Recruitment and Retention - Move It!

Internal job rotation has come of age… ......

Key learnings:

1. The second-generation internal movement systems are more strategic than the first- generation prorammes
2. The second-generation methods shun the legacy system of the past, and are more competitive in nature

Employee retention is one of the most critical concerns of corporate leaders, especially in times when ‘buying talent’ does not appear viable. Organisations are reeling under immense pressure to develop and hone the talent that they already have, opening up internal movement options like job rotation, stretch assignments and taking employees to newer levels.

Economic downturns present a good opportunity to reflect on an organisation’ s employee development and succession planning initiatives. Most organisations are facing talent woes as they have failed to get their retention act together by creating a promising development plan for their staff. However, the present downturn may well be the turning point for organisations working towards employee development and retention. Before organisations incorporate an internal movement strategy in their retention plans, it is important to ascertain the goals.

Objectives

The internal movement strategy can help organisations attain the following objectives:

Enhanced employability:

Internal job movements through job rotations and stretch assignments help increase the employability of workers. These initiatives giver workers the right kind of exposure and expand the scope of their expertise, resulting in both vertical and lateral growth .

Improved morale:

Internal movement makes the job more interesting and challenging, thereby enhancing employee engagement and morale. Employees also feel driven and motivated, as the new jobs test their abilities and help them realise their real potential.

Leadership development:

Job rotation is also used as an instrument for leadership development. When internal movement is planned and employees are moved up the corporate hierarchy, the intention is to develop potential leaders for future organisational requirements.

Better skills:

Internal movement helps employees build on their skills, as job rotation and stretch assignments require them to expand their kitty of skills.

To meet the demands of the new age, the internal movement systems too have undergone change.

The second-generation systems, as they are referred to, are pretty much the same as the first-generation internal movement systems; the difference, however, lies in the strategic component. While the first-generation systems are largely operational, the new generation systems are more strategic. In addition, there are other significant differences too. Understanding these differences will help organisations deploy their resources effectively.

Integration and differentiation

While most second-generation strategies are an improvised version of the earlier strategies, and therefore, are integrated through a common framework, differences lie in the approach and execution. As mentioned above, the second-generation systems are more strategic, as compared to the earlier more operational systems. In addition, they are also:

1. Broader in their approach, and cater to a number of internal movement channels by creating attractive opportunities
2. More proactive in creating opportunities for growth, which is unlike the first generation systems that are largely reactive
3. More competitive, with better opportunities to nurture top talent, as compared to the first-generation programmes that are more of a legacy, lacking in quality

Job shifts can be temporary under the second-generation systems, unlike first-generation systems where job shifts are more like a permanent posting.

Understanding these differences will help HR leaders chart their course carefully. However, it is important to note that internal movements have to be deliberate, as they do not happen naturally.

The reason is simple: Most people hesitate to leave their comfort zones for something they are not sure of. Managers too fear losing their best men to jobs that may not suit them. In addition, HR policies too do not support random job movements. Despite the impediments, experts believe that leaders can leverage the potential of internal movement systems for boosting retention and development efforts.

Ref: TheManageMentor.

To Tell or Not to Tell: Grooming High Potentials

"To tell or not to tell, that is the question; Whether 'tis better to be forthright And tell high potentials of their status, Or to be silent and let them know nothing."

Just as Hamlet faced a critical decision, this parody on his soliloquy illustrates that talent managers do, too. The state of the economy has made organizations more introspective as they look for ways to develop and retain top talent. Informing - or not informing - high potentials of their status can impact whether they stay or go. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this controversial question: Tell or don't tell?"

This notion of transparency continues to be a complicated issue," said Lynne Morton, co-founder and chief operating office of TalentScope, a provider of talent management solutions. "It is important to tell people they have been identified as high potentials. However, it requires a corporate culture that supports and manages the expectations of people."

A lot of [companies] have said to me, 'It's opening up Pandora's Box; we don't want to do it.' The reason is because they're afraid of their inability to manage the expectation[ s]," she explained.

If it's not done right, telling can be harmful to an organization's health. But if talent managers can manage the expectations that come along with telling, the end result is not only better retention of top talent, it also sends a clear message to the workforce about which qualities make good leaders."

When you're looking to identify and develop high-potential employees, you're [letting those] individual[s] know how important they are to the organization, how you recognize their unique abilities [and how] you want them stay and grow with the company," said Patrick Sweeney, executive vice president of Caliper, an international management consulting firm that developed the Caliper Profile, a personality assessment tool."

It also allows the rest of the individuals in the organization to see not just the individual you value but the qualities you value. It really brings to life the values of the organization and what you stand for when you identify and recognize people."

Should Every Organization Tell?

Telling is not the right decision for every organization, as doing so depends on corporate culture.

Even though Ken Driscoll, the director of the talent management group at Navistar Inc., an international truck and engine corporation, believes high potentials should be told, his organization does not embrace the practice, and some employees have quit without knowing they were identified as high potential.

Because there are differences of opinion across the four business units, the leaders of each unit make their own decisions about whether to tell or not, which Driscoll said can lead to problems."

As people transfer from one business unit to another, it can create confusion," he explained. "But for us, to mandate that in our organization or say we're going to adopt that [wouldn't] be wise either. Leadership has to believe that's the right approach.

Driscoll said if there is a policy to tell, there must be buy-in from the organization at-large, and the organization should prepare the employees for the change."

It's something that has to grow organically in an organization," he said. "You can't say, 'We're going to be a transparent organization' if you don't help people understand why it's important, why we communicate it and then give them tools to actually carry it out."

If Navistar ever implements this policy, Driscoll said his organization would be carefull how it constructed and voiced that message."

People need to understand how the organization views them," he said. "But you can't set up any kind of expectation or imply promise. Once you work through all of that, you sit down with someone and just tell them, 'Based on the evidence, we believe you have the potential to step into some higher leadership roles, and we want to provide you with some development opportunities.' That's a powerful message to send to people."

Morton said there are two challenges in telling high potentials of their status, how to manage their expectations once identified and how to manage those who are not identified. These challenges often are a deterrent to telling, she said.

To manage a high potential's expectations, organizations first need to define what a high potential is before informing an employee he or she is one. Does it mean the employee is going to assume a leadership position within the next two years? Does it means he or she will receive more development? Or does it mean something entirely different?"

Everyone likes to be praised," Morton said. "But in a business context, I want to know what does it mean to me? Otherwise, it could just be thanks for a job well done. But if it means I'm on the road toward something or I'm going to fit into the organization in a different way, it becomes important."

To determine what high potential means at your organization, talent managers should sit down and discuss it in terms of the organization's business strategy, culture and leadership model, Morton said. Once the definition is crafted, it can be a guiding principle in what managers tell employees, thereby avoiding any implied promise."

You're not high potential forever," Morton said. "The potential has to materialize. You could be considered a high potential, the company works with you and tries to develop you, but you're not getting there. Then you fall out of the high-potential pool."

Part of being clear is to tell people, 'You're not in this forever, and you need to maintain standards and the quality of work to remain in our high-potential group.' You have to be up-front. This is why it's complicated and some companies don't want to tell because then you get into this challenge of managing expectation and managing the dilemma of someone [who] falls out of the group. It's not easy."

If it's not handled right, telling high potentials also can create a negative dynamic in the workforce, as some people are highlighted and others are not."

If you have good data to support how you make your decisions, you should be able to say, 'Jane, you didn't make the cut this year, but as you can see from this information, here are the things you need to do. And we will help you work on those. We expect that if you continue the way you have been and you work a little harder, you'll make it,'" Morton said. "You need to show people that you have made informed decisions, and you are supporting and helping them."

Telling Is Central at Central Maine Medical Family

The leaders at Central Maine Medical Family recently created the Accelerated Development Group, a pool of talent that will be readied to assume key leadership roles in the future. The organization and its top leaders made the strategic decision to tell these employees they are high potential to set an example for the rest of the organization as to what a leader should be."

We see them as the people with whom and for whom we'd like to provide future challenges that are growth-oriented and rewarding career opportunities," said Joyce McPhetres, vice president of HR and organizational development. "Our identification of the group is our opportunity to say, 'These are the people with the qualities and practices of leaders who will help us get to our future.'"

Central Maine began the Accelerated Development Group by developing key leadership competencies critical to organizational success. When selecting the first group of individuals, Central Maine looked at the competencies, performance assessments, patient satisfaction surveys, employee engagement surveys and the Caliper Profile to determine which of the organization's 125 managers fit the bill. In the end, nine were chosen."

I strongly believe they should be made aware of the role they're going to play," McPhetres said. "By notifying them and others of their role, you create a standard, and you set a standard for development of other people within the organization."It's important for both the group and [the] larger organization to understand that we will not be operating as usual. It's very important that we're holding up a new model [and] new ways of behavior. And it's important others understand that alignment with that model and those behaviors are critical."

The way Central Maine tells the Accelerated Development Group is significant because the CEO, COO and president of the organization are the ones to do it."

I work in an exemplary environment, somewhat of a dream environment, in that each of the leaders of our organization are critically involved in defining and structuring the future success of this organization. And they would have had it be no one else who would inform these people than themselves," McPhetres said."

We look to our leaders to understand the next step, to understand how we might be moving toward particular goals and toward our future, and it's very key for the top leaders to be intricately involved and actually communicate the programs and the developmental opportunities for the leaders within an organization."

Telling high potentials of their status can set an example for others that there are specific values an organization embraces."

The organization has to live and breathe these values," Sweeney said. "It's not like you can send out an e-mail and say 'OK, here are our three high potentials this year.' It has to be very thorough, very comprehensive, recognized at the highest levels within the organization, and it has to permeate the organization so the people who are identified are recognized in very real and meaningful ways."

[About the Author: Lindsay Edmonds Wickman is an associate editor for Talent Management magazine.]

Understanding the New Leadership Model

Global service-based and team-oriented businesses are expanding rapidly, four generations are now in the workplace and social networks are ubiquitous in business and personal life. These modern facts of talent management life - among others - mean one of talent managers' most critical tasks is to ensure their organizations can successfully identify and integrate new leaders and unleash their potential.

Further, today's top-performing leaders need to add some new skills to their portfolios for long-term success. To promote the dynamic leadership development required to drive business results, talent managers need to understand the new trends in leadership and be proactive and focused when taking steps to attract, retain and develop strong and effective business leaders.

The Successful Leaders Makeup

In May, professional services firm Epoch partnered with talent management firm Focus Insights to conduct the "Epoch Financial Services Leadership Study" that included behavioral and motivational assessments of 200 financial services executives across various disciplines.

Study results revealed that strong leaders continue to score highly in their utilitarian motivation - the need to have every investment they make have a greater return in time or resources - and their high results-driven orientation. They also exhibit individualistic motivation - the need to advance to higher positions in life and to gain power by leading and directing others. According to Eduard Spranger, author of Types of Man, these two traits always have been present in successful business leaders.

However, the Epoch study shows an important and significant new trend. The social motivator, defined as a willingness invest one's own time and resources in helping others achieve their potential, is significantly higher than it used to be and is now common among almost all leaders surveyed. Further, leaders' proficiency in social motivation is significantly higher today than in surveys of the past 50 years.

Another characteristic of highly socially motivated individuals is their desire to eliminate hate and conflict in the world. That is more important than ever before in today's highly globalized marketplace. Modern leaders must manage resources in all parts of the world and be able to lead multiple generations in the workplace. For the first time in history, there are four - some say five - generations in the workforce with just as many different value systems, and all need to work collectively.

Understanding how to lead, manage and help these different groups achieve their full potential requires skills that were not necessary when only one or two generations worked together. Further, these larger and more diverse groups require that leaders possess far greater understanding on how to best manage and inspire them.

The study also revealed that gender is not a factor when evaluating a leader's social competency. Effective leaders, regardless of gender, all require demonstration of some level of competency in this new skill, and the range of proficiency is consistent across both genders. The business disciplines practiced by leaders also are not a factor; the presence of social motivation is consistent across all disciplines at the leadership level.

What It Takes

Effective leadership has as much to do with the presence of the right behaviors and motivators as it does with skills and experience. In other words, often leaders can transcend disciplines to effectively lead if they possess a combination of top motivators such as utilitarianism, individualism and social acumen.

These revelations can have a profound impact on the way companies identify employees' proclivity to demonstrate these behaviors. Recognition and identification of these behaviors in future leaders is the talent manager's first step in any effort to unleash new leaders' potential or to create the appropriate development opportunities to boost an organization's existing leaders.

There are many assessment tools in the marketplace that can help evaluate these motivators within an organization's hiring and development practices. These motivators affect an employee's entire life cycle, from recruiting - either internally or externally - to developing or integrating them and ultimately to retaining them.

From a recruiting standpoint, it is now more clear what a successful leader looks like. But assessment tools, when combined with traditional interview techniques, can help an organization evaluate a candidate's ability to demonstrate effective leadership attributes.Once on-board, the talent manager's understanding of an individual's and an organization's leadership motivators can significantly improve the chances a leader will be fully engaged and successful. Further, for a leader to thrive and realize his or her full potential, an organization must develop on-boarding protocols and development plans to help that person. These plans must work within the organization's culture and support consolidation of three primary kinds of motivators that make successful leaders:

a) Individualistic: The desire to direct and control, where individual advancement may be more important than other people.

b) Utilitarian: Rewards return on investment, talent and time - where wasted time, materials and resources create stress.

c) Social: A humanitarian drive and the desire to reduce pain and conflict, where too much emphasis on bottom-line results and an insensitivity to people will cause frustration in this leader.

This is a new leadership paradigm, and the individualistic and utilitarian motivators may seem to conflict with the social motivators at times. Understanding how to manage this in an organization is imperative to talent managers' success.

According to a recent study by Camdem Associates, 60 percent of new executives fail within 16 months. Organizations often don't understand how to integrate a successful leader or how to maximize his or her full potential. But when these two activities are combined successfully, great leadership potential can be unleashed.

Leadership Is Not a Skill One of the most profound and potentially controversial things revealed in the Epoch study is that organizations should focus less on skill sets and more on identifying great leaders and moving them around the organization. Promoting talent mobility enables high-potential leaders to experience challenges in related or perhaps completely different areas of the business, broadening their perspectives and expertise, and thereby increasing the value they can bring to an organization.

Great leaders can transcend disciplines. Some top performers have led a number of disciplines within their organizations because they have great leadership skills, not because they understood the skills required of any one particular group or role. A great leader can surround him or herself with talented direct reports who possess the right skills, but leadership itself is not necessarily a skill. Leadership is a combination of key behaviors and motivators inherent to an individual.

Some successful executives surveyed were in operations or marketing roles before moving into senior-level HR or talent management positions. Some began their careers in HR and then moved into line business roles. Development opportunities can help, but again, their success likely transcended their disciplines because they were great leaders to begin with.

The progressive organizations that recognize that successful leaders are transferable will create great companies and be able to successfully motivate and retain great leaders. Further, the trickle-down effect in the organization will act as an effective performance motivator and retention tool for these leaders.

Modern business leaders not only seek their own success but increasingly want to invest time and resources to help others - especially members of their own teams - to achieve their potential, as well. Since the newest generation in today's workforce is actively looking for mentors to help them achieve their full potential, they too will thrive working with these new leaders.

Managing talent with this new leader in mind helps promote fully engaged work teams and unleash any group's full potential to drive business results. And at the end of the day, that is what talent managers are responsible for doing: driving business results and increasing shareholder value.

Further, if talent leaders can do that and motivate individuals to seek out ways to accelerate their leadership savvy, they can create highly dynamic and highly functioning organizations to which great talent will be drawn. At a time when it is anticipated that all organizations will be facing tremendous talent gaps - the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a labor shortfall of 10 millions people during the next two to three years - the ability to acquire and develop great leaders will be an important differentiator for organizations looking to attract and retain the best talent.

What's Next?

First, for organizations seeking to hire great leaders externally, talent managers should embrace the tools available in today's marketplace to help identify the presence of key leadership behaviors and motivators. Combine those tools with traditional interview practices to help ensure the acquisition of great leaders.

If, on the other hand, it is more effective and efficient for an organization to look internally to identify individuals with great leadership power and potential, consider two things. First, organizations should use some of the tools available to evaluate leadership potential. Second, once the assessments are done, if great leaders are available, an organization should start moving them around. Their natural behaviors and motivators will transcend disciplines and the organization's culture, and more importantly, the organization's business results will benefit enormously.

Business leaders are evolving. They are not abandoning successful leadership criteria that worked in the past, but the requirements for success have become far more complex in today's global, multigenerational environment. Talent managers' ability to seek out these new leaders and integrate them effectively into an organization can have tremendous value and help organizations realize their strategic business goals.

Ref: Linda Stewart

[About the Author: Linda Stewart is CEO, president and founder of Epoch LLC, a provider of independently employed financial service executives and professionals. ]

Economic Slowdown: An opportunity

Economic slowdown is bound to pose some major challenges for corporates, but it does provide some interesting opportunities too, especially from an HR perspective.

Post the meltdown, employee expectations with regards to salary hikes during job changes are bound to mellow down. We already have reports that the average salary jumps during job changes are lowering to levels of 20-25%, down from 35-40%. While salary used to be the key factor for job changes, post the downturn, employees are likely to become wiser and take a more long term perspective when changing jobs. One can sense that job security will hold a more premium position, in the list of priorities, than it has done in the past.

Long Term View

Another fact that the downturn has highlighted is the importance of working in a reputed, professional and values based firm. There are organisations that at the very first hint of hard-ship will retrench employees and we already have enough examples of that. However, in the past, since the economy was booming and nearly all sectors were doing extremely well, even a remote thought to downsize hardly arose in the minds of most companies. More importantly it didn’t occur in the minds of the employees or prospective employees. Hence, since the industry was too bullish, job security was never a key deciding factor for employees when they went looking out for a job.

However, the current situation has made retrenchments a real possibility and we have even had few companies showcasing the same. Hence, in future, I reckon employees are going to lay a premium on the management ethos and culture of the organisation before they make a change. Organisations which are deemed to be employee friendly and having a professional management culture will hold an advantage in hiring talent than the companies which are perceived as more cut throat having a hire and fire culture.

Employer Branding is key

The above factor is hugely advantageous to the reputed professional organisations for attracting talent and it also provides an opportunity to the rest to improve their respective employer branding by working on building a professional work culture and show-casing the same through media, industry bodies, academic institutions etc. Indeed, this provides a very exciting proposition to HR professionals across corporate India. As of now employer branding has not really taken off in corporate India but, hitherto, I do see that in the medium to long term, this aspect will gain prominence and will become a key deliverable for HR professionals.

HR taking charge

Not very long ago corporates were running from pillar to post to hire talent. A high percentage time of HR professionals was devoted to recruitment. Steep growth paths of corporates across sectors left hardly any time for management to develop leadership pipeline to sustain and manage future growth levels. However, the current scenario of lower future growth prospects does provide a good opportunity for corporates to reflect and devote more time and focus on building a healthy leadership pipeline, so come the next phase of high growth, the companies have a strong bench strength to manage the growth trajectory. Now is the time when organisations can really put their might behind developing robust talent management processes in their set-ups. The most effective talent management systems are owned by the top, ably facilitated and supported by HR. However, in the initial stages HR must take the ownership to drive the process, prepare coach and hand-hold senior leadership to lead it while HR eventually acting as a facilitator.

Another key focus area for corporates is going to be increasing employee productivity and efficiencies. The current meltdown provides an opportunity for organisations to ‘review the way they work’. In order to improve efficiencies and productivity to better their top-lines and already stretched bottom lines, companies start exploring innovative ways to improve their systems, optimise costs, decrease inventories, reduce cycle times and introduce great value innovative products. The name of the game is ‘innovation’. HR can play a key role in building an environment and culture of innovation within the organisation.

So, one can see quite a few silver linings, leave alone one, in today’s environment consumed by the dark clouds of gloom and doom. The trick is to start working on these opportunities, so when the next steep growth phase comes, you are right in front of the pack to gain competitive advantage.

Ref: Randeep Sisodia

Companies Miss the Mark on Leadership Development

Organizations' perceptions of and confidence in their leaders are at a 10-year low, according to the 2008-09 "Global Leadership Forecast," a study conducted by Development Dimensions International.

"The fact that satisfaction with leadership is declining says that organizations are not keeping up with the demand," said Ann Howard, chief scientist at DDI. "Part of that might be because leadership is hard, things are changing and it's hard to keep up, but our research said that's probably a minor part of the problem.

"Howard said organizations can do a lot better in employees' confidence in leadership, but it requires effort. There are several major issues. First, many organizations have a leadership development program, but that programming may not offer the right kinds of learning opportunities.

"When we asked leaders what are the most effective ways that you learn and enhance your skills, they pointed to on-the-job types of experiences, and organizations just aren't as forthcoming with that kind of thing: special projects either inside or outside your job, or moving to a different position specifically to enhance your skills," Howard explained.

"For multinational leaders, that's often an international assignment. Organizations will do online programs that teach you about various skills of leadership, they have a lot of workshops, coaching and so on, but that is really just an introduction to the subject.

"Real leadership development likely has to take place, at least in some form, in the actual workplace. Further, the greater the number of methods organizations use to develop leaders, the more effective their development will be. Howard said it's often not a matter of switching from one type of learning to another. It's about including those on-the-job elements to make the development real and offer leaders opportunities to practice their new skills.

Another issue impeding leaders' development is a lack of follow-up after a development program. Howard said the program in question might be a good one, but its potential impact is wasted if learning stops when leaders get back to the workplace and there is no real-time application or feedback.

"Senior management isn't held accountable in a great number of cases, and [development] may not be aligned with other systems in the organization," Howard said. "If you want a leader to be innovative; then you have to reward innovation. It needs to be in your performance management system, for example. Those kinds of things aren't done. Very often a leader will come back from a development experience, and the manager doesn't have the skills to reinforce that.

"But Howard said one of the biggest holes the DDI survey revealed was a lack of measurement."There's not very much monitoring of what's going on or calling on the carpet because this or that didn't get done," she said. "HR can put together a very nice development program, but it dies in the workplace if it doesn't get consistently reinforced. For example, 44 percent of leaders said they don't have an individual development plan.

"The companies that do have plans in place often lack specific objectives, undermining their usefulness, Howard said. Also, succession management often isn't systematic, and companies "don't identify high potentials early. They don't have programs to develop them, and they're not filling up a pipeline of qualified leaders."

"There's a lot of difficult challenges as you work your way up the leadership ladder. We asked leaders, for example, how difficult was it to make a transition from first-level to mid-level or from mid-level to a higher-level position, and it's very difficult. The higher you get the more difficult it is, and yet a lot of organizations don't have any program to help people through those transition periods.

"One group of leaders that is particularly neglected is those in multinational assignments, the survey revealed. These leaders might be expats going to work in another country, but also could include leaders advancing up the career ladder who supervise and coordinate global work efforts.

Howard said even if a leader will not live and work abroad, he or she still needs to understand different cultures and how people operate in those environments.

"You're dealing with ambiguous environments. It's more complex, and you may have to adapt your behavior if it's not acceptable somewhere else. These are tough jobs; yet, when we asked leaders who had those kinds of jobs what they thought of their preparation, over 60 percent said it was fair or poor. That's really bad.

"As the world gets smaller and more and more companies work internationally, this is becoming a bigger and bigger need, but organizations don't seem to be taking it seriously enough."

Ref: Kellye Whitney

A Culture of Learning: Turning Values Into Actions

Creating a culture of learning begins with emphasizing the value of workforce development. Sustaining it entails collaboration among learners, as well as alignment of programs to key organizational goals.

Learning cultures thrive in organizations that consistently reinforce the value of learning. These organizations encourage information- seekers, facilitate educational experiences and consistently demonstrate a commitment to learning by defining the culture in actions, not words.

Learning is not a one-time event. Effective and meaningful corporate cultures understand learning is an essential part of the fabric of the company, woven into all roles, functions, divisions and regions of the organization. Placing value on learning and creating an open environment creates an enduring organization and provides the ultimate source of sustainability.

Too often, education on corporate values and principles is addressed in silos. Corporate attitudes and behaviors are heavily influenced by an organization's culture, and the culture is shaped by the organization mission, core values and traditions. In a healthy learning culture, education is visible in all aspects of the business - so learning penetrates the entire organization to foster a culture of interactivity and engagement. In the case of a company's ethics and compliance education, a company's values come to life in actions that provide competitive advantage to the organization.

This holistic approach to learning - including the company's values, ethical decision making and business risks - is necessary in creating a learning culture. Yet, too often, education is applied to meet compliance standards or the minimums of the law and not necessarily designed to foster a values-based culture.

Evolving Into a Values-Based Learning Culture

Global businesses are faced with a number of new and more complex challenges than ever before regarding how people connect, collaborate and work cohesively and productively. Trend data from LRN's "2008 Ethics and Compliance Risk Management Practices Report," which surveyed more than 420 global companies, shows that one-quarter of organizations have a desire to engage employees in learning, but are challenged to put their corporate values and integrity into action.

When an organization seeks to transform its corporate culture through values-based learning, it is best to initiate the tone from the top and ask executives to define the overall culture to determine whether they consider it to be a learning culture. This assessment should touch a representative sample of organizational stakeholders, in addition to the leadership team - which may include customers, shareholders, suppliers, as well as employees.

Next, a thorough assessment of current programs assists in evaluating the attitudes and perceptions of the organization's learning culture. This assessment should reach employees across roles, functions and geographies to gather a balanced perspective of their educational experiences. The results should be compared to highlight any key commonalities that are important to maintain. However, it also is important to identify any discrepancies in perceptions of the overall culture, as well as the educational programs, to create an action plan that moves the company toward a truly aligned learning culture.

Shifting attitudes and transforming behavior do not happen overnight, but leveraging multiple learning channels within an organization is an excellent avenue to engage the workforce through awareness building and activities that can slowly shift the tide. The focus of any initiative cannot begin and end with awareness, but should repeat consistent bits of information, facilitate forums for informal learning and create a sandbox for learners to test and socialize information, shift attitudes and, ultimately, increase knowledge retention. This type of collaborative learning takes education from the individual development approach and creates a connected environment that builds the foundation of a learning culture.

The work of Judith Harris, author of The Nurture Assumption, challenges the whole way we look at teaching. Her work showed that, historically, the perspective on teaching overestimates the influence of parents and teachers, and underestimates the role of peer pressure. There are some real and practical steps to enhance learning by working with peers in team environments.

As companies work to create a more engaging educational program, they should not lose sight of how best to educate their workforces on mission-critical information in meaningful and sustainable ways. Organizations need to avoid implementing learning initiatives as a one-way communication, risking information overload. Pushing out content onto a corporate intranet, in the hopes that learners read and absorb the information, satisfies a "check the box" approach to education but does not represent a culture of learning.

For example, if an organization is launching a new environmental, health and safety policy, posting a set of compliance rules communicates to the enterprise that leadership is taking a passive approach to education, whereas some organizations take an additional step, requiring their workforces to electronically certify that they have read, understand and agree to abide by the policy. This sends a message that leadership deems these policies critical to the business.

Yet, posting a policy and successfully obtaining certification is only the first step to raise awareness. Where most organizations assume their work is done, a true learning culture believes the education has just begun. The next step is to ensure the workforce understands how to apply the policy in real-life situations it faces in daily work life. We know that recall is enhanced by learning in the context in which one is expected to perform. Yet, most teaching is done in alien environments such as classrooms, training centers or in bland online formats. So create an ideal blended approach that incorporates awareness building, knowledge building and skill building through peer interactions.

Enabling the workforce to translate rules into actions empower the business, mitigates risk and builds a cohesive corporate culture that ideally becomes a self-governing one. Once the awareness around a topic is achieved, it is important to foster a rich learning culture in order to educate, not just inform. This can be achieved by designing a suite of learning experiences that trigger the learner's personal relevance in the equation of the compliance topic.

Learning experiences can take on many shapes and forms, such as interactive modules that enhance the learning experience - to help the learner connect the dots from policy awareness to application. As noted by the Peer Research Laboratory at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, adults retain 10 percent of what is read, 20 percent of what is heard and 80 percent of what is experienced, so it is important to consider experiential learning, which can be facilitated through a variety of learning tools such as live workshops, virtual worlds or interactive gaming. These are all extremely effective ways to turn awareness into knowledge. In a global environment, these learning experiences should be localized to align with regional guidelines.

After awareness building, a guided application of the policies can empower learners to see their ownership in the experience and facilitate greater understanding and relevance. This results in a more compelling and meaningful learning experience and sends a message about the value the organization places on knowledge building. From William James and John Dewey through to David Kolb and Roger Schank, there has been a torrent of theory showing that we learn more by doing; yet, much teaching and training is locked into theoretical knowledge and not a skills-based model. There is hardly a training subject that would not benefit from a boost in experiential learning.

Learner Expertise and Knowledge Sharing

Global audiences today thrive in forums of personalized learning and creative expression. They are self-authoring content and emerging as amateur filmmakers and photographers. Innovations to connect and build knowledge have arrived through collaborative tools such as blogs, wikis, photo streams and machinima clips (animated movies created with gaming technology).

High-impact learning cultures recognize the value in user-generated content and embrace this next generation of tools. Perhaps the easiest and simplest piece of learning theory to put into practice is chunking, which means being sensitive to the limitation of working memory.

Less is more in learning, and it is important to distill information for the adult learner, rather than enhancing, elaborating and creating distracting noise. Additionally, a lack of understanding about how memory works leads to a lack of preparation of material in terms of size of content, order and engagement, which leads to weak encoding, a lack of deep processing and, ultimately, poor retention and recall. In creating a learning culture, it is essential to engage and educate the workforce often with small interactions and incorporate peer and direct manager discussions into the program.

As the workforce continues to grow through globalization, we must remember the value of relationships and the connection between people as an essential element to consider throughout the enterprise. The fabric of any organization's culture is built upon relationships that evolve over time through communication and connections. In a global culture, the core is strengthened by fostering a learning environment that supports relationship building through activities, such as peer collaboration, or particular platforms that allow colleagues to have a dialogue around successes and failures.

Tomorrow's Leaders

Preserving a learning culture requires keeping the learner population at the forefront of the company's strategy. When there are marketplace changes or competitive challenges, it is critical that an organization's learning environment is flexible and prepared to augment its program to support the business.

Today, organizations are challenged to maximize operational performance while increasing retention and driving workforce productivity. Sustained learning cultures build strategies and processes that give them visibility into how talent allocation best aligns with organizational goals and needs. This includes alignment on the cultures, values and mission of organizations. Mature learning organizations recognize this and focus on talent-driven initiatives through performance management processes that integrate values into career development and succession planning.

Taking a strategic approach to succession planning is a powerful catalyst for organizational transformation, growth and development, and ultimately drives cultural sustainability. Developing the skills and talents of the next generation of leaders and transferring institutional knowledge into practical business applications will contribute to ongoing business success and a sustainable advantage.

Ref: Marsha Ershaghi

The Benefits of Talent-Pool Succession Plans

In most organizations, HR professionals and executives readily admit they need to better understand the potential talent in their companies and do a better job of rewarding competent, loyal leaders. Succession planning, when integrated into the overall employee performance and talent management strategy, can provide organizations with valuable insight into their leadership pipelines. But a well-managed succession planning process should seek to not only prime leaders for the future, but reward them today as part of a bigger drive for retention.

There are many approaches to succession planning. One of the more common has been the org-chart replacement model in which employees are groomed for a specific position. Ideally, however, succession planning should focus on developing people rather than merely naming them as replacements.

With this premise at its core, the talent-pool approach to succession planning recently has emerged as a best practice that establishes a larger number of employees for promotion. This larger group is more likely to stay loyal and possess skills that are easily aligned with the organization's strategic plan.

In this model, high-potential candidates are placed in talent pools and then receive development -which may include specific types of training and education - in preparation for possible promotion. The organization commits to helping these individuals prepare to qualify for greater responsibilities, but ultimately, it is up to the individuals to perform well in their jobs while simultaneously equipping themselves to meet the new challenges of more senior positions.

The talent-pool approach to succession planning can be a great first step in rewarding loyal leaders, as they are not promised a specific position, but rather are recognized over time for their skills development, day-to-day performance and ongoing achievements. This approach provides a powerful tool set talent managers can use to recognize key leadership candidates and plan long-term bench strength.

Further, with talent pool-based succession planning, organizations are better able to get an ongoing snapshot of their workforces' potential and areas of retention risk while creating a larger pool of capable employees poised to take on leadership positions.

Capital District Physicians Health Plan (CDPHP) - an Albany-based, nonprofit, individual practice association HMO - introduced talent pool - based succession planning linked to its employee performance management to better address its strategic plans. With this approach, CDPHP can cultivate the necessary skills and competencies in high-potential employees by focusing on career and development planning.

The organization began the process by asking five questions to gauge which of their managers were at high risk to leave the organization and which were high potential. Of the organization's 100 managers, approximately 77 were rated as high potential. From there, three talent pools within management levels - entry, mid and executive - were identified. CDPHP is taking steps to reward the 77 high potentials by building a customized development plan for each manager.

As in the CDPHP example, by moving beyond the org-chart replacement methodology and working closely with high-potential leaders, talent managers can take development and succession planning to the next level. Organizations also are better equipped to manage retention risk and build employee loyalty.

For future leaders and the organizations that need them, opportunities that go beyond regular succession planning processes - such as highly individualized leadership training geared to their specific competencies or interests - will go a long way to build a robust, long-term talent pipeline.

Ref: Sean Conrad

The State of Talent Management- Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Opportunities

Talent Challenges of Today- Research Highlights

Companies today face formidable talent challenges. The ability to sustain a steady supply of critical talent is a challenge facing all organizations — worldwide. Among the issues impacting the “next generation” workforce are impending skill shortages, an increasingly cross-generational and diverse workforce, the need for knowledge transfer from retiring baby boomers, and significant leadership gaps. Intense cost pressure from both traditional and emerging competitors, new markets, and more demanding customers are additional elements that give a new sense of urgency to the concept of talent management. At a time when organizations need to optimize their workforces, most agree that talent management is of strategic importance. To evaluate the extent to which companies act on that belief, Hewitt Associates and the Human Capital Institute undertook a comprehensive study seeking to assess the state of talent management practices in companies today.

About the Study

The research provides results from both a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews. The survey was designed to gauge the maturity level of a comprehensive set of talent practices; that is, the extent to which an organization’s practices are sophisticated, progressive, practical and well executed. This enabled us to identify strength and challenges in talent management and key areas of focus for the future. Nearly 700 senior-level talent leaders (both HR and non-HR) participated in the study. Through supplemental in-depth interviews, we captured innovative practices at select companies with more developed talent management practices. This combination of quantitative survey data and qualitative interview results helped shape a better understanding of the complex issues surrounding talent management today.

The growing recognition that the quality talent is a sustainable competitive advantage, coupled with a realistic view of the complexity and scope of changes in the global workforce, has led to a renewed focus and urgency around talent management. Based on nearly 700 responses, human resources (HR) and business leaders overwhelmingly identified “attracting and retaining skilled and professional workers” as the workforce challenge most impacting their organizational strategy. ”Developing manager capability,” ”retaining high performers,”“developing succession pool depth,” and “addressing shortages of management or leadership talent” closely followed.

In today’s uncertain economic environment, it’s important that organizations address talent issues promptly, but it’s equally important that they get them right — the first time. There’s little room for trial and error, as all initiatives are expected to produce solid financial results. Unfortunately, most companies are still struggling to institutionalize effective talent management practices and programs.

Positive Results

Based on the results of this research, our collective experience, and prior research findings, we believe that organizations are indeed improving their talent management capabilities. The skills, performance, engagement, adaptability, and continuity of an organization’s workforce are indisputably a core competitive advantage and prerequisite for sustained financial success. Increasingly, organization leaders, starting with top officers, understand the business payback of focusing on getting these things right. As a result, the advances being made in talent management can be attributed to the following:

Senior Leaders Recognize Superior Talent as a Business Advantage: Senior leaders do “get it.” In nine out of ten organizations, they believe superior talent provides a vital competitive advantage. They increasingly recognize the critical linkage between effective talent management and business success.

Focus on Talent Management: The pressure to attract and retain key talent has led organizations to expend increased energy and resources on talent-related initiatives over the past half-decade. Significant progress has been made on a variety of talent management fronts — from getting foundational programs in place to creating and deploying new programs, such as high potential development, leadership development, and succession planning. However, most of the progress has been made in the executive ranks, with less focus beyond the highest management levels.

Leadership Involvement: The need for more leadership involvement in talent management is driven by the criticality of talent strategy development, articulation, and execution. Some business leaders are starting to play an increasingly visible and active role in talent management, understanding that their practices must be aligned with these talent strategies in order to have a direct impact on workforce engagement and performance.

Opportunities for Improvement

Although organizations have made significant progress raising awareness and attention to talent management and implementing foundational programs, these efforts have not led to well- executed talent management programs that are aligned with business priorities. Organizations still lag in their ability to integrate talent management programs and evaluate the return on their talent investments. The reasons are many, including:

Human Capital is Not Sufficiently Aligned With Business Strategy: While senior leaders clearly recognize the importance of human capital, a number of companies struggle to connect their people practices with their business imperatives. Only 17% of respondents say their workforce strategy is consistently aligned with their business strategy across the organization, while even fewer (7%) report consistently utilizing a specific quantitative framework in which investments in talent management are aligned with business results.

Lack of Accountability and Capability for Talent Development: While most organizations hold their executives and managers accountable for achieving business results, they are not being held accountable for talent development. Few organizations consistently hold managers (7%) or senior executives (10%) accountable for developing their direct reports. Furthermore, most managers lack the basic capability to develop talent effectively. Just 5% of organizations say their managers have the skills to grow people in their jobs or to provide the constructive feedback that supports and encourages employee development consistently across the organization.

Inconsistent Execution and Integration of Talent Programs: The majority of companies report having fundamental processes for talent management in place, such as basic workforce planning, development programs for high potential employees, and succession planning. However, few consistently execute these programs across the entire organization. While slightly more than two-thirds (69%) of companies say they conduct workforce planning across all divisions and business units, fewer than one-fifth (15%) do so consistently. Furthermore, only 21% of companies consistently integrate talent practices across the organization (e.g., rewards are tied to performance; performance is tied to development).

Limited Use of Meaningful Talent Analytics: Data and analysis have long played a role in driving business decisions; yet when it comes to talent analytics, most organizations have a long way to go. Mired in tracking traditional workforce measures, such as headcount, turnover, and cost-based metrics, few have graduated to tracking the metrics that matter. Fewer than 10% of responding companies measure the effectiveness of talent management programs, track the quality of talent, or use specific quantitative frameworks to align human capital investments with their business strategy.

Select Companies are Leading the Way

There are exceptions, of course. Despite the monumental challenges facing organizations, a few select companies have made significant strides in managing talent. What sets them apart is their dedication and commitment to talent management and the creative, comprehensive approach they take to developing their people in the following ways:

Depth and Consistency of Practices: Talent management is given top priority at these companies — and it shows. Specific programs, such as talent reviews and succession planning, are institutionalized throughout the organization, ensuring they are implemented and integrated consistently across businesses, geographies, and employee segments. Managers are taught how to develop employees, and talent programs are pushed deeper into the organization to reach a broader group of employees.

Higher Commitment and Accountability for Talent Development: Abandoning the belief that talent management is solely HR’s domain, these organizations consider it a shared business and HR responsibility requiring active engagement, commitment, and accountability from leaders and managers. From the CEO down, these business leaders not only emphasize the importance of talent management, but are also actively engaged in the processes. Additionally, they hold themselves responsible and accountable in tangible ways for developing the next generation of talent across the entire organization — not just at the leadership level.

Progressive and Innovative Practices: Never satisfied with the status quo, these organizations are consistently investing in new ways to manage talent. Approaches vary widely, but examples include progressive approaches to workforce planning, innovative employer branding strategies, and more comprehensive efforts related to onboarding and development of high potential employees. Some leading organizations are using sophisticated predictive analytics to help drive strategic human capital decisions and ensure that those decisions are aligned with the business strategy.

While most organizations still struggle to manage their talent effectively, select employers are leading the way. They serve as role models to those who are struggling to build core talent management capability by holding leaders and managers accountable for talent initiatives, driving greater consistency in talent programs globally, and continually seeking new and progressive ways to manage talent. The increased adoption of these approaches to talent management point to an evolutionary trend toward better practices overall. This report identifies the talent challenges that exist today, summarizes key findings from the research, and draws examples of innovative talent practices from select companies. Recommendations based on the research provide a foundation upon which companies can build and strengthen their talent management capability to meet the business challenges of the future.

*Ref: Hewitt State of Talent Management Oct 08

Why the Best Leaders Are the Best Leaders

The Best Leaders Give Their Best to Their People By...

1) GROWING
People naturally follow leaders they respect as being more advanced than they are. For this reason, personal growth is directly proportional to influence. If you desire to gain followers, then pay the price of getting better.

To give people your best, you have to elevate your leadership capacity. Consider the metaphor of walking up a narrow staircase - you can only go as fast as the person in front of you. When leaders stop growing, they quit climbing and impede the progress of everyone following them. However, when leaders grow, they ascend the stairs and create space for those behind them to climb higher.

Personal growth involves challenging yourself, and pushing beyond the realm of comfort. When is the last time you did something for the first time? How long has it been since you felt in over your head?

2) SERVING
"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."~ Albert Einstein

Serving others is an attitude issue. Unfortunately, many leaders operate under a king-of-the- hill mentality. They attempt to pull down anyone above them in order to secure the top spot for themselves. In doing so, they clutch at power, grapple for control of company resources, and strive to dominate others. Seeing relationships as win-lose propositions, they ultimately burn bridges and isolate themselves.

The best leaders take an entirely different approach. Rather than dragging down anyone who threatens their position, they extend a hand to lift the performance of teammates and coworkers. They function with a mindset of abundance as opposed to an attitude of scarcity, and they wield their influence to prop others up rather than to elevate themselves. Over time, they are honored for the contributions they have made to the lives around them.

All leaders serve. Sadly, some serve only themselves. Serving is a motives issue, and the crux of the matter boils down to a simple question: "Who?" Does a politician serve the public or his pocketbook? Does a CEO serve to benefit her shareholders or to support her lifestyle? The best leaders set a tone by serving and prove they are deserving of being out in front.

3) MODELING
Growing leaders have something to share; serving leaders have something to give; modeling leaders have something to show. As V.J. Featherstone said, "Leaders tell, but never teach, until they practice what they preach." The best leaders embody their values. Their passion exudes from every pore and demands respect.

The Best Leaders Get the Best from Their People By...

1) LISTENING
The smartest leaders realize the limitations of their wisdom, and they listen to their people in order to capture invaluable insights. However, leaders don't just listen to gain knowledge, they also listen to give their people permission: permission to challenge the process, permission to test assumptions; and permission to take risks. Nothing turns off an up-and-coming leader like the deaf ear of a superior. The best leaders don't simply listen to incoming ideas; they proactively draw them out of their people. They listen actively, not passively.

2) RELATING
Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand. To touch a heart, a leader has to be open to disclosing his or her identity by sharing personal stories and owning up to professional weaknesses. Mysterious or aloof leaders may be successful decision-makers, but they won't get the heartfelt loyalty that comes from authentic relationships.

As simple as it sounds, making a person feel known correlates powerfully to their job satisfaction. In fact, Patrick Lencioni lists anonymity as one of the top indicators of a miserable job. Leaders dignify their people by studying their interests, learning about their families, and finding out their hobbies. Conscious of the power of connection, the best leaders refuse to be barricaded inside of an office, and they take responsibility for relating with others on a regular basis.

3) TEACHING
Gifted teachers have a way of making students out of disinterested bystanders. The best leaders have an infectious thirst for knowledge, and they take pride in cultivating knowledge of their craft and awareness of their industry. A leader's teaching ability depends upon ongoing personal growth. As Howard Hendricks said, "If you stop growing today, you stop teaching tomorrow."

4) DEVELOPING
The best leaders understand the differences between training people for tasks and developing people to be better leaders.
Training
Developing

Focus is on the job: Adds value to specific things. Helpful for a short time. Changes a performance
Focus is on the person: Adds value to everything. Helpful for a lifetime. Change the performer

The best leaders view their people as appreciable assets and prioritize investing in the talent on their teams.

5) MOTIVATING
After one of the presentations, an audience member approached the presenter who was visibly indignant about the entire speech. "Why is motivation last on the list?" he demanded. "Well," the presenter replied, "because if you listen, relate, teach, and develop your people, then they will be motivated!"

Sustained motivation comes by creating the right environment for your people and by doing the right things consistently to nurture them. Consider a flower. It cannot grow in the Arctic; it requires a climate conducive to growth. Yet, even in the right environment, the flower must be planted in hospitable soil, exposed to sunlight, watered, and freed of weeds.

*About the Author
John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, and author

Global Leadership Challenges

Accelerating growth and globalization are forcing organizations to identify and nurture leaders who can operate effectively across the organization and, in many cases, across borders. Aging workforces in many countries increase the pressure, as a generation of senior leaders prepares to retire.

For some organizations, the key challenge is immediate: aligning current leadership with the business strategy. Other organizations struggle more with “bench strength” issues – finding and developing the leaders of the future. Many organizations face both of these leadership challenges, and almost all struggle with ensuring smooth leadership transitions.

The demands for growth and change have put HR leaders into a key role in ensuring their companies have right global leadership talent, in the right place at the right time. HR executives bear increasing responsibility for helping their organizations find and develop leaders who can move their companies forward – and then for helping those leaders to succeed. This responsibility is complicated by the fact that it’s often difficult to get a clear view into the future state of the business. Among the outstanding questions for HR executives:

How fast must they be prepared for change throughout the organization and change at the top?
What leadership skills are required for the future? How do they ensure that they hire, develop and retain the people with the right skills – intellectually, technologically and emotionally?
Should leaders be the same worldwide or should they have distinct talents and characteristics based on their location? Is there one leadership brand for a company or many?
How can they prepare the next generation of leaders, fast enough and well enough, to meet the company’s strategic goals?
How will they find the leaders who can work effectively in an ever more globalized environment?