TM - May 2008 - (Page 52) LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT continued from page 35 That’s why Demme and his learning colleagues are direct and purposeful about the on-the-job experiences and guidance employees need on top of formal training. “(Only with those experiences) will they ever be able to say, ‘Now I understand the steps in solving not just this one problem but any similar type of problem,’” he explained. “ And that’s when we can say they’ve achieved the kind of independent and advanced performance status we need from them so they can better serve our customers.” Creating a Specialization Road Map With a stronger sense of what skill specialization means for any given domain and how one can accurately judge if and when someone has attained the various levels, learning can design specific activities and programs within three enablers: formal learning, guided experience and collaboration. That detailed design becomes a specialization road map for a particular job, skill or domain. This road map is a real, working document. It’s a matrix plotting the multiple levels of the development path to specialization against the three types of enablers, with specific examples of what is to happen at each stage to advance an employee to the next level. For example, if sponsoring executives want to help experienced manager-level employees who already possess strong project management skills, deepen those skills to cope with today’s complex work environment, a development project may bring workforces in different geographies together to work with complex handoffs in multiple phases. The specialization road map in this case would include details such as having proficient project managers participate in community-of-practice meetings each month or asking those at an advanced level to serve as mentors to their less experienced colleagues. The ultimate road map might include a chart of 40 to 50 specific activities plotted against the path to specialization. Specificity is critical. In general, the effectiveness of a specialization road map — or any program that seeks to create a more specialized, deeply skilled workforce — is dependent on how precise and purposeful it is. But a distinctive talent capability is easier to conceptualize than it is to operationalize. Many learning organizations tie roles, job definitions and metrics primarily to formal training. When today’s business executives look for help creating competitive differentiation in workforce talent, however, HR and learning executives need to be ready with a rigorous set of programs and processes to create more advanced-level employees, capable of game-changing innovations that can achieve and sustain high performance. Don Vanthournout is Accenture’s chief learning officer and the author of Return on Learning: Training for High Performance at Accenture. Maeve Lucas is a senior manager with Accenture Education. They can be reached at editor@ TalentMgt.com. INSIGHT continued from page 41 TM: Mazzarella: How does Graybar measure workforce performance? We look at sales per employee, gross margin per employee, sales performance overall. We look at how many jobs touch the customer versus backoffice functions to make sure those stay in line. We look at typical turnover retention by performance rating, who is staying, who is leaving, why are they leaving. We also do interviews because we have a pretty high percentage of people who leave who want to come back. We do re-entry interviews to find out why, what is the differentiator for us, what we need to focus on. We look at turnover by age, job, years of service, and we’re just beginning to measure employee engagement. Metrics are important because the language of business is numbers. If we’re going to have the business side own the people, we need to give numbers. How does Graybar handle succession planning? TM: Mazzarella: Everything we look at is long term. Being employee owned, our first responsibility is making sure the company continues to exist many, many years from now and has the same values. You do that by developing people early on, making sure they share those values and making sure you continue to put them into senior leadership. It’s pretty straightforward. We identify individuals in the field organization and headquarters that have leadership potential, assess them and then provide development opportunities. We put together personal development activities, which is a formal process every year so they’re not just generic development activities. Every manager should sit down with one of these folks and put the necessary stuff into their individual development plans. When a position’s available, we try to look beyond just a functional area. For example, we like to take folks that have come up in finance and put them in line management. We try to forecast our projected needs and then look at the range of employees available to fill those jobs. What’s next for Graybar in terms of talent management and workforce development? TM: Mazzarella: We’re just scratching the surface. We need to continue to align talent management even more tightly with the business. I’m a numbers person, so I’d like us to start measuring the effectiveness of all activities better. We need to provide better knowledge and skills to our frontline managers. We can do a lot better job to equip them to be mentors and coaches. We need to work on succession planning; that’s a forever one where we can do a lot better. And finally, with our culture of employee ownership, we need to work on employee engagement. That is our competitive differentiator, and that’s the one we can really leverage. 52 May 2008 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - May 2008 Talent Management - May 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take The Four Pillars of Managing Performance Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? American Systems Employees Earn a Piece of the Pie Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential TM - May 2008 TM - May 2008 - (Page Intro) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page Cover1) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page Cover2) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 1) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 2) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 3) TM - May 2008 - Editor's Letter (Page 4) TM - May 2008 - Editor's Letter (Page 5) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 6) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 7) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 8) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 9) TM - May 2008 - Human Performance (Page 10) TM - May 2008 - Human Performance (Page 11) TM - May 2008 - Leading Edge (Page 12) TM - May 2008 - Leading Edge (Page 13) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 14) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 15) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 16) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 17) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 18) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 19) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 20) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 21) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 22) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 23) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 24) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 25) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 26) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 27) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 28) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 29) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 30) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 31) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 32) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 33) TM - May 2008 - Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization (Page 34) TM - May 2008 - Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization (Page 35) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 36) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 37) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 38) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 39) TM - May 2008 - Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management (Page 40) TM - May 2008 - Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management (Page 41) TM - May 2008 - American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health (Page 42) TM - May 2008 - American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health (Page 43) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 44) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 45) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 46) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 47) TM - May 2008 - American Systems Employees Earn a Piece of the Pie (Page 48) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 49) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 50) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 51) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 52) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page Cover3) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page Cover4)
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