Development Dimensions International (DDI) organized Keys to Accelerating Talent, a 3-day event for senior HR and talent management professionals at its in-house Acceleration Center® in Mid-Valley City. Since its launch in 2007, more than 400 leaders have gone through the Acceleration Center®—DDI’s day-in-the-life assessment center that provides unparalleled insight into the capabilities of leaders through business challenges and simulations.
A poll conducted during the event revealed that there are significant opportunities to improve the alignment of their talent management framework and practices to business requirements. Other areas of improvement included ensuring managers are accountable for those leaders and high potentials that report to them; integrating HR functions such as selection, development, performance management, and succession planning into a business-driven talent management strategy; and creating lead and lag measures to evaluate talent management efforts and success.
What can be done to ensure that organizations are doing the right things to align talent strategies to the business, or to ensure that HR activities and initiatives are maximized into an effective system?
Begin with the End in Mind—Your current and future business needs
While organizations are carrying out many relevant HR activities, the poll shows that these may not always have clear links to the business—none were confident that their talent management practices were aligned to their business priorities, while 76% considered it a work-in-progress.
“While we crave CEO and executive involvement, we in HR need to provide a better line of sight as to how talent management supports the business. Intuitively CEOs and senior leaders understand the relationship and they know that talent is important, but as strategic business advisors, we can do more to clarify the link between the talent plan and the business plan,” shares Mark Busine, DDI’s Managing Director for Southeast Asia.
Business goals must be the starting point for determining the quality and quantity of the talent you need—which means that the business and talent planning processes need to happen in sync.
Turn your Leaders into Talent Managers—Talent Management is not HR’s job
The poll results show that none of the organizations feel it was their strength to keep their managers accountable for managing talent, while a third said that they were currently working towards it. “Every leader needs to be a talent manager, but they often lack the requisite skills to identify and select talent; drive performance; coach and develop employees; and build and maintain an environment that supports high performance and retention. Inevitably, accountability for many activities gets pushed to HR,” says Busine.
Most managers are given leadership roles without ensuring they possess basic talent management skills, or at least receive the training necessary to develop these skills. Leaders should have a written development plan, participate in a range of development programs, as well as be given deliberate application opportunities in order to practice and enhance these skills.
“An effective talent management system requires the involvement of leaders, and leaders need the right portfolio of skills to engage and manage their teams,” says Busine.
Maximize Success Profiles and Integrate Systems
The poll reflects that 9% have already defined the competencies or critical success factors required of employees for their organizations. DDI advocates going beyond competencies and building a “Success Profile”, or a combination of competencies, experiences, knowledge and personal attributes required for job success and aligned with the business goals. “Thinking in terms of a Success Profile, which is holistic and a more balanced view of job requirements, will reflect the needs of the business in more depth than behavioral competencies alone,” says Busine.
However, only 4% are making full use of their competencies by integrating their HR activities. “The value of competencies, or more so of Success Profiles, is that they can be used across the entire spectrum of talent management activities as a common language for hiring, development, performance management, and succession,” shares Busine. “However, it is critical that they are identified very clearly at the start; otherwise, other HR activities may be misaligned.” Aligned systems can be used to validate and reinforce each other; for example, performance appraisal data can be used to validate the impact of a training program or a selection system.
The 3-day event also launched Success Profiles: Navigatorsm, DDI’s web-based technology to automate job analysis and the management of competencies or Success Profiles. DDI has been helping clients around the world integrate their HR systems through success profiling.