TM - December 2007 - (Page 24)

m anagers and coaches look at all types of statistics on their players: batting average, runs batted in (RBI), on-base percentage, slugging percentage, strikeouts, stolen bases and more. For specialized roles, such as pitchers, they collect and analyze more statistics, such as earned run average (ERA), innings pitched, complete games, shutouts and saves. Billy Beane of the Oakland A’s is perhaps the greatest success story of a general manager who carefully interprets the stats to consistently build a lowcost, high-performing team. The book Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, details Beane’s methodical process of statistical analysis, negotiating, shrewd decision making and a bit of luck throughout the 2002 season. His efforts resulted in a spectacular winning record, and he had the smallest player payroll of any major league baseball team. Many say that Moneyball is as much about talent management as it is baseball. Year after year, Beane seems to beat the odds, not the bank, and get his team to the playoffs. Wouldn’t your executive team like you to have that kind of low-budget success analyzing and managing your talent each year? Beane and followers employ a form of analytics called sabermetrics, the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, especially baseball statistics. It answers questions such as, “Which player contributes most to the team’s success?” or “How many runs will player A hit next year?” and “Does player A perform better than player B under certain circumstances?” Sabermetrics also can help determine past and future player value. Traditional baseball analytics focus on metrics such as batting average, the number of hits a player makes as a ratio of the number of times at bat. But teams don’t win based on the number of hits they make. They win based on the number of runs they score. So a player’s ability to make more hits is not necessarily the best predictor of success for the team. Rather, the player’s ability to help the team score more runs turns out to be a much better predictor of success. Based on this logic, the more capable a player is at helping the team score runs, the more valuable he is. Like the baseball team, corporate organizations also have players. Our players, or employees, perform specialized roles, but they need to work together as a team for us to be successful. Across our teams, there are players at varying skill levels. Let’s call our players our performers. Our top and low-end performers are usually highly visible. However, the performers in the middle are typically hard to single out, because they represent the majority, and their performance numbers don’t spike on or off the charts. If you take a close look at the performance statistics (i.e., the numbers) you can quickly identify the undervalued performers. Their contributions provide consistency and stability for your team. If managed properly, they have the potential to be tomorrow’s top talent. How do talent managers identify these hidden gems? Not by focusing on measures such as retention, attrition, tenure, internal promotions and the like. These measures are important, but they alone have limited meaning. We also need to think in broad terms about how talent collectively helps the organization succeed. How do we quantify various contributions toward organizational success on a person-by-person basis? Individual performance drives organizational performance. If talent managers isolate an individual’s success factors, they can be harnessed and then developed in others. Human resource and talent management departments are better positioned today as strategic partners in the organization. There is no better time than now for talent managers to contribute their data and take advantage of opportunities to develop new, advanced talent metrics and formulas across the core talent management processes — attract, build, engage, leverage and retain. Most talent management practices promote the use of both core and job-specific competency models. Competencies can include knowledge, skills, abilities, experience and behavioral characteristics. Organizations commonly perform competency assessments as part of their performance review process. But what do they do with the numbers? You can easily determine competency bench strengths and weaknesses, but how do these competencies interrelate to drive individual, then organization performance? This is where analytics come in. talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 23 December 2007 http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - December 2007

Talent Management - December 2007 Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Human Performance Leading Edge Capabilities The Engaged Difference: What People Want Analytics in Talent Management: The Sports View The Use of Merchandise for Employee Recognition Taking Aim at Performance Appraisals Talent Management Drives Organizational Change Generational Diversity: Mastering the Boomer-X-Y Divide Dashboard: Security-Savvy Workforce: Designing a Security Awareness Program That Works Application: Hilton Hotels Corporation:Checking Out the Merits of Paperless Efficiency Insight: Unlimited Engagement: Innovative Corporate Communication at Deloitte & Touche USA Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources Foundations

TM - December 2007

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