A recent survey by Development Dimensions International (DDI) reveals that 90% of senior HR leaders in Singapore see significant opportunities to improve the alignment and integration of the their HR activities and functions.

 

DDI’s survey of senior HR professionals explored key factors that contribute to an effective talent management system. These included the following:

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?

 

While organizations are carrying out many relevant HR activities, the survey shows that these may not always have clear links to the business—only 10% were confident that their talent management practices were aligned to their business priorities.

 

“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.

 

Talent management delivers real competitive advantage when your business goals and strategies are the starting point for determining the quality and quantity of the talent you need. There is a need to intertwine talent requirements with business needs—which mean that the business and talent planning processes need to happen in synch.

 

The survey results show that only a third of organizations feel that they keep their managers accountable for managing talent. “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.

 

The survey reflects that one third of HR practitioners have already defined the critical success factors required of employees for their organizations; however, only 10% are making full use of these by integrating their HR activities.

 

 “The value of these key success factors which include competencies, experience, knowledge and personal attributes is that they can be used across the entire spectrum of talent management activities—these factors serve as a common language for hiring, performance management, development, and succession,” says Busine. It is critical that ‘success profiles’ 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.

 

“I’m proud to say DDI was an early champion of integrated systems,” shares Busine. “In the early 1980s, DDI’s founder and CEO, Bill Byham published a series of articles  in the Training and Development Journal in which he advocated that the activities of personnel systems—the modern equivalent being talent management systems—should be pulled together as a single system covering an employee’s lifecycle in the organization. Since then we have been helping our clients around the world integrate their systems through success profiling,” he adds.

 

Almost half of HR practitioners surveyed have a process for identifying high potentials. However, anecdotal evidence suggests many organizations do not have consistent criteria to identify high potentials. As a result, leaders often nominate high potentials based on subjective and untested data. More often than not, high potentials are identified based on their current performance, without realizing that different skills, motivations and attributes are required for the next leadership level.

 

“Simply assessing a candidate based on his or her current performance is an inadequate gauge of their suitability for the next level role,” says Busine. “There is a need to be able to distinguish between a candidate’s performance, potential to grow and readiness to take on a leadership role.

 

In considering their pool of high potentials, organizations need to look at leadership potential factors such as receptivity to feedback, adaptability and passion for results.” DDI has identified these factors and helped clients worldwide to ensure they have the right pool of high potentials that will benefit from the accelerated growth and development opportunities.

“Most organizations have several activities in place to support certain HR functions like recruitment, training, performance management, and others. These separate activities are like the spokes of an umbrella. But without an over-arching and business-driven talent management approach, it’s like your umbrella is missing its cover,” shares Busine. And just as several spokes don’t make for a useful umbrella (and definitely can’t provide cover for Singapore’s frequent rain showers), several HR activities, while addressing immediate needs, may not necessarily align to the organization’s long term business requirements.