TM - January 2008 - (Page 43)

• Willingness to be held accountable to translate their high potential into high performance. Companies should support those who take initiative, promote a learning culture that encourages development for everyone and talk frequently, openly and candidly about performance. As careers move forward, relevant training and candid feedback need to continue. If an employee’s performance is poor, focus on diagnosing and remedying performance problems. For those who are strong performers, recognize and reward their performance, work on a plan to sustain and strengthen it, and talk to these individuals about their next role or assignment. Help them develop and hone the skills they need by giving them tasks that stretch them or that require new skills or new abilities. Help them acquire the experiences they need, and provide opportunities for real-world practice. And finally, map each individual’s specific strengths and abilities against the talent road map you’ll need to rely on when succession in critical leadership positions becomes an issue. Mapping Your Existing T alent Bench Strength Organizations that lack their own internal source of leaders will find it especially difficult and increasingly costly to attract and develop leaders from the outside. Companies often find it difficult to integrate various human resources management programs, whether they are basic personnel, payroll and benefits programs, or niche programs, such as performance management and career development. The programs may come from different vendors, or they may track data in different ways. Whatever the case, they do not “talk to each other.” To meet the need for coordinated leverage, many companies develop practical, intuitive online tools that create, track and organize hundreds of competency models in order to more completely map existing talent. Such tools would further enable human resources managers to systematically make better talent decisions and put the right people in the right leadership positions to help address key business challenges. The Road Ahead While continuously assessing potential and helping to translate that potential into the performance needed for given key positions, many companies find they operate in silos. For example, a fast-growing division may need more managers, but those doing the hiring have no way of knowing who outside their division has the talent, potential or capabilities to fill these roles. So, how does one effectively identify and track employee development across business functions, geographic areas or very large employee pools? This problem often has no immediate overall solution. But, to map talent and make better talent management decisions, human resources managers do need to leverage all of the accumulated information about individuals and their competencies. A 2005 study by the Corporate Leadership Council found most companies predict there will be an increase in leadership vacancies over the next three to five years, and 76 percent of these companies are not highly confident they have the means to staff these positions. Similarly, a 2003 study found that while 90 percent of companies say succession management is a top priority, only 6 percent were confident their systems would be able to successfully meet the challenge when needed. Competition for talent, especially executive talent, is fierce and expected to get fiercer — and that means talented leaders will command higher and higher compensation. Organizations that lack their own internal source of leaders will find it especially difficult and increasingly costly to attract and develop leaders from the outside. By mapping existing talent against key business needs, smart companies can create real competitive advantage. Brian Davis, Ph.D., is an executive vice president at Personnel Decisions International, a Minneapolis-based global human resources consulting firm. He can be reached at editor@TalentMgt.com. talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 43 January 2008 http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - January 2008

TM - January 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Learning Connections: Working With Those People Leading Edge: Hub Caps for a Buggy Human Performance: Hawthorne Effect Revisited Beyond Affirmative Action: The Changing Face of Recruitment Assessment Centers in Talent Management: Strategies, Use and Value Nontraditional Benefits- How to Hook the Best Talent Intersection of Web 2.0 and Talent Management Cross-Training for Workforce Agility Mapping Talent Among Younger Workers Dashboard: Using Personality Data to Identify and Develop High-Potential Leaders Application: Shaffer Title Uses Myers-Briggs to Develop Common Corporate Language, Jump-Start Growth Insight: Dreier, Stein & Kahan LLP: Using Strategy to Bring Back the Law Profession Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Full Potential: Stop in the Name of Leadership

TM - January 2008

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