Talent Management

The time has finally come: I have just received the task to insert my goals for the new fiscal year, which means Appraisal, Performance Review, Learning&Development based on the info I will sign in the system NOW. Cool & scaring. And for me this is the first time I live it in such structured way.

Today I want to speak about Talent Management, the reasons behind the adoption of Performance measurement tools, how to set up Goals and my personal opinion about the process...

Talent Management:

In some large organizations it was expected only for FTEs - Full-Time Employees (so, let’s say, around the 12% of the people working there!? Contractors are not included), in some other they have never heard about that but they seem to be good at using Career Development tools as soon as an employee wants to leave the company, but I saw also some exceptions where management is taking the topic seriously and they really care about employee-growth. It’s their business, not only mine (Win2Win approach)! And they spend time, money, effort to provide systems & processes that can really help managers in assessing team-performances. It’s not easy, for sure.

Today, I had an interesting training session about Talent Management: how it started, how it is evolving during the years, what are the best practices nowadays. It was funny because, as an employee, I have always wondered about how C-levels were dealing with that: at the end of the day (or the fiscal year) your single results, combined with others’ work, make the company profit.

Tricky.

There are goals I can measure with numbers. But should I use only those ones? No, you cannot. It would be much easier but it is not fair as too many factors come to action when we speak about Performance. Or probably it’s just one factor: the Human Nature. Subjective KPIs make it difficult to compare different locations, different departments or different teams (it’s not necessary to go too far!). So should I take up a group-Performance model (like in the big G)? Is it really efficient? The answer is: it depends on what you want to achieve.

So what are the right steps to formulate my Company Goals and how to cascade them to my employees? Well, the right approach, in my opinion, is always the “step-by-step”:

- first of all you have to clarify what you want to accomplish and the timeframe for each achievement (we have to define the TOP)

- numbers, figures to your plan

- what does your organization need to get there? Gap filling!

- SWOT analysis: (a must!) what is the situation out there in the market? Are there opportunities I can leverage? Best and worst scenario for each direction I can take. Necessary.

- Brainstorming of IDEAs. Always.

- You want to be aware of the consequences of your actions, especially now that it’s so easy to spread comments into the web-communities. Clients are global, even if you operate locally. So please take an eye open on what they are telling about you on the web....

Ok, now you have your objectives, your numbers, your previsions and What-If analysis, divide it in 2. Then in 4. Keep on doing the exercise until you get at 8. Now you can delegate. DOWN

As a result you will have a perfect Pyramid Model of Goals, but careful, there’s another important point you have to clarify with everybody (not only the management): EVERYBODY has to agree with the plan and feel responsible for his/her part, as in a family, in an organism, everyone has to contribute. In one word: Personal engagement. In my experience, a lot of companies make a great work around Goal-settings but then they lose focus because they communicate only with the management. EVERYONE should part of a common vision.

∑(INDIVIDUAL MOTIVATION) = MASS MOTIVATION

And the motivation of masses is pure force.

Somebody told me that a good employee is able to self-motivate him/herself. I don’t agree. Honestly I think that a good employee is the one who shares the same values of the company he/she works for, and the same objectives in the long and short term. When you agree on the common vision, you find out if there is a good match between candidate and the open position (avoid over-qualified staff for entry level jobs, please!), you make him/her feel part of a bigger project, then it is normal that the new employee will be motivated to work for the success of the whole organization. Not just for commission, benefit, visibility, competitive knowledge or a nice brand to stick on the CV.

In other words:

1.     Hire people that agree and understand the values of your company

2.     Find a good match between candidate, job position, ski

3.     Set up clear objectives for everybody, interns and contractors included

4.     Forecast achievement and unexpected events (today we have tools that are amazing in these kind of tasks)

5.     Create a Development Plan with clear and measurable objectives (split them in intermediate goals and provide all the support to make your people reach their targets)

From there, the importance of a well-structured company goal plan.

Keep motivation high for everybody, even if your target is ambitious, is the key!

Next time I will tell you the 2^nd part of my Microsoft experience and in the next posts I would like to discuss about the Matrix: Potential, Performance and Position, my personal opinion about the starting negotiation and compensation balance.

G.