Archive for the ‘Succession Planning’ Category
Employee Potential in the Eye of the Beholder – Part 1
Posted by: grandma in Leadership, Performance Management, Succession Planning, Talent Management on July 11th, 2010
One of the challenges companies face today is managing their employee turnover, specifically for key positions in the organization. A key position is defined as a critical role that would adversely affect a company’s operations if it were vacated. These positions are typically leadership or managerial and make up between eight and twelve percent of all positions (Berger, 2004). When an employee vacates a key position, via unexpected leave, retirement or promotion, an organization ideally backfills the position with a cadre of highly-qualified candidates ready to replace that person. Human Resource (HR) departments plan for succession to hedge against the risk of departure. Hence, companies cannot afford turnover of high-potential employees in line for key positions.
Like leadership, potential has as many definitions but is even more ambiguous. These definitions range from “inherent capacity for coming into being” to a “latent excellence or ability that may or may not be developed.” Leaders need to start somewhere; their entrance into the realm of leadership usually begins in a front-line management position. One of the key criterion in selecting a leader is the anticipation of their success to lead their team. In essence, what is their leadership potential? Most organizations measure potential by intuition or “gut feel.” The problem with this informal measurement is that it is often wrong. Society is littered with poor managers hired by people who thought the person had leadership potential. The fallacy in their selection is based on past performance, not on their potential to be a good leader. These are generally the data points that create the ubiquitous “9-box” companies use to slot future stars. Performance is regularly measured, albeit inexactly. Potential is not something that is actively measured and companies do not utilize the proper research instruments to measure it.
A Manager Provides the Right Antecedents for Employee Success
Having the proper antecedents for leadership development will likely produce better leaders. Malcolm Gladwell (2008) extensively analyzes the conditions that make people successful in his book “Outliers.” Date of birth for junior hockey players, affinity relationships for certain professions like law, and native languages assisting math skills for Asian children are all foundations that provide better success. These antecedents are harbingers of success and set the stage to bring out the best in their subjects. Silzer and Church (2009) discovered that an employee’s potential can be stifled by his or her immediate manager by not providing the right antecedents for high performance. Hence, a good manager provides the right conditions for an employee to realize his or her potential.
In part 2 of this post we will look at ways of identifying high-potential outside of past performance based on two predictive attributes: self-efficacy and mindset.
Broaden Your Talent Pool – Lessons from “Undercover Boss”
Posted by: grandma in Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Performance Management, Succession Planning, Talent Management on February 8th, 2010
There is an excellent CBS reality series on TV right now called, “Undercover Boss.” Executives from Waste Management and 7-Eleven go undercover and pretend to be entry-level employees. They experience what the front-line employee experiences.
Too often I encounter companies that completely ignore the hourly or salary non-exempt employee in the field when it comes to leadership development. (See previous post) This is easily discovered in the systems they own to enable this process. Companies don’t acquire software for the entire employee population. Sadly, and this really is the true divider, those employees with ready access to the internet get included. This is not a legitimate trigger.
The evolution of Talent Management has not evolved to every employee. This conundrum is often encountered in retail, manufacturing, oil and gas, hospitality and utilities where there is large percentage of skill workers. Most of the workgroups are out in the field, detached from corporate. High-turnover compounds the issue because companies are disinterested to go through the pain of measuring someone who is likely to leave within a year.
– How does a roustabout in an oil field get recognized as a high-potential when no one is looking at him?
– How does the retail employee get recognized when no one measures her?
– How about the hotel clerk who performs exceptionally high for the competencies required for the position?
Joe DePinto, CEO of 7-Eleven, encountered a high-potential first hand in Igor Finkler, a midnight fresh food delivery driver in Lewisville, TX. DePinto recognizes him for his energy, positivity, and enthusiasm – he wants more people like Igor working for 7-Eleven. (See the video here)
So how do you measure the potential of an employee like Igor? This is where I think the ERP vendors like SAP and Oracle have major advantages. They have way more touch-points into an employee than a niche talent vendor through core HR, portal, and self-service pages. Since they own the core HR system, they have the largest window from which to measure an employee. Having access to the internet shouldn’t be the gateway into the talent pool. You certainly shouldn’t have to send the CEO undercover to find a high-potential. I hope this series will open executive eyes to the potential of someone in these ranks.
Talent Management – Which Module Should We Deploy First? Learning Management
Posted by: grandma in Employee Development, Goals, Succession Planning, Talent Management on March 31st, 2009
Talent Management integration is natural between the primary modules. When companies look to deploy a talent management solution they often struggle with how to map out a technology strategy. There are a couple of good firms that can help companies with projects like this (HRchitect and Knowledge Infusion to name two). Software firms like SumTotal, which is the highest rated Learning Management vendor, have built their company around “Talent Development”. Learning Management has been around at least 15 years and is the most mature module in the talent suite. It is the first module you should deploy. On the opposite end, Succession Planning is the last module that should go live because so many inputs are required for a sound succession plan – many of those inputs come from the Learning function.
Most companies have training programs already for their employees. Learning Activities need to be tied to a development plan; the association of these activities needs to be in place to execute the training. Your company should do development planning during the goal setting process. Development goals can be created alongside with work goals. It is a great time for your manager to convey a growth mindset and that they are amenable to pushing their employee to train. Tacit permission is needed so the employee can feel comfortable diverting from their job activities.
Learning Management is also the primer for Workforce and Succession Planning. Any company that plans its people around business initiatives will need to train its people. Any company that plans for succession and leadership development will need its people to acquire new skills.
The last, and most important reason, is that the return on investment for Learning is the greatest and most provable for all the talent modules. I hear a lot of CEO’s on analyst calls claim to develop and train their people – often these are hollow statements. If your company spends greater than 4.0% of payroll on learning and development, you know that this isn’t lip service.
Succession Planning First Step – Identify your Talent Pool
Posted by: grandma in Employee Development, Leadership, Recruiting, Succession Planning, Talent Management, Workforce Planning on February 23rd, 2009
I had a recent visit to a client that said they had over 500,000 resumes on file for this 28,000 person organization. This was pretty impressive since their policy was to hold resumes for only 1-year. They had over 100 recruiters and a well-oiled process for brining new talent on-board. Their time to hire was 28 days – which by my count has to be in the top 10% of all companies. After hearing them discuss their best practices in recruiting, I asked, “How many internal resumes do you have for the 28,000 employees? A look of consternation came back to me – the answer was none. They even posted for 5 business days internally before bringing the requisition out to the public. (5 days was included in the 28 which makes that number even more impressive) How does a company like that spend its resources on people that don’t even work at the company? This is not a unique case. Amazingly enough, I would say that most companies don’t capture employee data. Resume data for an internal employee (aka “Talent Profile”) is outdated on day 1 of the job.
Building out your Talent Pool accomplishes these two things:
1) It classifies and inventories your Human Assets. Everything else is accounted for – why not account for your people?
2) It allows you to create the foundation for your Succession Planning process.
There are multiple Talent/Core vendors that have Talent Profile functionality. Be sure to take advantage of this. If you are launching a talent initiative, make the Talent Profile step 1 before anything else. Why? It is the easiest win. Here are some tips:
1) Employees won’t update this on their own so definitely send out a task to complete this.
2) The Talent Profile should be updated every 6 months otherwise the information won’t be accurate.
3) The KISS principle applies – half the point of launching this first is to introduce your employees to the system. Don’t overburden them with a long form.
Do these things and you will be well on your way to managing talent.
Two Unique Measurements of Potential for Succession Planning – Part 2 – Self-Efficacy
Posted by: grandma in Employee Development, Leadership, Succession Planning on February 20th, 2009
Let’s start with a definition of self-efficacy. It is a belief that one has the capabilities to execute the courses of actions required to manage prospective situations. Unlike efficacy, which is the power to produce an effect (in essence, competence), self-efficacy is the belief that one has the power to produce that effect.
Self-Efficacy is the single most important determinant of success at anything. Yes – I will say it again: Self-Efficacy is the single most important determinant of success at anything.
So, on that premise, don’t you think you should measure someone’s self-efficacy to determine their potential? How will you know if they can succeed at the next level?
If one of your employees has a high degree of self-efficacy, then they have the following:
1) An appetite to continuously learn – the best leaders are those that never stop learning. Often, managers stop learning after they think they have mastered management. The best leaders never let their willingness to learn expire.
2) More likely to model their behavior after someone or allow someone to model them – mentoring is a very effective for employee engagement both for the mentor and mentee.
3) Attribute of a hard-worker – being smart is nothing without hard work. Those with Self-Efficacy know that anything worthwhile isn’t easy to do.
4) Perseverance when a set back arises – these leaders don’t blame others for failures and take ownership to correct their mistakes.
Self-Efficacy is basically a competency with the above associated behaviors. Make sure you include it as one of your leadership competencies and measure it as a predictor of potential.
This is a great paper on the subject by Peter Heslin and Ute-Christine Klehe. Self-Efficacy
Two Unique Measurements of Potential for Succession Planning – Part 1 – Managerial Mindset
Posted by: grandma in Employee Development, Leadership, Succession Planning on February 17th, 2009
One of the big issues I’ve seen with a company’s succession planning process is how to measure potential. Potential makes up the x-axis of the 9-box (or whatever flavor) versus performance on the y-axis. So how can this be determined?
Much like a focal performance review, you should also conduct a potential review. So what does determine the potential of someone? To most, it is an inate judgement call. Here are two unique measurements that you should obtain with this survey. The first is essential to the measurement because it is a gateway to potential.
1) Managerial Mindset (Growth or Fixed)
2) Level of Self-Efficacy
Today, we will look at the first measurement – Managerial Mindset. I think this is a huge determinant of potential – especially if the position they are coming into is a leadership one. Dr. Carol Dweck (Mindset-The New Psychology of Success) has done decades of research on this subject. A growth mindset is basically someone who thinks anything can be learned by anyone. A fixed mindset is someone who thinks intelligence is capped or that they can’t grow anymore. In other words, someone who adamantly believes in the Peter Principle has a fixed mindset. It is someone who would say “Leaders are born, not made.” In an interview with HR.com, Dr. Laurie Bassi (who by the way has some of the best learning research ever presented) said one of the biggest reasons training isn’t successful is because managers are not really supportive of the training. So on that premise, shouldn’t you measure someone on whether they are supportive? If you have managers that deny training to their employees or don’t encourage it, then they likely they have a fixed mindset. Fixed Mindset managers don’t provide good feedback, feel threatened by their employees growth and have an “elitist” us vs. them attitude.
The most important job at any company is the 1st level manager. They have the most influence on the individual contributor.
What is the cumulative effect of having 1,000 managers with a growth mindset? This would have a staggering effect on your organization. Make sure your measure Mindset in your Succession Reviews.
Update: This is a great article citing Scott Forstall having a Growth Mindset – he managed the team that developd the iPhone.
Don’t Ignore the Skill Worker
Posted by: grandma in Employee Development, Employee Engagement, Performance Management, Succession Planning, Talent Management on February 11th, 2009
I’ve consulted with 100’s of companies on their talent management system and the majority have one thing in common when it comes to the scope of their project: they ignore the skill worker. Typically the only workgroup in scope for the talent project are the salaried employees or corporate employees. Let’s remember one of the key reasons why we do a performance review: to improve the relationship between the manager and employee. Let’s take a retail company. Retail is very heavy on the skill or hourly worker. Most retail companies have turnover in excess of 50% annually. This is one of the reasons corporate ignores this group in the talent process. Why should we pay attention to them if they always leave? To me, this is a very poor excuse not to look at the root cause of problem. Everyone knows that turnover is a huge cost to an organization so shouldn’t you do the things necessary to reduce this?
• Why don’t you have these employees fill in their Talent Profile to see their skills beyond their hourly position?
• Why don’t you do employee development to improve engagement? At least you will convey to them that their development is important and that you care about their career path – at your company or elsewhere.
• Why don’t you rate them on the competencies required for the position? What affect does it have on the overall business if 50,000 retail employees moved from a meets to exceeds rating on “Interpersonal Versatility”?
Talk to your IT department on how to address the worker that doesn’t have access to the on-line Talent System. There are plenty of ways to get their information into the system – not the least of which is a document management system (to lift the ratings of competencies or to pull answers yes/no questions to career questions), outsourced data entry, or kiosks. Make sure your manager is involved face-to-face in the talent process.