If your company has not caught the tech wave yet, you can still think of ways to share information to affirm their decision to join your company. What can you tell about your culture, your history and your business that can get them excited about being part of your organization? Give details about your benefits upfront, so they can discuss them with their family before they make their final decisions.

Orientation should be a reflection of your company culture. Find a way to reflect your core values through stories, discussion and activities. Orientation doesn’t have to take place in one session either. Bazaarvoice, on the list of Austin’s Best Places to Work For, gives out a list of 55 items to explore during the first week of employment. The new hires are asked to find out from Finance how much cash Bazaarvoice has in the bank. They get to sit in meetings with Sales or executives. They may get to expense a tray of cookies to share with coworkers, or a dinner at a restaurant where Bazaarvoice has celebrated its history. As Bazaarvoice is obsessed with the culture fit, they offer $2000 for any new hire who realizes that they don’t belong and want to leave.

How many new employees have started their first week excited and found themselves rolling their thumbs because the computer hadn’t arrived, the password is not working, or the manager was traveling. This is the first impression you are creating. The logistics process must be rehearsed, until it is flawless. There must be a work plan for the new hire to get started, otherwise, delay the start date.

Engagement is formed in hearts and minds. You capture hearts when your employees feel pride in being part of your organization and create meaningful connections with their coworkers. You capture their minds when they understand the vision and purpose of your organization and how it ties to their role. Onboarding is a great place to start making headway into the hearts and minds of your new champions.

Share your experiences in onboarding: the good, the bad and the ugly!

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