TM - March 2008 - (Page 43)

continue to pop up in one agency or another, more steps are being taken to update talent-related programs and strategies. Official government talent management posts are being established to catch up to the employee efficiency levels at work in the private sector. “Talent management has become such a hot-button issue that they are actually creating an office of talent management in various agencies around the government,” Desenberg said. “The one we’ve worked with recently is NASA, here in Maryland. They’ve created the office because it was very obvious we were working with them, and the recruiting people were not talking to the training people, the leadership development people were not talking to the HR staff. The disconnects between different aspects of talent management were beginning to affect the workforce, and frankly, were beginning to affect the performance of the entire agency.” A talent management office can use thinktank resources and information to systemically help redefine how an agency such as NASA approaches recruitment and retention, for instance. Desenberg said, as a whole, the government has problems recruiting young employees. Further, according to Performance Institute research, the retention rate for Generation Y has been particularly low in government sectors. Desenberg said this information is curious since many polls suggest workers younger than 30 want to help society by working on issues for the common good — to make a difference. But weary of working for the government, this demographic often looks for new opportunities in the private sector, in nonprofits and in universities. “They don’t feel the government understands how to help develop their skills, how to promote their people and how to rotate young employees throughout the organization to give them a taste of different assignments,” Desenberg said. “That’s been a big problem where we hope to see improvement very soon with [improved talent management strategies around] retention, recruitment and engagement.” Unlike the Performance Institute, the VeraSage Institute works mostly with law, accounting, advertising, consulting and IT firms, what they call professional knowledge firms (PKF). VeraSage works with for-profit companies, but like the Performance Institute, the company gathers research to help its clients maximize talent management effectiveness with a focus on retention. “We have developed key predictive indicators for PKFs, which focus far more on effectiveness than efficiency,” said Ken Baker, founder of VeraSage. “We think this is a breakthrough in terms of managing knowledge workers, much like Frederick Taylor achieved a breakthrough in increasing efficiency.” One issue Frederick Taylor, a well-known early 20th century scientific management consultant, probably didn’t have in mind was how to keep a young generation of workers focused amid myriad distractions, such as gossip Web sites and online video games. “The big difference between the generations is the recent ones understand they are knowledge workers, not factory workers,” Baker said. “They must be paid for the value they create, not the time and effort they put in, like union employees. I’m not sure most employers have come to grips with this change.” Where the private sector has been involved in strategic talent management activities for a number of years, talent management offices of government agencies are expected to catch up with them quickly. Desenberg said agencies such as the A talent management office can use think-tank resources and information to systemically help redefine how an agency such as NASA approaches recruitment and retention. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) don’t have the luxury of a slow gestation period because they must be ready in the event of a national crisis. The country needs to be confident those dealing with disaster logistics are fully engaged and well trained. “We have a largely disengaged workforce, and talent management is being looked at as a way to really solve that crisis,” Desenberg explained. “The bottom line is, if we don’t get a handle on this, we’re going to continue to see declining performance in the federal government. If you look at an organization, take FEMA as an example, many people are familiar with FEMA because of what happened during Hurricane Katrina. FEMA has terrible talent management issues; employees are very disengaged. Also, DHS has the lowest engagement levels and scores of any federal agency. The federal human capital survey which tracks this stuff points to talent management as a necessity if we’re going to get a handle on it.” Since the Institute was founded, changes in the world — the dot-com bust, Sept. 11, the emergence of a multigenerational workforce and a war for talent — have contributed to a change in how organizations deal with their employees. Talent management has emerged as an organizational pillar on which to combat these issues and others. The Performance Institute isn’t a talent management-only think tank, but it can provide a basis for research and consulting in public and private institutions. talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 43 March 2008 http://www.TalentMgt.com

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

TM - March 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance - The Paradoxically Gifted Leading Edge - Reverse Engineering: Shifting Focus to HR's Cause Learning Connection - Sharing Talent On the Hunt for Talent Unlock Employee Motivation Through Personality Testing HR Crucial to Executive Compensation Process Downtown Management: Surfing May Not Be Slacking Think Tanks Aid Government in Talent Management Creating Consistency: Enterprise-Wide Succession Plans Battle Retention Deficits With On-Boarding Sunbelt Rentals: A Mid-Level View of HR From the Trenches Butterball: No Chicken When It Comes to Talent Management Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Full Potential - Choosing Change

TM - March 2008

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