Talent management
areas and making it easier for them to do diffi cult jobs, to providing support on a 24/7 basis to people wherever they may be, including across a global organisation.
It is relevant to small ventures as well as large organisations, applicable to public as well as private sector organisations, and can contribute to the creation of fl exible, adaptable and high performance organisations. The approach can boost the achievements of average performers and facilitate the fl ow of work and opportunities around the globe. Pioneers have built critical success factors into processes for key activities and adopted cost- effective ways of helping people to emulate the winning ways of high performing superstars (Coulson-Thomas, 2007 and 2012). Transformed workgroup productivity and corporate performance have delivered commercial success as well as personal satisfaction for individuals.
Implementation options There are different ways of delivering the recommended approach. Putting missing critical success factors in place and adopting more effective practices, following a review of areas such as bidding and account management, have had a dramatic impact. Some companies have become many times larger within a few years. Simple checklists on paper or on screen can have an instant impact (WHO, 2009). Longer checklists found in some codes, defi nitions of standard competencies and methodologies may not do the trick, but short ones that capture the critical success factors and winning ways required in a particular situation can be very effective. Small groups in particular places can be reached by personal intervention. In more than 100 organisations, people
quickly adopted a more effective way of doing a job once they realised this would make it easier for them to succeed (Coulson-Thomas, 2012). Most of them wanted to do well and the reduction in stress – and other benefi ts that resulted – was a bonus. In many cases, a few days’ consultancy led to a signifi cant impact.
When larger numbers of people doing more complex tasks in a variety of locations have to be simultaneously engaged, and the drawbacks of traditional training and dissemination are encountered, technology- enabled performance support may be relevant.
Applications have shown it can be very cost-effective and that focusing less on highly talented individuals and more on the support needed to undertake key jobs can improve the achievement of corporate objectives (Coulson- Thomas, 2012).
Delivery needs to be
appropriate for the situation, whether by personal
intervention, a simple checklist or more sophisticated tool, but the fi rst requirement is to understand the relevant building blocks of the cheaper and quicker approach. More successful adopters choose the most appropriate elements to deploy in a given situation.
Evolution or a change of direction
For some organisations and HR teams, the recommended approach might represent a next stage, be seen as a change of focus or emphasis or as a better way of addressing certain challenges and delivering particular objectives (Coulson- Thomas, 2012). It can improve performance and effectiveness in core areas of the work of an HR team and in a variety of other important activities across an organisation. Talent Management 2 could
Management Services Spring 2012
represent a possible add-on to an existing transformation programme that could leverage other investments that have been made and achieve a more visible and quicker impact (Coulson-Thomas, 2012). What is being suggested is that existing corporate initiatives be questioned and reviewed and an alternative and complementary route to creating a high performance organisation explored.
Warning signs Much expenditure and management time are devoted to people, activities, technologies and fads that do not relate to identifi ed critical success factors for competing and winning. In some cases, almost every company visited was found to be devoting considerable resources to similar initiatives that would make little, if any, difference to outcomes achieved in areas covered by the investigation (Coulson-Thomas, 2007). Some approaches and business services appear to entrench losing behaviours. The reason for this paradox is that many of the companies examined do not appear to be aware of either the critical success factors for certain activities or successful approaches to them. Most companies visited were poor judges of their relative performance in the areas examined and unaware of the reasons why they are not more successful. The reasons for their rankings may also have been misunderstood.
Many of the companies observed lacked awareness of both who their superstars are and relatively simple and cost-effective ways of enabling others to emulate the achievements of high performers. Studies within the research programme suggest a relatively small proportion of people excel at the activities examined, while there is a
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long tail of barely adequate performance (Coulson-Thomas, 2007 and 2012). Yet the more able are often engaged on similar tasks to those of less competent colleagues. Training and development activities often focus on what people are not good at rather than enable them to achieve more in the areas in which they excel. People are encouraged to address weaknesses in activities they may not enjoy, rather than build upon their strengths and do what they enjoy doing and do best. Defi ciencies revealed by annual assessment questions may not relate to a key job role, while important role requirements may not feature them.
Untapped potential The fi ndings of a programme of investigations suggest considerable untapped potential among ordinary performers that might be realised if they could be helped to emulate the approaches of their more successful peers (Coulson- Thomas, 2007 and 2012). In general, the size of the achievement gap between the top and bottom quartiles also suggests large performance improvements could be delivered.
Even high performers could do so much better. In relation to competitive bidding, the superstars in the top quartile of achievement are only very effective at less than half of the identifi ed critical success factors (Coulson-Thomas et al, 2003). The fi ndings suggest every company participating in the research programme could signifi cantly boost its overall performance by building more critical success factors into certain processes and adopting more winning approaches in areas of relative under achievement (Coulson-Thomas, 2007). However, in many companies
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