achieving peak performance · achieving peak performance: six steps for effective talent management...

By Theresa J. RiceTalent Management Strategist, Ciber

Achieving Peak Performance: Six Steps for Effective Talent Management

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Abstract

In the following white paper, we consider six steps for effective talent management, and discuss how to focus your talent management strategy on your business and employees’ needs in the new social and collaborative workplace. We will explore the links between en-gagement and effective talent management and how to:

1. Create an integrated, holistic view of employee data2. Define each role accurately and completely3. Examine performance data in the right way4. Track performance rigorously5. Coach to the skills and competencies needed for the employee and the organization to

be successful6. Effectively reward and recognize

By following these six steps, this paper outlines how an organization can build not only an effective talent management strategy, but also how to build an engagement strategy and a culture of engaged and productive employees.

The Conference Board Job Satisfaction Survey indicates that more than 50% of workers are still dissatisfied in their jobs. That’s a substantial decrease from 61.1% in 1987, the first year that the survey was conducted.1

Another survey, by the American Psychological Association, flushed out the reasons for the dissatisfaction. Among the most cited were low salaries, lack of growth opportunities, heavy workloads, and long hours.2

In this “War for Talent” economy that we are facing, organizations are increasing their focus on holistic talent management strategies. With this greater focus on—and interest in—talent management comes more scrutiny about a company’s existing HR processes vs. the benefits of implementing an integrated talent management strategy, including:

• Is the premise of a system of record outdated?

• Do we have to choose between the HRIS vs. talent management as system of record?

• Should a system of engagement be considered instead?

How can an organization combine effective talent management strategies and maximize employee engagement and employee satisfaction?

Many HR managers and directors already understand that comprehensive and reliable HR data is critical when evaluating talent management metrics and goals, but need help in how to translate HR data into key performance measurements.

Developing the right talent management mindset

By identifying clear goals and using them to establish success criteria, you can get your employees to focus on what is truly important and achieve more as a result.

1 Conference Board Job Satisfaction Survey, June 20122 American Psychological Associate/ APA Survey Finds Many U.S. Workers Feel Stressed Out and Undervalued, March 8, 2010

With the right approach, employees collaborate effectively and inspire others to deliver more, developing the skills to lead themselves and others more effectively.The point is that talent management is no longer about making HR processes easier. It’s about making it easier for managers and employees to collaborate and manage themselves in a new social environment. For purposes of this discussion, we have expanded on the six requirements for effective talent management. They include:

1. Creating a system of engagement with an integrated, holistic view of employee data

Delivery platforms for consumers and businesses are shifting (for example, mobility, cloud and social media); communication and collaboration channels are being reinvented; technology is driving innovation, and the amount of data available is growing exponentially because of the proliferation of apps and mobile devices. Organizations are deploying or are connecting to mobile technologies, but are often not utilizing the technology themselves.

With these new technologies, it would be impossible to record every employee’s transactions, decisions, or customer interactions. This type of data is somewhat more anecdotal and incomplete by its very nature. However, many organizations make their job unnecessarily difficult by using fragmented data collection and reporting systems. They use one system for handling applications and resumes, another system for documenting employee performance, and yet another to handle payroll, salary history and benefits. Further complicating the situation is the fact that HR may have a completely separate system in place for learning management, tracking the courses employees have taken and the certifications they have achieved. As a result, no one has an integrated view of individual employees, and the organization is unable to aggregate data to identify gaps or opportunities.

Even when organizations choose so-called “best-of-breed” products to handle specific data gathering and reporting functions, the system often has gaps and management’s insight will be impaired because data isn’t completely integrated. Simply put, when HR processes are disconnected and inefficient, the organization suffers.What managers need is a single, informed “view” of each employee as an individual, and as a member of their team. Managers need to be able to develop deep understanding


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about whether a particular employee possesses the right mix of skills, competencies, and education required by a given role using comprehensive data that provides a complete view of the employee. Based on this assessment—which determines how well that employee fits a position—managers can then develop individualized coaching plans that focus on specific ways to help employees improve their performance and reduce the cycle time to productivity.

To gain this kind of integrated, holistic view of employees, the right choice is to invest in an integrated talent management software suite. What managers need is an information system where data flows up and down seamlessly, and can be translated into reports, analytics and dashboards that guide day-to-day decision-making.

As Forrester Research pointed out in a study published in 2010, “HRMS Solutions: Traditional Models Cash with Next-Generation Processes and Technology,” creating a maintaining a comprehensive employee record is at the center of effective talent management and will include six key components. (See Figure 1.) 3

Choosing an integrated suite with robust talent management functionality provides management with a comprehensive, holistic view of the organization’s competitive posture in the area of talent—from early applications through pending retirements and succession planning.

3 HRM Solution: Traditional models clash with next generation process and technology, Forrester Research, 2010

HRMSWorkforce

ManagementTalent

Management

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Learning RecruitingCompensationand Bene�ts

• Payroll• Employee records• Salary administration• Compliance• Jobs and positions• Shared services• Self-service

• Time and attendance• Absence management• Workforce scheduling

• Performance• Sucession planning• Career planning• Goals• Organization charting• Competency management

• Course management• Virtual classroom• Mentoring• Learning content management

• Applicant tracking• Worforce planning• Sourcing• Onboarding• Social recruiting/ networking

• Pay-for- performance• Stock-based and deferred compensation• Incentive compensation• Market companions• Benefits administration• Enrollment and communications

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.47580

Figure 1: Integrated Human Resource Management: The HRM Solutions Footprint

Using the proper tools, management can make decisions that have an impact on success today and assure success in the future.

What is truly important to achieve better results with employees? What are the core competencies you’ve identified, and what does success in a given role look like? What are the core criteria you are trying to achieve with each employee? If you don’t understand what you want from the person in a given role, it’s quite likely you will get something very different than what you expect.

2. Creating talent profiles to define each role accurately

A “talent profile” is the first step to standardizing across the enterprise. To build consistency, you start with the talent profile which exists in all top talent management systems, and drives recruiting, employee development, and assessments. Using the same profile structure horizontally across the spectrum of the enterprise, and vertically through the duration of a given employee’s presence in a specific role, adds consistency and objectivity to HR practices. When the talent profile is linked to the HR system of record and truly connected—not through piecemeal integration—but all one platform, the power to engage becomes boundless.

In addition, clear role definitions give each employee an accurate view of his or her own degree of fit to the role or position they are in, thus facilitating employee self-management, which shouldn’t be confused with self-service. Instead it is actually where an employee actively seeks out skill development and credentials that are helpful and relevant to their position They can prepare themselves for advancement when they know what their next position requires, based on the position template defined for their desired role.

Creating tightly defined roles will ensure that employees know exactly what they are expected to do, what other members of the team are expected to do, and what they can do to prepare for taking on greater responsibility in other roles. This will lead to creating goals that are meaningful and truly springboard success in their career. Knowing how those goals are understood, measured and analyzed increases engagement and the feeling of “connectedness” for employees.

3. Analyzing data in the right way in order to link it to employee performance

Effective talent management is based on a deep understanding of the data, and a rejection of subjective, conventional approaches. Smart business managers will start their analysis of performance data for employees by looking at the competencies, skills and education defined for the role. In other words, how the employee matches up. A gap analysis will tell management where the employee fits best, and if that employee is not a particularly good fit for the job he or she holds. The gap analysis will also tell management what steps to take to help the employee improve his or her performance. It also identifies the talent gaps and who you need to recruit into the organization to ensure you are “top grading” talent continuously recruiting to those gaps in your team keeps existing team members motivated to keep up skilling and improves engagement.

Performance management defines the standards of behavior for each employee as required by the position he or she holds. It keeps the focus on what is truly important and why goals need to cascade organizationally. Each employee must understand your organizational mission for the year, month, and week down to what the day’s priorities are. This helps keep your manager’s focused on top grading the talent, and reduces your time to productivity with new hires when the talent profile, competencies and goals are clearly measured with factual performance-related data.

4. Tracking performance in real time and with some rigor

What if you never looked backed at the previous performance of an employee? What if there was no effort to improve? The result would not be favorable, and it would be difficult to even maintain the status quo. Instead, your team’s performance would deteriorate rapidly, employee engagement would decline and turnover of your top performers would increase.

The reality is that talent in any organization tends to degrade over time unless managers make a conscious effort to maintain or even improve or enhance the quality of the talent. Why does it degrade? In a variation of the “regression-to-the-mean” principle, talent degrades because the weakest members of the team aren’t likely to leave. Poor performers who are under no pressure to leave are most likely to stay, while your top producers, who typically have a strong record of accomplishment, are likely to get frustrated and leave. They get frustrated because they feel their efforts are not recognized, that


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they are carrying a team or being overworked. After a few years, what was once a high-performing team turns into a mediocre one.

Managers hang on to poor performers too long because of two main factors:

• The tendency to escalate commitment

• The tendency to overvalue sunk costs

Managers escalate commitment when they are afraid that the time and resources they have already spent will be wasted if the underperforming employee is taken out of the role.

Compounding the problem for managers is the tendency to overvalue what economists call “sunk costs.” A study by Barry Staw, professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley, found that people who are directly responsible for a losing course of action are more likely to stick with it than people who were not involved in choosing it in the first place. Being accountable for a choice makes it more difficult for people to admit that it was the wrong choice. 4

Another factor influencing the tendency to overvalue sunk costs happens when people tend to overvalue what they already have, and undervalue what they do not.

The implication of this tendency is that managers may tend to see members of their current team as being better employees than they actually are and may see prospects as having less potential value to the organization. Daniel Ariely documents this tendency in his book, “Predictably Irrational,” and points out that this leads to a strong organizational bias against change. 5

What is the answer? If managers track actual accomplishments toward specific goals which have beendefined as strategically important, then performance tracking is more accurate and fair and based on those goals. The more objective data about performance a manager has about each employee, the less likely that manager is to use unreliable and subjective data.

4 Staw, Barry M.; Ross, Jerry Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol 9, 1987, 39-785 Ariely, Dan; Predictably Irrational, 2010

A fully integrated talent management system is an important tool in documenting performance regularly and frequently. Rather than waiting for the dreaded annual review, where managers typically scramble to find evidence of an employee’s contributions, a manager who has access to an integrated talent management system can enter observations about goals accomplished and behaviors demonstrated on a daily basis, if need be.

Talent management should be a system of engagement which uses collaborative tools, such as social feedback mechanisms, to track “real-time” indicators of performance and that reinforces positive behaviors and successes as they occur. If the right mechanisms are in place, employees are more likely to get involved in tracking their performance, and appreciate continuous feedback to know how they fit in, and what contributions are appreciated by the organization and their manager.

Consider the following study as proof. According to the authors of Employee Engagement: Tools for Analysis, Practice and Competitive Advantage by William H. Macey, Bengamin Schneider, Karen M Barbera, Scott A. Young, employee engagement and positive financial performance are closely linked.6

In this study, employees in 93 firms in different industries completed an engagement index, and then for each company the data was averaged. Respondents were asked a series of questions, and results reflect the top and bottom 25% of the companies shown in this engagement index. It highlights which companies have implemented employee engagement vs. those that haven’t, and looks at the financial consequences. The results are telling: When enagement is high, shareholder value is shown to more than double. (See figure 1.1)

Think about how an engaged workforce could drive financial results for your organization, and then think about how it could be used to motivate your team and make it more productive.

5. Coaching and training team members for success To be successful, managers need to get out of the behavior modification business and into behavior management.

6 William H. Macey, Benjamin Schneider , Karen M. Barbera, Scott A. Young ; Employee Engagement: Tools for Analysis, Practice, and Competitive Advantage (Talent Management Essentials), 2009.

There are three elements to effective behavior management:

• Establish individual objectives and goals that align with the organization’s strategic interests

• Set up and use a global performance management system, where the standards of behavior are defined for each role and each employee

• Implement a compensation management program that rewards actual accomplishments, not intentions, and that rewards only the desired behaviors

Choosing an integrated learning system is important to your talent management strategy; but so is making performance improvement a core part of the culture for your organization. For example, the HR department can take training outside the walls of the classroom by

implementing programs where veteran employees mentor younger workers. HR can incorporate the use of social media to connect employees throughout the organization, creating a networking environment where work and performance issues can be shared to come up with a collaborative solution.

Ultimately, creating a learning environment at work is simply a subset of creating an effective talent management system. The desire to learn new skills or gain additional knowledge can be influenced by co-workers and managers alike, along with external partners, analysts and vendors who provide important topics and thought leadership outside of your organization’s area of expertise.

Learning management needs to be personal and informal, and incorporate an employee’s personal accountability in order to drive their performance to a higher level, and make it an essential part of your organization’s culture. If

Return on Assets15%

0

-5-5 %

7%

Shareholder Value3

q*

0

2.05

Pro�tability

-4 %

7%

1.08

EmployeeEngagementLevel of the Firm

Top 25% **

Bottom 25% **

*q = the radio of a �rm’s market value to be replacement cost of its assets

** based on 93 �rms across diverse industries, and 65 �rms for q

Figure 1.1: Engagement and financial performance


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they don’t buy into the plan and drive it—regardless of how engaging, fun and interactive it is—learning new skills becomes ineffective. Resources for extended learning should be readily accessible to employees so they can find relevant materials, tutorials or classes to do their job more effectively.

6. Rewarding for desired performance, not for perception

When pay rates are influenced by “internal politics” or based on subjective perception, rather than objective performance employee performance, a company’s performance suffers.

It’s not enough for employees to know what their individual roles require; they also need to know that what they are doing matters, and that their performance will be measured by fair and objective data. One method for keeping employees motivated is through clear communication from management about expectations, as it relates to their work. Another method is through a well-documented compensation program, and the performance-appraisal process.

Another clear sign that an organizations needs an integrated talent management system is if the compensation and annual raises are tied to someone’s history or reputation with the company, instead of individual performance. If performance isn’t the standard of measurement, there is no way to ensure that each employee is being paid for what he or she actually accomplishes. Compensation should be evaluated in real-time, with unbiased data that supports it, and should include intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

Conclusion

Naturally, HR and the executives who lead an organization must agree on the best approach for designing an integrated talent management strategy. If used effectively, talent management is something that is used continuously to acquire, develop, measure and reward employees based on their individual skills and competencies. It should also clearly define role and responsibilities, set appropriate expectations and reward employees accordingly. These talent management strategies must be designed in unique and customized ways which reflect the business or organization’s culture.

Talent management software is simply a tool to enable HR and executive management to gain visibility, or a “view” of each employee, allowing them to engage with them more effectively and holistically to achieve the desired behaviors that make the organization successful.


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About the Author

Theresa J. RiceTalent Management Strategist, Ciber

Theresa J. Rice is a talent management Strategist for Ciber’s Infor Practice. She is a Global Human Capital leader with significant accomplishments and over 15 years of experience with strategic expertise in Talent and Program Management. She holds a Bachelor’s in Organizational Communication and her Master’s in HR Management. Theresa has always been passionate about TM Strategy, Process Improvement and deployment and development of solutions. She has worked in key TM roles for firms like Taleo, TeleTech and Saba and has familiarity with several of the TM Software providers in today’s marketplace as an end user, consultant and evaluator of tools.

Theresa is also a regular blogger for ciber.com on the subjects Human Capital Management, and Infor/Lawson Talent management. Please visit our blog on ciber.com to read her regular entries.

About Ciber

Ciber is a global IT consulting company with some 6,500 employees in North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific, and is approaching $1 billion in annual business. Ciber partners with organizations to develop technology strategies and solutions that deliver tangible business value. Founded in 1974, the company trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CBR).

For more information, visit www.Ciber.com.

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