Finding new ways to measure staff potential

The coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has accel­er­at­ed the rate of dig­i­tal and busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion, and cap­i­tal­is­ing on every ounce of employ­ee poten­tial is non-nego­tiable. The cri­sis may be a cat­a­lyst for restruc­tures and tal­ent chal­lenges, but nur­tur­ing the poten­tial of every employ­ee is the key to unlock­ing the ben­e­fits of these extra­or­di­nary times.

With so much uncer­tain­ty fac­ing peo­ple, the com­ing year is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to grow employ­ee engage­ment, ensur­ing they want to be part of the jour­ney through the pan­dem­ic and beyond.

And while tra­di­tion­al views of an organisation’s top tal­ent might exclude vast swathes of employ­ees, there is a surge in think­ing that empow­er­ing staff to take own­er­ship of their career devel­op­ment can reap rewards for them and the busi­ness.

Evi­dence sug­gests that “allow­ing employ­ees agency over their careers can result in more engaged and moti­vat­ed employ­ees”, lead­ing to pos­i­tive impacts on lev­els of per­for­mance, says Emma Par­ry, pro­fes­sor of human resource man­age­ment and head of the Chang­ing World of Work Group at Cran­field School of Man­age­ment.

“What is hap­pen­ing in the pan­dem­ic is that organ­i­sa­tions are learn­ing the impor­tance of open and ongo­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions,” says Par­ry. “For me this is key to democ­ra­tis­ing tal­ent devel­op­ment.”

This empha­sis on trans­par­ent career paths and skills require­ments means “iden­ti­fy­ing lead­er­ship poten­tial can become a con­ver­sa­tion between employ­ers and employ­ees rather than some­thing done with smoke and mir­rors”, she adds.

Democratic approach to talent management

Encour­ag­ing­ly, research shows many employ­ers are pro­mot­ing more demo­c­ra­t­ic approach­es to tal­ent man­age­ment.

The Top Employ­ers Insti­tute analysed the prac­tices of 1,500 lead­ing employ­ers in attract­ing, retain­ing and devel­op­ing employ­ee poten­tial to dri­ve change in their organ­i­sa­tions.

It found that 89 per cent of employ­ers designed lead­er­ship devel­op­ment pro­grammes for dif­fer­ent roles and lev­els, with the same per­cent­age focus­ing on the com­pe­ten­cies and behav­iours need­ed.

Mean­while, there is a “clear trend towards a more broad-mind­ed approach to career devel­op­ment”, says Phil Spros­ton, Top Employ­ers Insti­tute UK and Ire­land man­ag­er, with 97 per cent of organ­i­sa­tions con­sis­tent­ly expect­ing man­agers to pro­mote devel­op­ment of team mem­bers.

The results sug­gest these employ­ers are focus­ing more on spe­cif­ic traits and atti­tudes, rather than iden­ti­fy­ing high-poten­tial employ­ees by look­ing at cer­tain depart­ments or senior­i­ty lev­els.

Con­sid­er­ing skillsets, rather than sim­ply an employee’s abil­i­ty to do the spe­cif­ic role they were hired for, can be trans­for­ma­tion­al in work­forces, espe­cial­ly as busi­ness­es adapt to cur­rent mar­ket con­di­tions.

It is an excit­ing time to explore these fun­da­men­tals of skills and strengths, which can pull out untapped employ­ee poten­tial, rather than using sub­jec­tive cri­te­ria reflect­ing cur­rent lead­er­ship.

Tra­di­tion­al­ly struc­tured hier­ar­chies are not exclud­ed from demo­c­ra­t­ic approach­es to max­imis­ing employ­ee poten­tial though. Par­ry points out: “This is not about struc­ture per se, but more about enabling open con­ver­sa­tions around tal­ent man­age­ment deci­sions.”

This might mean the end of the clas­sic nine-box matrix to iden­ti­fy tal­ent. “Devel­op­ing a cul­ture of trans­paren­cy in rela­tion to people’s tal­ent and aspi­ra­tions allows a more inclu­sive and effec­tive approach to iden­ti­fy­ing employ­ee poten­tial,” she explains.

Objectively identifying leadership potential

Dan Lucy, prin­ci­pal research fel­low at the Insti­tute for Employ­ment Stud­ies (IES), agrees more rigour is need­ed in devel­op­ing employ­ee poten­tial.

“The pan­dem­ic has exposed so many inequal­i­ties and organ­i­sa­tions have to be much more rig­or­ous in iden­ti­fy­ing tal­ent objec­tive­ly,” he acknowl­edges.

Strength-based devel­op­ment plans can lead to 29 per cent increased prof­its and up to 72 per cent reduced staff churn for organ­i­sa­tions, accord­ing to a Gallup study.

Allow­ing employ­ees to iden­ti­fy, devel­op and use their core strengths fos­ters account­abil­i­ty and a more demo­c­ra­t­ic approach to tal­ent man­age­ment.

“As well as under­stand­ing what skills employ­ees have, widen­ing access to learn­ing and devel­op­ment adds to the flex­i­bil­i­ty of the entire work­force, which is real­ly valu­able right now,” adds Lucy.

Mar­ket­ing busi­ness MVF topped the Sun­day Times Best Com­pa­nies to Work For 2020 index and its chief peo­ple offi­cer Andrea Pat­ti­co says ensur­ing employ­ees can devel­op their strengths and are aware of oppor­tu­ni­ties is crit­i­cal to its suc­cess.

“Employ­ee poten­tial is not sta­t­ic so it’s impor­tant to keep talk­ing about what is right for the indi­vid­ual, their career and the busi­ness over a rea­son­able peri­od such as 12 months, rather than assume noth­ing changes over a three to five-year peri­od,” she says.

Investment in learning and development

An indi­vid­ual annu­al train­ing bud­get for every employ­ee, year­ly cross-depart­ment learn­ing fes­ti­val and advanced acad­e­mies open to any­one in the busi­ness, regard­less of depart­ment, means MVF is “find­ing ways to help our peo­ple to reach their career goals as well as keep­ing great peo­ple in the busi­ness for longer”, says Pat­ti­co.

At dig­i­tal ser­vices provider Foun­da­tion SP, which led the rank­ings in the annu­al 2020 UK’s Best Work­places for medi­um-sized busi­ness­es, a com­mit­ment to empow­er­ing employ­ees to dri­ve their own career paths is part of the tal­ent man­age­ment blue­print.

“We active­ly encour­age employ­ees to strive towards devel­op­men­tal pro­gres­sion and self-ful­fil­ment,” says Foun­da­tion SP chief exec­u­tive Simon Grosse. “Con­tin­u­ous two-way feed­back is impor­tant, ensur­ing it is a reg­u­lar dia­logue that is heard and actioned, rather than a one-time event.”

Peer-to-peer men­tor­ing and coach­ing help to spark inno­va­tion, along with “cross-pol­li­na­tion of roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties”, an approach Grosse says has led to an uplift in prof­it in the past 12 months, along with low lev­els of employ­ee turnover.

For firms that have not pre­vi­ous­ly had a dig­i­tal-led approach, phys­i­cal changes to work­places brought about by the pan­dem­ic and mul­ti­ple lock­downs could have a huge impact on tra­di­tion­al notions of career devel­op­ment, tal­ent man­age­ment and lead­er­ship.

Tech­nol­o­gy is prov­ing an equalis­er through col­lab­o­ra­tive work­ing prac­tices and inter­nal mobil­i­ty tools, while the spike in online meet­ings means oppor­tu­ni­ties for employ­ees to show­case ideas in ways that may not have exist­ed before.

“Pro­gres­sion might not always be upwards, but there still needs to be a sense of devel­op­ment for employ­ees,” Lucy at IES con­cludes. “Trans­paren­cy and sup­port are fun­da­men­tal to democ­ra­tis­ing employ­ee poten­tial.”