A Talent Development Case Study

Rachel Brastock BA MEd Chartered FCIPD

You are out at a party and the first question you are asked is "what do you do?" I reply "I do talent development" I then get one of two responses - the first Simon Cowell gets mentioned, the second is a look of complete confusion! Unfortunately, it happens in a work environment too, so this week I thought I would write a case study of an award winning talent development programme that I put in place with some colleagues a couple of years ago.

The Business Strategy

Any talent development solution has to start with the business strategy. The future business strategy for this company included moving away from traditional home based markets and into new countries and new cultures. That in turn required different skills, knowledge and behaviours from future employees, particularly leaders. Already a multinational organisation there would be an increased requirement of future leaders to manage more diverse teams, in more diverse locations and with a more diverse customer base.

The challenge

For any talent development programme to be effective there has to be real clarity around what challenge the programme is trying to address. This company had an excellent graduate development programme. For 2 years, newly qualified graduates enjoyed rotation of placements, regular feedback, continual development opportunities and their own social programme. At the end of the 2 years that stopped. As a regular employee, they were now in a normal role, with some feedback and development opportunities but no access to the corporate leadership development programmes. Like many companies, our leadership development programme did not kick in until people had progressed further up the grading system.

The result? These highly qualified people that we had invested considerable time, energy and not to mention finance were leaving! Within months of them completing the graduate programme, they started to look around for opportunities outside of the company and were easy targets for competitors. We needed to do more to engage the best of them, the high potentials and give them a reason to stay.

The Talent Solution

Having identified the problem, next you need to agree a solution. Development might not always be it! If it is a talent development solution, which is aligned to your business strategy then it is probably not available off the shelf.

Our challenge was to address the problem of attrition by engaging and developing our high potentials and aligning their career aspirations with the future needs of the business. Working with an external partner, we devised a 3 module programme for delegates from a number of different countries including the USA, UK, South Africa and Sweden. Between modules there was additional tasks for the delegates to complete. There were also mechanisms to support and engage managers of delegates.

Selection

Selecting delegates for a talent development programme can be a challenge. A nomination exercise often relies on the ability of the manager to recognise potential and be willing to put someone forward. They may miss the quiet person in the corner who may actually be more committed! We are often guilty of having our 'favourites' the go to person who gets lots of opportunities, whilst overlooking someone who may have grown tremendously in the past few months but not been noticed.

At more senior levels in an organisation, there is probably more data to make an objective recommendation for further development than those people earlier in their careers, so we decided to throw open an invitation. There were stringent criteria which had to be met in order to apply and it required effort on the part of the candidate. First they had to complete an application form, then undertake a competency based interview. We paired an HR person with a line leader to conduct the interview with a candidate from a different country to theirs, in an attempt to make it as objective as possible. By following a structured competency based interview we could calibrate the results across the different countries and departments.

We also offered a 1 to 1 career coaching session to anyone who applied and were unsuccessful resulting in many more people having clearer ideas of their career aspirations and choices.

Module 1 - Strategy

The first module was held near to our US based headquarters so we could maximise the involvement of our senior leaders. The focus was on strategy - we wanted to give the delegates a vision of the future that they could buy in to. We included the industry we were in, the strategy of the business, the marketing strategy and the future move into new countries and markets. We also introduced the group to peer coaching, helping to create an adhesive group that would continue to support each other beyond the programme.

Module 2 - Culture

This module immersed the delegates into a different culture by holding the programme in Istanbul. From individual feedback on the Global Mindset Inventory (an assessment tool to help determine a global leaders ability to better influence individuals, groups and organisations unlike themselves) to negotiating for boxes of Turkish Delight in the Grand Bazaar the focus was on experiencing, valuing and recognising diversity. Guest speakers who had lived in many different countries shared their stories of working in a global organisation and pre-work included reading the excellent book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman which analyses globalization in the 21st Century.

Module 3 - Career

The final module, in order to keep the costs down and to reflect the way the company increasingly worked across borders via technology, was delivered virtually via video conferencing. The focus was career planning and maximising their potential. We gave them feedback on career choices using the Decision Dynamics Careerview Profile and encouraged them to reflect upon which elements of the programme had resonated most with them. How could they maximise their potential and align their career goals to the strategy of the company? What were they going to do with what they had learnt and experienced?

Results

The programme received fabulous feedback from both the delegates and their managers. In terms of specific measures, attrition was most important and we were pleased to see that the drain of our best people did stop as a result of attending the programme. Secondly, a large number of the delegates were promoted within months of the programme as their managers witnessed an increase in their confidence, communication skills and performance with a greater awareness of strategy. Longer term, we can track their success as leaders as the company becomes more diverse.

One surprising result was how much engagement we generated in the wider population by advertising the programme. Many employees did not realise we even ran corporate development programmes and though they in the main were not eligible saw it as a good thing for a company to do.

Finally, the programme itself won an award by an external body. The Excellence in Practice Talent Development award as an effective and impactful Learning and Development intervention.

Would you mind helping me with the following questions?

• What do you think of the Talent Solution?
• What do you think is missing from the Talent Solution?
• What do you think about the selection process?
• What would you do with the same Business Strategy and Challenge?