Talent Management

Hayes Talent Management

The McKinsey Consulting report “The War for Talent” reported the challenges being faced by businesses and proved how these challenges are intensified by the significant changes occurring with the organization’s talent.

What has become clear, and the McKinsey Report clearly shows this, is that the organizations that will prosper under these pressures will be those with intentional and effective talent management strategies that are delivered through aligned and well-executed processes. In short, organizational (business) success will depend upon how well talent strategies support current and future business strategies.

There have been a number of recent studies, which have identified that expertly designed, implemented and managed, talent management will improve strategic performance and business effectiveness, and show great potential to sustain this business success. As such, talent management is a fundamental business strategy that cannot and should not be ignored.

So what is Talent Management?

Talent management is the ongoing process of analyzing, developing and effectively utilizing talent to meet business needs. It involves a specific process that compares current talent in a department to the strategic business needs of that department. Results lead to the development and implementation of corresponding strategies to address any talent gaps or surpluses and to maximize the human capital of the organization.

At Hayes we define talent management as a holistic process built around three primary services areas:

• Talent Identification (at each stage of the employment life cycle)
• Talent Development
• Assessment of current talent and effective talent planning processes

Talent Identification

The purpose of talent management varies across organizations. For some it is about the management of a select group of individuals (hi-potentials) and succession planning. While others see it as a way to manage all talent (generally). Thus, each organization will have different requirements for its current and future ‘talent pipeline’, as well as different issues concerning how to best meet these requirements.

These are the building blocks around which the company must build its talent identification strategy or determine how they need to employ their talent planning processes. Whether your organization’s attitude to talent is inclusive or exclusive Hayes can help you to create and deliver a best in class solution. This might include:

• Creation of competency models that can be used for recruitment, development and performance management.
• Assessment of your current talent and benchmarking that assessment against the future needs of the organization.
• Determining the risk level for losing key talent to your organization
• Identification of the potential within the organization’s existing talent to assume future key roles
• Creation of a formal succession plan for the organization’s top leadership and critical talent roles

Talent Development

Like many other firms we believe that providing targeted and effective training is essential for the growth and retention of your talent. As part of our talent development services, Hayes can easily integrate our services to maximize the benefits for our clients.

Development strategies can be built around a competency based model and involve multi-rater (360⁰) assessments linked to an integrated development plan. Hayes can assist you in creating the competency framework and produce a total solution to suit your needs. In addition to the total solution offered, Hayes is able to scale our services and provide a solution that is tailored to meet your organization’s specific needs.

As covered under our performance management tab we are able to offer a comprehensive solution that helps align all of your talent systems together in a way that provides for streamlined and highly effective people management processes.

Assessment

Hayes believes that in this extremely competitive environment it is essential to be able to evaluate the impact that your talent management strategy is having upon the company’s ability to deliver it’s business goals. We are able to offer a number of different solutions to assist in making this assessment, to include:

Provide a One-Time Talent Review (baseline)

A review of your current position where you need to be in terms of your talent pool and your processes for identifying, attracting, developing, deploying and retaining your talent. The outcome is a report that maps out a way forward with practical and workable recommendations.

Process Audit

A review of your talent management activities to determine how effectively they are delivering against your talent management strategy. The evaluation report will produce an estimate of Return on Investment and map out a way forward with practical and workable recommendations.

Activity Audit

This evaluation is targeted at measuring how the organization’s other direct and indirect activities are impacting or utilizing the talent management programs (i.e. training, recruitment, employee relations, etc.…)

Why Hayes

Hayes consultants bring a wealth of knowledge in best practices to assist organizations in developing and leveraging their talent to meet business goals and objectives. Our team of experienced consultants can work with you to discover and fully utilize the strengths in your current talent management processes as well as assist you in the development of new methods for achieving maximized results in recruiting, developing and retaining top talent. What makes Hayes different is that we consider it a success when you are no longer reliant on us for your talent management needs.

Our Approach to Succession Planning

The HAYES approach to leadership talent assessment, development and succession planning is simple and is one of partnership with the client. We start with the basic question: Does organization have the right people with the right skills in the right places today and how will they have the right people with right skills ready to step into the positions for the succession plan? We will evaluate what is currently being used by the organization and in the past have often times used a combination of currently used instruments with new instruments always with the individual development in the forefront. We are known for customizing our tools to the client and for working closely with our clients.

Our approach to the organizational assessment/development process within the succession program includes four basic steps:

Leadership & Organizational Analysis

• Does the organization have the right structure (positions) for the future?
• What does a high potential profile look like in the future organization?
• Who will fill these positions in the future?

Leadership Assessment

• Does the organization have the right people, with the right skills in the right places?

Leadership Development

• What skills, competencies and experiences are needed to fill future positions?
• How will present employees get the skills, competencies, and experiences needed?
• How does the organization ensure employees are getting and using these skills, competencies, and experiences (measurement and sustainability)?

Talent

• Creation of a defined process that can be imbedded into the business rather than something additional that has to be done.
• Creation of the needed tools or vetting and recommendation of a third party tool to facilitate ongoing planning
• Defined metrics that provide ongoing feedback as to each leader’s developmental progress

Leadership Assessment and Development Methodology

Step 1: Research/Planning/Development

• Corporate research to include existing structures, culture, mission, values and mid and long-term strategies
• Clarify job (roles and responsibilities), skill and knowledge requirements, organizational structure & related cultural nuances for the organization
• Identify actions and milestones for the project, including defining the communication strategy

Step 2: Conduct Assessments

• Work with the organization to identify and train assessment center support staff from within existing the organization’s staff

• Conduct a series of in-house assessment centers supported by the organization’s personnel and led by Hayes consultants to baseline potential of the succession candidates
• Develop a portfolio report on each potential succession candidate that will be based on and include biographical data, performance data and assessment center data

Deliverables: Individualized report on potential as a senior leader of each potential succession candidates

Step 3: Succession Planning & Position Mapping

• Prioritize positions based on criticality and impact to immediate business operations.
• Using profile and assessment data collected, appropriately map succession candidates to potential succession positions providing readiness levels and specific development needs required to close the readiness gap
• Determine positions in need of additional depth and/or immediate succession candidates

Deliverables: A graphical representation of organizational structure with most probably succession candidates for all roles through the appropriate functional level along with all positions assigned a high priority or listed as critical

Step 4: Create Individualized Development Plans

• Distribute comprehensive assessment tool which will collect responses from the manager, peers and self-perceptions regarding the individual’s operational versus strategic fit and their empowering of others versus “taking charge.”
• Develop a Coaching Summary (which includes strengths, improvements, interests, development suggestions, and ideas on how the immediate manager can better coach the individual)
• Create an Individualized Development Plan outline. The personal development outline is broken into three areas (with a 3 to 5 year timeframe): Challenging/Stretch Job – experience needed that can be addressed through a particular job assignment; Coaching/Mentoring – a style/leadership issue that may be resolved through coaching activity; Training – a knowledge deficiency that could be addressed through a workshop,course or seminar.
• Develop of a Summary Report for senior management where each individual is objectively measured according to fit and long term management potential. The Summary Report includes fit for current position, high potential identification and the Coaching Summaries for all individuals.

Deliverables: Coaching Summaries for each individual (to be shared with individuals and the organization’s senior management team.) Individualized Development Plan outlines – with specific suggestions for stretch assignments, people who can mentor and coach, and workshops/classes that will benefit the individual (the Development Plan is only an outline and will be finalized in the one-on-one coaching with the individual as outlined in Step 4.) A Summary Report to management that identifies each individual objectively measured according to fit and long term management potential.

Step 5: Communication to Management & One-on-one coaching

• Presentation of the Summary Report that includes a specific overview of the succession plan alternatives, developmental/gap analysis and recommendations on each individual, identification of high potentials, and suggestions for organization development.
• One-on-one coaching with each individual. This is a 4-hour meeting with each individual to cover the data from their assessment portfolio and to determine specific actions the individual is going to accomplish in the 2 to 4 year timeframe. In order to maximize the time, the consultant has already outlined the Individual Development Plan. In the meeting the individual edits the plan with the coach and walks away with specific development actions.
• Some organizations choose a more extensive coaching process such as is described under our Coaching Services.

Deliverables: Meeting with senior management with results and recommendations on each individual (presentation of Summary Report). One-on-one coaching meeting with each individual. Action Plans for each individual, which set in motion yearly development for the next 2-4 years.

Step 6: Ongoing Talent & Succession Planning and Tracking

This step can be accomplished simultaneous to other steps.

• Utilizing either the existing organization’s succession planning framework or the modified process recommended the organization should imbed a talent planning process within succession planning which ensures the investment in talent is given a high ongoing priority.
• The identification of success factors that can be tracked numerically for ease of measure and discussion.

Deliverables: A defined ongoing succession planning process that uses a blended approach with appropriate success factor measures and the tools needed for reporting and future planning.

See us in action by reading our case study: Talent Retention And Assessment.