Tagged: leadership

European Talent Survey 2012

This year again – similarly to 2011 – we have conducted a pan European Talent Management Survey. The 2012 the report was written by Professor Paul Turner of Birmingham City University.

Executive Summary:

The European Talent Survey was conducted amongst the 3400 members of the European Human Capital Management Excellence Network. Over 100 organisations from Western Europe, the CIS, Baltics and Central and Eastern Europe took part.

European HR professionals and business managers have a range of views about what constitutes talent in their organisations. For some, talent is about high performance and potential of a selected number of people to move up the organization into senior leadership or managerial positions. For others, talent is an inclusive term which refers to all employees. For most, a successful talent strategy is concerned with both ends of the employment spectrum.

The European Talent survey found that 76% of respondents identified talent as a top or growing priority to support the growth of their businesses and 50% of respondents had a defined talent strategy. There was agreement that talented people could drive productivity and business growth; improve customer share and be a differentiator at a time of intense global competition. Talent was seen as a pivotal resource in delivering competitive advantage.
It was felt that talent management programmes could enhance the organisation‟s performance; support the achievement of stretch targets and provide insight to build new business segments. There was a growing recognition of the importance of „outside in‟ thinking, building talent strategy in the context of information from the external environment. The alignment of talent strategy to business strategy was of particular importance to European HR professionals.

The skills identified as priorities for talent were varied. 67% of those responding to the European Talent survey believed that the ability to deal with and manage change was a priority; 31% believed that the ability to think strategically was also important; 22% identified the need to be able to work in virtual teams as a key attribute of talent (approximately the same as 2010) and 50% believed that information systems skills were a priority- up from 25% in 2010.
The way to develop these skills could be achieved by following a „European Talent Loop‟ which linked the requirements of the workforce plan to the development of an attractive employer brand; a rich mixture of development activities, the involvement of line managers and the effective measurement of talent outcomes.

Download Full Report: EuropeanTalentReport_2012


Talent – A Formula for Success, Interview with Dave Ulrich

I spoke to Dr. Dave Ulrich about Talent, a formula for success. There are as many definitions on the word “Talent” as many organizations are out there.

According to Dave there are four ways to define Talent. One; C-suite executives, Talent is about building succession, to make sure you have the next generation of leaders, tailoring development experience for the leaders so they work well as a team.

The second level of talent is the senior leadership group within the company; not the C-suite but the group below that, what it’s called the “leadership cadre”. For them the organization must build a leadership academy where there is a leadership brand they buy into.

The third level of talent are the high potential individuals- those who have the change to lead the company and set the agenda for the future. They are defined with 4 A/s

  • Ambition
  • Agility
  • Ability
  • Achievement

For those individual must be a tailored individual development program in place.

The fourth level of talent filters all the way through the company. They have what we call the “talent formula” – good talent anywhere in the company is who are

  • Competent – able to do the work
  • Committed – willing to work hard
  • Contributing – they find meaning from the work they do

Listen to the entire podcast below, covering additional issues on leadership succession, the role of HR:

Download the related whitepaper: Dave Ulrich – Norm Smallwood – What is Talent

Finding Meaning at Work – interview with Dr. Dave Ulrich

Dr. Dave Ulrich is a Professor of Business, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan is undoubtedly one of the most significant expert in strategic HR. When Ulrich speaks, the profession listens.

His achievements are numerous,

…to name a few.

This interview is discussing what the requirements are to find meaning at work, what the business rational behind building ‘abundant organizations’ that  provides meaning to its employees, creates value for its stakeholders, and offers hope for humanity

Interview excerpts:

Mihaly Nagy: Your recent book the “Why of Work” is based on a simple premise: “Employees who find meaning at work will have a better work experience that will translate into improved performance, more satisfied customers, and more profitable companies.” This notion is probably not a surprise for anyone, however the question is what specific steps can an organization do in order to achieve this? Is there a recipe for success?

Dave Ulrich: We culled the literatures on meaning to identify what specific things leaders could do to instill meaning at work. We identified seven actions leaders could take to become meaning makers, each of which is associated with a question they can answer for themselves and their employees:

  1. Identity: Who am I? Employees have more meaning when the strengths which shape their identity are used to strengthen others.
  2. Purpose: where am I going? Employees have more meaning when they work in a company that has a meaningful purpose that engages them.
  3. Relationships: Who do I travel with? Employees have more meaning when they work with people they admire, respect, and feel connected to.
  4. Work environment: What are the routines or culture of our work? Employees have more meaning when their work setting is positive and affirming.
  5. Work challenges: What work do I do? Employees have more meaning when they are doing work that excites and energizes them.
  6. Learning and Growth: What do I learn from at work? Employees have more meaning when they are able to learn and grow from the work they do.
  7. Civility and Delight: Employees have more meaning when they bring a sense of fun and delight into their work.

These are clearly not exclusive and the only factors that provide meaning, but when people we talk to think about “what makes your work meaningful?’ generally their answers fall into one of these seven dimensions.

Listen to the entire podcast here:

Download the Interview in whitepaper format:

If you are interested in interacting with Professor Ulrich in person join the 8th Annual Human Asset Summit on 13-15 November in Boscolo Budapest. More info: www.humanassetsummit.com

Podcast: Result Only Work Environment at GAP Inc.

Recently spoke with Eric Severson, Senior Vice President HR at GAP Inc. who championed the the ROWE (Result Only Work Environment) initiative at GAP four years ago. Now over 2000 people can work whenever they want, whereever they want, so long result is delivered. Result? Significant increase in employee engagement, decrease in voluntarily turnover, improved work life balance – GAP just became a better place to work.

Listen to the podcast here:

Gain access to the sneak preview of Dave Ulrich’s new book

Gain access to the sneak preview of Dave Ulrich’s new book. We hope you will enjoy reading this exclusive sneak preview brought to you by HCM Excellence Network.

Download here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/outsideinhr

Join the HCM Excellence Network Community: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/HCM-Excellence-HR-Professionals-Network-1850502