Integrated Talent Management System: HR Hype or Sound Business Practice?
If, as the saying goes, people are what they eat, then organizations are who they employ and how they deploy, develop, incent and enable them to act in support of business objectives. The very health of an organization depends on this. “People are our most important asset” is cliché because it is rarely enacted in a way that truly unleashes the potential of this profound truth. And the talent wars blaze on, with too many companies losing due to poor preparation, little anticipation, and weak or non-existent talent processes.
It is a sad commentary given all that has been written, that most organizations fail to take full advantage of the potential of their employees. Even worse, many blatantly squander or neglect their employees all together. Truth is, many leaders lack the vision, the will and the discipline required. They fail to invest properly in building out the systems to deliver the talent required to execute their current strategy, let alone address future requirements as their strategy evolves.
How does an Integrated Talent Management help?
So, what role does Integrated Talent Management play in helping organizations capitalize on their human assets, and is it really worth it? Research published by the Human Capital Institute says it is. According to their research well defined and executed ITM:
- Boosts productivity of top performers by as much as 67% (26% for average employee)
- Accelerates time to effectiveness for new managers (average = 6.2 months)
- Improves leadership ability (156% more likely to “develop great leaders”)
- Reduces negative manager ripple effect (average manager impacts 12.4 people)
- Increases job fit (94% more likely to have “the right people in the right jobs”)
Ensuring a high ROI made on an integrated talent management system
At Navalent, we believe businesses ultimately succeed or fail on the strength of their people. And our many years of experience tell us this is not a cliché. The talent they attract and the efficacy with which they build and use their people’s competencies is one of the few sustainable competitive advantages organizations can rely on. With this post, we are launching a short blog series based on what we have learned over the years from our work with organizations to help them maximize the contributions of their people. First and foremost, we’ve learned that ensuring a high return on the investments made on an integrated talent management system requires adherence to the following principles. Your integrated talent management strategy and approach must:
1. Focus on Better Decision Making
Many organizations get caught up in the activity of data collection, but this is only a means to an end. Performance management systems, 360° feedback systems, workforce analytics and human capital measurement systems are only as helpful as the decisions they inform. The real value comes from the comparative insights that are generated. Insights that not only help improve individual performance, but that when taken together and looked at holistically, help inform meaningful and targeted talent investments and choices.
2. Integrate assessment and decision making into a self-reinforcing system
Even organizations that take a data-supported approach to talent management sometimes lessen the impact by not aligning their use of assessment into a holistic process and set of tools. Their use of data is intermittent or applied inconsistently. We have seen organizations apply rigorous assessment when looking to hire someone from the outside and then make subsequent promotional decisions on a whim – and vice versa. Better, informed decision making requires that at all key decision points – selection, performance management, development, reward, advancement – the same standard is applied and reinforced, and that the decisions are part of a set of integrated processes, not many separate and disconnected ones.
3. Link assessment standards to enterprise strategy
The “one size doesn’t fit all” adage does not apply here. The standards for behavior and performance that you embed into your talent management process and that shape the data you collect, synthesize and interpret must correlate to high performance and the delivery of strategic objectives. They must be differentiated and defined by their ability to drive results in your company. Tthey also must align with, and be supported by the enterprise’s operating philosophy. For example, it is hard to hold people to a standard of out-of-the-box, creative thinking and risk taking when your operating philosophy is zero-tolerance for mistakes. As obvious as this sounds, we often cross paths with HR professionals and functions who don’t know the fundamentals of how their organization makes money and competes, much less how to integrate their people processes to drive performance.
4. Ensure employees can locate themselves in your story
Employees must be able to see themselves within the story your standards are telling about your organization. They need to see that they currently possess many of the competencies required for success, as well as see the need, and feel the ability to stretch themselves to acquire new ones. A good rule of thumb is to strive for a 65/35 split between existing and aspirational competence. Too much stretch will likely cause employees to give up before they’ve even tried. Too little stretch and you run the risk of not achieving your objectives and decreasing the expectation and capacity to adapt and learn, while reinforcing the status quo. The right degree of stretch will inspire, too little or too much will disengage or deflate.
5. Be consistent and transparent
Nothing erodes trust faster than the feeling there is some secret yardstick being used to judge performance or make rewards and promotion decisions. To build employee confidence and to ensure the effective functioning of your talent system, you must be consistent and transparent about the standards being used, and to whom and how they are being applied. If you believe that healthy debate is crucial to idea generation and decision making, you can’t celebrate it in some and punish it in others. If investing in the next generation of leaders by giving your time and sharing your wisdom is important to fuel the growth of your company, you can’t then promote or reward leaders who are miserly and uninterested in teaching and mentoring the aspiring cadre of leaders coming up behind them. Be clear about what you value and take actions that align with those expressed values. Clear standards applied honestly and consistently are powerful drivers of a healthy culture and will go far to ensure you attract and retain the talent you need to drive your business’ success.
Over the next couple of weeks we will post our “how to” on developing and implementing an Integrated Talent Management approach that is sure to improve your business performance.
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