How’s your bench strength?

If one of your key players left tomorrow, would you be OK? Would you have a replacement groomed, ready to take over? Or would it be a business crisis that would suck your time away from operations, stop progress and distract the team? Do your top performers know that they are appreciated and that they have career paths in your organization? Do they have systematic development plans to get them ready for the challenges at the next level up? Succession planning is both about managing risk and managing talent for the long term.

Talent reviews

Succession planning starts with a talent review. You have to have a baseline for the talent you have to work with. Talent reviews focus on key leadership and expert positions that are vital to your company’s on-going operations. Your first talent review may be pretty grim and reveal many key positions with no successors ready to step in. Your goal is to have choices of candidates ready to move into the positions, and another pool of developing leaders behind them. It takes time to get to this comfortable place. In the talent review, you have a chance to take an overall look at not only the upcoming bench, but also the current incumbents. Do you really have an A team? A talent review is also a great chance to evaluate the diversity of your organization, as research shows that more diverse leadership teams produce better business results.

Development plans

Individual development plans are developed as a result of the talent review. The company may create accelerated programs for high performers. The most effective way to develop leaders is to expose them to new projects and assignments where they get to stretch their capabilities with the guidance of a more senior leader. When these assignments are planned in an intentional order, new leaders develop faster with greater experience. Mentoring programs are also effective in guiding the potential successors in the organizational politics and choosing right assignments.

Talent drills

Succession planning will not live without an on-going effort to move talent. Talent drills are frequent reviews of open positions and top performers ready to move to the next level of challenge. This guarantees not only faster execution of the leadership pool goals, but also retention of top performers.

As your succession planning improves, don’t lull yourself into feeling good based just on some good matches. Set clear metrics to monitor your bench strength. The future of your company depends on your talent pool.

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

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Why is nothing changing after training?

According to Robert Brinkerhoff research, only about 15% of learning impact is determined by the actual training event. Up to 85% of the learning impact is influenced by external factors: what happens before and after. As so much scrutiny is put on the actual training event, and not much attention is paid to what really matters, it’s no wonder that most training sessions become a nice, although high quality, break from the daily grind but not much more.

Typical pitfalls of training with low impact are:

• Wrong people sent to the training
• Lack of purpose / expectations
• No opportunity to apply new skills and knowledge
• Lack or reinforcement after training
• Work environment makes it difficult to apply new skills and knowledge
• Wrong learning attitude

1. Send the right people to the training

The reason to train a person is to improve or learn a new skill, behavior or knowledge. This can be achieved through many methods. Sometimes just handing a simple job aid or a book could do the trick. If a fundamental behavior change is expected, one-on-one coaching over a long period time is often more appropriate. In some cases, the whole team needs to adopt a new methodology, approach or tool, and training everyone at the same time is the most efficient. If your employee is having a behavior problem, training is not the silver bullet. I have seen whole teams sent to a behavior improvement class so that the manager could avoid having a frank discussion with just a couple of employees. Sit down with your low performers and communicate your expectations. If it truly is a skill gap, you may consider training. In most cases, it is matter of close monitoring and getting back on track. Send your high performers to state-of-the-art workshops and conferences where they really get to expand their expertise.

2. Set the expectation for learning

Whether it’s your whole team or one or two individuals, plan ahead to make the most of the learning experience. If you are not concerned with the ROI of the learning, why bother sending them at all? Be clear why they are going to this particular training and why they were picked. Make the new skill part of their performance plan, and expect them to share the key learning points with you and the team.

3. Ready to apply

Prepare for their return so that learners will immediately be able to apply what they learned. If it is new software, the tool should be installed on their computer, ready to use. If they are going to learn negotiation skills, agree with them in which deal will they be testing the new skills. If there won’t be any chance to apply upon return, delay the training.

4. Reinforce and enforce

Inspect what you expect. Ask for a briefing on the key learning points. Work together to create a simple action plan to ensure that the skills are applied immediately after the training. Monitor progress and celebrate success together. Give feedback and coaching as much as you are familiar with the topic.

5. Create a supportive work environment

Cynical coworkers can certainly kill any budding new skill. Set rules of engagement for the whole team to expect support. If the whole team is learning new methods, share war stories, wins and best practices as they emerge. Remove obstacles such as bureaucratic processes or old systems that can be counterproductive to the excitement of gaining new skills.

6. Select people with a positive learning attitude

To create an innovative organization, you need people who are curious, open to change and who want to continuously improve and learn new things. Make this a performance evaluation and promotion criteria and, more importantly, a  selection criteria for new hires. Nothing stops progress more than an employee who thinks he or she knows everything there is to know and poisons the learning environment for everyone else on the team.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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How to get a raise

2009 was a year we want to forget. Adjusted for inflation, total compensation in the USA fell by almost 1.3 percent. 2010 looks a bit better, but not much: a salary increase forecast conducted by The Conference Board projects modest budgets of 2.8%, barely enough to match the inflation rate. In this environment, what can you do to get that coveted raise? There are no silver bullets, but the answer lies in knowing the process, studying the criteria and applying self awareness.

There are different approaches to compensation strategies in organizations, such as flat inflation adjustments, seniority systems, competency based increases, but performance based pay is the king. It makes sense; the best performers get the best compensation. In this year’s case, the performance based companies will take their 2.8% increase budget and try to divide it so that low performers will get nothing, solid performers will get a little bit, so that there is some extra money accumulated to give a more handsome reward for the star performers. It sounds straightforward, but many complain that they are not being evaluated fairly. Herein lies the challenge: 90% of employees feel that their performance is above average. So, how do you know if you REALLY are above average and deserve the key to the treasure chest?

If your company is in a mature stage, it has clearly defined standards for different performance levels. These would describe how a top performer behaves versus a solid performer, and what constitutes performance below expectations. Sometimes, you can dig in further and find the listed company leadership values. If you can’t find any published criteria, here are some generic tips how to distinguish whether you are a true top performer vs. a solid performer:

• Top performers are part of a solution. It’s not that they don’t see problems or are yes-men. When they see a problem, instead of just identifying the issue, they think of possible solutions and volunteer to be involved in implementing them.
• Top performers are proactive. Instead of just doing a good job at fulfilling requests and completing goals, top performers clearly see the overall strategy and purpose of the company, and jump at opportunities to do things beyond their current tasks, as long as they are aligned with the current priorities.
• Top performers are change agents. In new initiatives, top performers not only go to training and follow the new rules, they embrace the change vision and evangelize the cause. If there are issues, they find workarounds instead of just pointing them out.
• Top performers are continuous learners. They ask for feedback and act on it. When they go to training, they are engaged. When they get back to work, they share what they learned with the team and apply the new skills on the job.

Just as a word of caution, here’s a tell-tale sign how to recognize if you might be a low performer: you consume a lot of your supervisor’s or HR’s time. Unless your time with your manager is proposing ideas that you are volunteering to implement, you are taking time away from productivity. The only other exception may be if you are reporting illegal or unethical activities; that is your right.

Get savvy about your company’s performance management and compensation processes. Know the criteria for decisions. Find out about the schedule and decision points. For example, once the merit increases have been approved by senior management, your chances of changing your manager’s decision are slim. Your manager and HR are your best sources of information. Use the processes to your advantage and don’t be afraid of them. Document your performance throughout the year and make sure that your manager, the next level management and HR are aware of your accomplishments. Network internally so that the decision makers can connect a name to a face.

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If you are a manager, don’t let the rewards planning time to go to waste. With the little budget that you have, make it count:

• Make sure there are no surprises. Your performers should know where they stand based on the informal feedback you give throughout the year.
• Be as transparent as you can be about the guidelines and how the compensation decisions are made. Clear expectations upfront set the stage for frank discussions.
• Make sure to celebrate the successes with your top performers and show how much you value them. The reward dialogue with them is a great opportunity to do so.
• Don’t forget to share how much you value your solid performers. Show them what it takes to be a top performer.
• Don’t cop out with your low performers. They should not be surprised with what’s in store for them.
• Don’t forget that compensation can only be a dissatisfier. Leading with purpose, giving feedback and developing your employees ultimately drive their engagement.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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How big of a chunk of your company’s talent is underutilized?

The CBS post-Super Bowl show Undercover Boss thrilled or further jaded over 38 million viewers. The Waste Management President and COO Larry O’Donnell spent five days on the ground learning the ropes of the basic operations from the first line employees. Who wouldn’t enjoy watching a corporate big wig scrubbing latrines?

The outcome of the show was that Mr. O’Donnell ordered some changes in the local practices and a task force to look into their productivity policies that seemed to override all other company values. Having worked side by side with five employees, he also ended up promoting three of them. Now, three out of five makes 60%. It took the company President to notice that 60% of the employees he met did not work to their fullest potential.

Waste Management has 45,000 employees. With O’Donnell’s quick sample, 60% of talent being underutilized would make 27,000 missed opportunities. Yikes! Something to talk about with Jay Romans, Senior Vice President, People.

When a company grows past 400-500 employees, the CEO can’t know every employee. The VP of HR can’t know every employee. It is time to put in place talent management mechanisms that ensure that the CEO’s eyes reach all the way to the front lines to recognize and move the right people to the right opportunities.

The selection process should reflect the qualities that make the company culture successful. Sometimes, the culture is not quite there yet, so the management must find the pockets of excellence, and start building the desired culture by replicating the top performers’ attitudes and aptitudes, starting with hiring.

With the talent already in the organization, it is important not to let it go stale. The company loses opportunities, the employees lose motivation. There must be a process in place that frequently checks where the opportunities are, and where opportunities can be created. You also must create visibility into the strengths and talents of your existing employees. How else can you match talent to opportunities? The market provides many options for skill inventory software, or better yet, integrated talent management software.

And even with the fanciest software, keep this age-old rule in mind: garbage in – garbage out. It applies even at Waste Management. If the managers and employees don’t take the talent management process seriously, your software is not worth a byte.

Managers a the key to spotting talent are the managers. If they are only interested in and rewarded for getting today’s tasks done, there will be no talent management. They must have the skills and confidence to have in-depth conversations with their employees about their motivations, strengths and career goals. The company culture must also promote resource development and allocation beyond one’s own turf.

Many employees don’t even realize that they have opportunities beyond their current position. With a supportive company culture and a manager who knows how to develop their skills and coach their careers, they can look beyond the dead-end job, even if the President doesn’t come for a visit.

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Copyright 2010 Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, all rights reserved.
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