Webinars
Succession Planning: Managing Risk and Ensuring Business Continuity
Sep 09, 2010

Breakfast Club
San Francisco: The Next Frontier for Learning and Development
Sep 23, 2010 07:30 am
The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco
San Francisco, California

CLO Symposiums
Unleashing Learning: From Strategy to Execution
Sep 27, 2010 - Sep 29, 2010
The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel
Dana Point, California

Features

Published August 2010

One Size Fits One

  

  Owen J. Sullivan

The implications of not paying attention and not taking action now will cost businesses dearly. Not stemming the potential loss of high-value talent can result in:

• Lower productivity as workers focus on job searches rather than on current performance.
• Lost business opportunities, which result not only in lower profitability but also in negatively affected customer retention.
• Unwanted turnover, which costs an average of 1.5 times the departing individual’s salary, time applied to rehiring and on-boarding.
• Loss of intellectual capital as it walks out the door, along with the irretrievable investments made while the individuals were employed.
• Erosion of the workforce fabric impacting the dynamics of the organization’s culture: the loss of the unique personality, history and values the individual imparts.

And yet it doesn’t have to be this way. Leaders of all levels: Be forewarned. The time is now to take action by building and implementing a talent strategy that is aligned with the business strategy.

Talent Strategy Best Practices

Lack of a formal talent strategy is the No. 1 impediment to executing business plans. Learning officers must apply the same rigor used to create an overall business strategy to develop a workforce strategy that:

1. Articulates a comprehensive vision of where the company wants to go, what unique value it delivers what it wants to accomplish.
2. Organizes work structures to unleash the knowledge, innovation and creativity of every employee in order to achieve that vision.
3. Examines, understands and delivers what employees want from their employers and work environments.
   

When designing a workforce strategy, you must first understand how complex trends and shifting business realities will impact your organization — now and in the future. This then allows you to identify the right people for the right jobs, build the necessary leadership competencies and skills, and develop and retain your best talent.

To do just that, CLOs should take the following five-step approach:

1. Inventory current talent and identify future needs. Every organization has a strategy, but not all have people with the competencies to execute it. Create competency models and success profiles to align business goals with the talent needed to achieve them. Modeling identifies the knowledge, skills, abilities, experiences, motivations and personality traits an organization’s workforce must develop to realize present and future strategic goals and enhance company agility, innovation, engagement and retention.
2. Align the workforce strategy with the business. A well-articulated strategy provides a sustainable, proactive process to execute strategic imperatives and build internal understanding. Identify employee and workforce issues impeding strategy implementation. Prioritize workforce management strategies and align them with broader strategic goals. Keep in mind that once the strategy is communicated, it will often necessitate change. To avoid a change in direction that results in going off in all directions, the organization must maintain its focus. Managing change in a volatile business environment that seems ever more volatile is an increasingly pressing leadership challenge — which leads us to step three.
3. Develop leaders and build a pipeline. Investing in leadership development will ensure a steady flow of available talent to continue to grow the company over time. Build leadership capacity that is both deep and wide. Additionally, succession management can ensure a smooth, seamless transition from one leader to the next. A growing number of company boards and executives today are viewing succession management as a mandatory business process, encompassing all levels within the organization to ensure deep bench strength.
4. Further, make sure to develop leaders who understand the importance of ensuring all employees know what is expected of them. Establish performance goals and guide leaders to provide continuous feedback and coaching to their direct reports. Employees perform best when their efforts are linked to the organization’s strategy. Ongoing performance management should include career discussions that ensure alignment of an individual’s performance and goals with strategic objectives and measurable business results.
5. Focus on retention and engagement. Leaders need to clearly and effectively articulate business strategy, vision, mission and purpose to the entire workforce. A workforce that understands the organization’s strategy is better able to execute it.
6. An engaged workforce is far more productive than a disengaged workforce and displays much higher retention rates. Improve retention and engagement by helping employees understand the significance of their roles and how they directly participate in achieving the company’s business objectives and performance goals.
7. Invest in career development. Helping talented employees develop their careers offers forward-looking organizations a powerful engine for driving workforce engagement, retention and productivity. It also builds its reputation as an employer of choice and strengthens its ability to retain and attract top talent. Tap into employees to understand their individual motivators, skills and interests, and match these with business priorities.