Title: Who Are Your Talent and What Do They Need?

Speaker: Jon Ingham @joningham

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Outline:

q  Definition and current state of development q  Talent in the value triangle q  Key roles and key people q  Identifying and developing potential q  Recognising and nudging against biases q Organisational success factors q  Benefits of ‘talent slicing’

Talent / Human Capital Management:

q  Any activity which increases the health, wellbeing, engagement, capability, diversity and any other qualities of people to do their work

q Managing for talent / human capital, not managing people as talent / human capital

Current State of Development:

q  Increasing understanding of the importance of talent / human capital

q  Decreasing satisfaction with the results of talent / HCM

q  Insufficient clarity about who provides talent

q  Not enough focus on value

Personnel

Human Resources

Human Capital Management

© Strategic Dynamics, 2015

Create value

Add value

Value for money

• Talent = key people, most closely connected to organisation capabilities

• Opportunities to contribute to human and to social capital

• Talent = key roles, most closely connected to the business

• Plus some key people

• Talent = everyone / everyone has talent

• Developing strengths

Talent = Everyone

q  IQ q EI q Ambition q Self awareness q Self efficacy q  Intrinsic motivation q Learning agility q  10,000 hours q Absence of fatal flaws /

derailers q Luck

Identification and development of

individual personal strengths / talents

Talent = Key Roles

q Roles that are particularly central to business strategy - ‘strategic job families’ (Kaplan and Norton, 2004)

q Roles in which investment provides the greatest return - ‘pivotal roles’ (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2004)

q Roles which align most closely with chosen organisation capabilities

Recruiting the right people

and providing appropriate

functional and technical

development

Talent = Key People

q People with specific capabilities, networks and relationships, or just generic skills which are scare in the employment market, and who would therefore be difficult to replace

q High performers who make a particularly significant contribution to the organisation

q High potentials, which could include employees and especially graduates in early career grades, or at positions just below the leadership team

q Are Nationalisation and focus on women creating value / ‘key people’ talent strategies or ones which exists at all three levels?

Talent in Human and Social Capital

Human capital q  Individuals with greatest link to organisational

capabilities (based upon their individual capabilities and other factors)

Social capital q  ‘Social talent’ -

individuals at the heart of organisational networks / culture eg brokers & connectors

q Talented teams

Investing in Potential / 1

q Hardest form of talent to understand and articulate – not just performance now, or in the future – moving from one to the other

q  Increasingly complex

given lateral vs purely linear development

Investing in Potential / 2

q Trend is moving away from developing potential and focusing on what people have now:

-  Common approach to managing expat talent -  Developing globally too, eg .  Peter Cappelli - Talent on Demand .  Reid Hoffman – The Alliance (Tours of Duty)

q Some (employers of choice) will want to offer a focus on potential to some groups of staff as part of their employment value proposition

Identifying Potential

q 9 box very clunky and likely Pygmalion effect

q Often we just re-assess performance again (halo effect)

PE

RFO

RM

AN

CE

POTENTIAL

Derailed Misspent Talent

Investment risk

High Potential

High Professional

Confirmed Talent Star

Tried and Tested

Utility Player

q Needs a formal assessment vs manager subjectivity and favouritism

Recognising Impact of Biases

q A natural part of being human

q Training has a role (eg Google course) but only helps become aware of other peoples’ biases

q Assessments may have a more personal impact (eg Harvard Implicit tests) but tends not to change behaviour

Nudging Against Biases

q Need to be choice architects, nudging decisions about people to reduce impact of bias, eg:

-  Gender bias -  Physical characteristics bias -  Success vs failure bias -  Invalid leadership characteristics bias (eg charisma) -  The ‘extrovert ideal’

Let’s Check Again: Who Are Our Talent?

q Largely random selection of employee population?

q People in our own image?

q People who shout the loudest / flatter us the most?

q Narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths?

q People who have a real disproportionate impact on our organisations – or the potential for this?

Developing Potential

q Top down / side to side succession planning q Bottom up development to meet identified succession

needs

q Pools vs org charts

q Raising the bar

Organisational Success Factors / 1

q Diversity and inclusion – provides breadth of human capital and depth of social capital

q Openness and transparency about talent programmes and those identified as ‘talent’

q Clear criteria, entry processes (and exit processes) for ‘key people’ talent programmes

Organisational Success Factors / 2

q (Agreeing with Mark Allen) managers who want to and are capable to manage people:

-  Dual career stream -  Let talent choose their managers -  Give people back to HR

q Ensure managers will let people move on for sake of organisation as a whole

Benefit of Adding / Creating Value Approach to Talent Management:

q Allows best fit vs best practice (individual / group vs other individuals / groups)

q Can be seen as a part-way move towards a fully personalised approach

Talent Management & Development Actvities

Outcomes •  Talent • Human capital • Social capital

T A L E N T

G R O U P S

P R O C E S S E S

One More Time: Who Are Our Talent?

q Be careful about being too exclusive

q Eg if 2% of your people really do drive 98% of business impact your issue isn’t talent management, it’s organisation design!

http://strategic-hcm.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/ram-charan-2-percent-people-98-impact.html

Best Approach is often ‘Talent Slicing’

q  Identifying and creating differentiated approaches to different talent groups -  Multiple tailored approaches -  Higher quality management

within these areas, eventually leading to better development across the whole organisation

q Also avoids having to refer to any of these groups as talent (avoids demotivating people not placed within these groups)

For More Information: info@joningham.com

www.joningham.com / www.joningham.com/advice

strategic-hcm.blogspot.com

linkedin.com/in/joningham

twitter.com/joningham

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