03/13
Talent measurement in economic uncertainty
In today’s volatile economy managers and stakeholders are looking for better governance from HR professionals. Using data to measure talent is a relevant method of establishing governance. Moreover, it really can help in making tough decisions and forecasting the future. The key is to have roughly reasonable data in a timely manner. Leveraging an employee survey, a learning evaluation, or a competency assessment for example can be easy ways to obtain credible information for decision-making. What are your thoughts? What are you doing today to measure talent and create a high performing workforce?
March 25th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
While I agree with the idea of implementing evaluations/assessments as a part of the decision making process, like all other organizations we find ourselves having to do ‘more with less.’ Do you have any suggestions for fitting in the evaluation process as efficiently as possible?
March 26th, 2009 at 8:30 am
i agree with chris, it is important but my plate is oveflowing and we don’t currently perform any employeee surveys. Getting started/knowing where to start is what i am grappling with.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Both Chris and Mark’s points are critical considerations. Both having to do “more with less” and not knowing where to get started are common barriers to implementing a measurement process.
By being able to show actual results, your stakeholders will take notice of your work. Here are some sample results stakeholders like to see and you can provide them through a sound measurement process:
-Three years of evaluation results showed that a typical employee improved workforce performance by 4.80% as a result of learning and development programs. This translates into $2,820 per employee in improved workforce outcomes (based on over 600,000 evaluations measured 2 months after training)
-A major healthcare insurer retained 93% of its top talent who were flight risks after investing in measurement to improve their on-boarding process.
-A telecom equipment company attributed a 12% reduction in call center support calls and a 10% reduction in errors to a skills-based program created to provide their customer’s engineers with skills to self-diagnose network problems.
-A major tele-floral company saved 15,000 hours of lost productivity by providing technology training to tele-floral agents translating into a $276,000 cost savings to bottom-line profits.
-A leading ERP company returned 18.2% in productivity gains by training end-users to better use its software.
-A consumer packaged goods company attributed $74,000 in increased sales per person directly to a sales force effectiveness investment of $5,000 per person
I know it seems daunting, but without these types of measurements how can processes improve? Getting started, you can leverage the following enablers to reduce the internal burden:
1) Technology: reduces administrative pressure by automating the delivery of the instrument, collection of data and report generation.
2) Leverage standards and expertise: there are a number of resources you can utilize to develop standard surveys, evaluations and assessments. I recommend searching for human resources measurement books on the market. There are consultants that are able to help too.
3) Find a mentor: there are a number of people who are doing a great job of measuring and showing impact. If you network and find one you are comfortable with, they can be a big help to assist you in thinking through issues they’ve already addressed.
Please feel free to contact me for additional resources. I am always happy to assist.
Jeff
May 4th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Chris,
Any process must be practical and repeatable, if it isn’t it won’t sustain itself. Further the process must match the resources (money, time, people) dedicated to it. In this case we highly recommend starting with some solid survey templates. A good survey can tap the knowledge of employees throughout their lifecycle within your organization (from recruiting to retirement).
While I empathize with Mark’s plate being full, we have to start somewhere and a basic survey sent via electronic means can gather lots of data quickly and effortlessly. Dropping the results into a pivot table is a great analysis starting point.
In summary, measurement needs to be a sustainable process not a one off project. Make it a process that is simple and easy and you’ll quickly see its results.