Author: indiafreenotes

University of Mumbai BMS Notes

Iceberg Model of Competency

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The iceberg model for competencies takes the help of an iceberg to explain the concept of competency. An iceberg which has just one-ninth of its volume above water and the rest remains beneath the surface in the sea. Similarly, a competency has some components which are visible like knowledge and skills but other behavioural components like attitude, traits, thinking styles, self-image, organizational fit etc are hidden or beneath the surface.

Ice-Berg Model

The pictorial representation of the model is as below:

The iceberg model contains six competencies: skill, knowledge, social role, self-image, traits and motives. Skill and knowledge are located on the portion of the iceberg that sits above the water level, which is easily seen. They, are around 20 % of a person’s competencies. So, they are relatively easy to determine. Social role, self-image, traits and motives are positioned on the iceberg below the water level hidden from the human eye. These account for around 80 percent of a person’s competencies, but they’re much more difficult to assess than skill and knowledge.

  • Skills = A learned ability
  • Knowledge = Acquiring information in a particular field
  • Self-Image = Attitudes and values
  • Traits = Why and how we behave a certain way
  • Motives = What drives us, i.e., the need to seek achievement, power/influence, affiliation. etc..

es and traits become more important than the skills and knowledge required to do the job. Think of a soldier at the war front, he knows how to use the weapon he is holding, but thinks that the war is unjust and refuses to fire. In organizations, senior level hiring is therefore a time consuming and elaborate affair as it becomes necessary to establish the alignment between the organizational and individual motivation and aspirations.

Developing the two levels of competencies also takes different routes. The visible competencies like knowledge and skills can be easily developed through training and skill building exercises however the behavioural competencies are rather difficult to assess and develop. It takes more time and effort intensive exercises, like psychotherapy, Counselling, coaching and mentoring, developmental experiences etc.

In the traditional method of hiring, most of the organizations looked at just the visible components of competencies; the knowledge and skills, believing that the behavioural aspects can be developed through proper guidance and good management. However, with major shifts in the conventional methods of people management, the hiring process has also undergone a change therefore a lot of emphasis is being put on the hidden behavioural aspects as well to make a sound decision. Hence, a complete picture regarding the competence of a person consists of both visible and hidden aspects and it becomes necessary to understand both to arrive at identifying the best man for a job.

University of Mumbai BMS Notes

Methods of Competency Mapping

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Competency analysis is concerned with behavioural dimensions of roles while competence analysis considers what people have to do to perform well. In an organisation a tailor-made competency schedule is carried out by specialists or management consultants or both. Line managers may be consulted but the frameworks are issued to them in accordance with procedures laid down for such processes laid down for such processes as performance management. Although the first draft may be developed in-house but when practiced the suggested changes can improve it further.

Approaches

There are 6 approaches to competence analysis:

  1. Expert Opinion
  2. Structured Interviews
  3. Workshops
  4. Critical Incident Techniques
  5. Repertory Grid Analysis
  6. Job Competency Assessment

Approach # 1. Expert Opinion:

This method involves an expert member of the HR dept. possibly discussing with the other experts and referring to the published list to draw up “What counts”. The major drawback of this method is that it lacks detailed analysis and the line managers have not been involved at any step so it may be unacceptable.

Approach # 2. Structured Interviews:

Here we require the list of competences prepared by experts and the job-holders. The key result areas of a particular are identified to analyse the behavioural characteristics, which distinguish performers at different levels of competence.

The positive and negative indicators required for achieving high levels of performance can be analysed as:

  • Personal drive (achievement motivation)
  • Analytical power
  • Creative thinking
  • Team Management
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Communication skills

This approach relies too much on the experts.

Approach # 3. Workshops:

A team of experts (knowledge and experience holders), managers, job-holders along with a facilitator (not from personnel department) or a consultant work together in a workshop. The activities of workshop initiate with defining job related competence area. Then the members of the group develop examples of effective and less effective behaviour recorded on flipcharts. The facilitators’ job is to help the group to analyse its findings and assist generally to set competency dimensions which can be identified by behaviour.

Approach # 4. Critical Incident Technique:

This is a means of eliciting data about effective or less effective behaviour related to actual events- critical incidents.

The technique is used with groups of job holders, their managers and expert in following ways:

  • Explain what the technique is and what are its uses. This helps to gather the real information regarding the behaviours constituting good or poor performance
  • Listing the key areas of responsibilities for a particular job.
  • Each area of job can be discussed and relating to critical incidents
  • Collect information about the critical incidents under the following headings-
  • What were the circumstances?
  • What did an individual do?
  • What was the outcome of the efforts of the individual?
  • Same process is repeated for each area of responsibility and various critical incidents are recorded.
  • On referring to the flipchart, analysing the critical incidents, the recorded behaviour is marked on a scale from one to five.
  • These ratings are discussed and re-discussed for reducing errors.
  • Final analysis; It lists the desired competence, performance indicators for each principal accountability or main task.

Approach # 5. Repertory Grid:

Repertory grid can be used to identify the dimensions that distinguish good from poor standards of performance. This technique is based on Kelly’s personal construct theory. Personal constructs are the ways in which we view the world. They are personal because they are highly individual and they influence the way we behave or view other people’s behaviour. The aspects of the job to which these ‘constructs’ or judgements apply are called ‘elements’.

A group of people concentrate on certain elements (work or task of job holder) and develop constructs for them. This helps to define the qualities which indicate the essential requirements for successful performance.

The procedure being followed by an ‘analyst’ is called ‘triadic’ method of elicitation and involves following steps:

  1. Identify the elements of the job to be analysed.
  2. List the tasks on cards.
  3. Draw three cards randomly from the pack of cards and ask the group members to select the odd one out from the point of view of the qualities and characteristics needed to perform it.
  4. Try to obtain more specific definitions of these qualities in the form of expected behaviour.
  5. Again draw three cards from the pack and repeat step c&d. Repeat the process unless all the cards have been analysed.
  6. List all the constructs and ask the group members to rate each task on every quality using a six or seven point scale.
  7. Collect and analyse the scores in order to assess their relative importance.

The repertory-grid analysis helps people to articulate their views by reference to specific examples. It is easier to identify behavioural competences required in a job by limiting the area through the triadic technique. This method of analysis is quite detailed and time- consuming.

Approach # 6. Job Competency Assessment:

The job competency assessment method as described by Spencer & Spencer (1993) and offered by Hay/McBer, is based on David Mc Clelland’s research on what competency under six clusters-

  • Achievement Cluster
  • Helping/Service
  • Influence
  • Managerial
  • Cognitive
  • Personal Effectiveness

The competency assessment method is used to model the competencies for a generic role i.e. for a position which is similar to many job holders and basic accountabilities are same. The method begins with assembling a panel of expert managers to express their vision of the job, its duties, responsibilities, difficult job components, likely future changes to the role and the criteria against which the job-holders performance is measured. The members do nominate some members to be outstanding or satisfactory.

The next step is to conduct ‘behavioural event interview’ with nominated job-holders to focus upon the distinction between a person’s concept and what a person actually does. This employs a structured probe strategy rather than a standard set of questions. This investigative interview helps to gather most accurate performance data.

Following this analysis, differentiations can be made between superior and average performers in the form of the:

(a) Competencies possessed by superior performers

(b) Activities undertaken by average performers

(c) Competency and average criteria for both superior and average performers.

Tools:

Following these steps, the competency mapping tools are as follows.

  • Interviews
  • Questionnaires
  • Assessment centres
  • Critical incidents Technique
  • Psychometric Tests

Interview

Competency-based interviews may be structured, semi-structured or unstructured depending on the person conducting the competency mapping. Interview should be carefully designed so as to provide information about both the easily observed information and the general disposition and motivation of the employee. Questions prepared should target each competency and give an overview of the tangible skills and knowledge possessed by the employee, how he or she acts under certain conditions, and how they behave with other people. The questions focus on relating past job performance to future on the job performance. Biasness and distortion of flow should be avoided as much as possible. If handled effectively, interviews can prove to be a powerful technique for getting accurate details and obtaining information which may otherwise be unavailable.

Questionnaires

Competency mapping questionnaires consist of a list of questions either standardized or prepared solely for the purpose of competency mapping which the employees are expected to fill. There may be competency mapping questionnaire for employees or for managers depending on the level at which the mapping is being conducted. One form of a questionnaire is the Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ) that makes use of five domains to examine competencies to improve work performance. These five domains are as follows: background, contact with people, decision making, physical and mechanical activity and work setting. Another form is Functional Job Analysis (FJA) which is a qualitative analysis and breaks the job down to seven parts: things, data, worker instructions, reasoning, people, mathematics and language. The behavior and actions of the employees in the seven areas is a part of FJA.

Assessment Centers

Assessment centers is a process (and not a location) that helps to determine the suitability of employees to specific type of employment or job role. Using validated tests, different elements of the job are simulated. The candidates or employees are expected to complete a number of assessments specifically designed to assess the key competencies required for the job role they are applying. These tests focus on assessing the individual based on their knowledge, skills, attitudes and other behaviors. An essential feature of this process is using situational test to observe job specific behavior.

Critical Incidents Technique

This technique was developed by Flanagan (1954) and involves direct observation of the employee in specific situations. The observations should be recorded as accurately as possible since it would be used to identify behaviors that contribute to success or failure of individual or organization in a specific situation. First step, is to make a list of good and bad on the job behavior. After this, the supervisors should be trained to note down incidents when the employee was successful or not successful in meeting the job requirements. At the end of the year, a balance sheet for each employee is created to find how well the employee has performed.

Psychometric Assessment

These are standardized and scientific tools used to assess the mental capacities and behavioral styles of employees in an organization. The most commonly used psychometric assessment is aptitude, achievement and personality testing. Aptitude tests help to determine the capacity of the individual to acquire with training a particular type of skill or knowledge. Achievement tests help to determine the level of proficiency an individual has achieved in a given area. Personality testing gives a description of the unique traits and characteristics that drive the employee’s behavior. Apart from these, competency mapping rating scale may also be used as a part of assessment.

Management Notes

Steps in Competency Mapping

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The competency mapping process does not fit the one-size-fits all formula. It has to be specific to the user organization. It is better to develop models that draw from but are not defined by existing research, using behavioural interview methods so that the organization creates a model that reflects its own strategy, its own market, its own customers, and the competencies that bring success in that specific context (including national culture).

Start with small, discrete groups or teams, ideally in two directions-a ‘horizontal slice’ across the business that takes in a multi-functional or multi-site group, more or less at the same organizational level, and a ‘vertical slice’ taking in one whole department or team from top to bottom. From that, the organization can learn about the process of competency modeling, and how potential alternative formats for the models may or may not fit the needs of the business.

It is important to focus on one or two key areas of implementation rather than the whole HRD agenda in one scoop. So if recruitment and selection or performance management are they key strategic needs of the business, and where the pain is being felt, then start there. It is advisable to being with a ‘horizontal’ slice of the management or senior-most team as the benefits will percolate down to the whole organization.

Competency mapping refers to the process of identifying the key skills required for accomplishing tasks at a particular position. On completion of this process, the map becomes an input for several other HR processes such as job-evaluation; recruitment; training and development; performance management; and succession planning.

The mapping process starts with the understanding of the vision and mission of the organization, followed by translating them into specific, measurable, and time-bound business goals. It then goes on to clearly outlining an organization’s structure, identifying various levels and positions, as well as reporting relationships obtained within the structure.

HR professionals initially draw a distinction between competencies and competences. Though these two terms are often used interchangeably, competency more precisely refers to employee behaviour whereas competence highlights on employee performances, skills, or their results.

The competency mapping process consists of the following stages:

Stage 1:

Designing the questionnaire for data collection.

While designing the questionnaire following factors are to be taken into consideration:

  1. Knowing the Purpose of the job
  2. Identifying the Critical Success Factors
  3. Identifying the Key Result Areas
  4. Breaking KRAs into Key Activities

Stage 2:

Data Collection:

  1. Clarity of Organization Direction
  2. Clarity of Organization Structure.
  3. Interview Job Holder.
  4. Interview Job Holder’s Reporting Officer.
  5. Discuss with the Focus Group if the job are of the same family.

Stage 3:

This Stage Involves:

  1. Rank Order of the list of competencies (Guided/Unguided)
  2. Comparing good performer and average performer with selected list of competencies.
  3. Use research data and assign competencies to positions.

Stage 4:

Finalize Role Descriptions and Competencies-Job Wise.

The following is the step-by-step process for competency mapping:

Step 1: Development of Core Competencies:

In this step, the leadership of the organization meets to brainstorm which core competencies the organization requires in order to achieve its objectives, goals, and vision. Examples of core competencies that are usually essential in organizations are problem-solving, team-building, decision-making, and communication skills.

Step 2: Assessing Competency Levels Required Across Positions:

After the leadership decides which competencies are essential, it is necessary to determine the degree to which, and manner in which, these competencies are required in each type of position (i.e., Sales Manager, Receptionist, and CEO). This assessment can be made through interviews with incumbents of sample positions, using a Position Information Questionnaire (PIQ).

Step 3: Developing Competency-Based Job Descriptions:

Following the interview process, job descriptions can be developed that include not only duties and reporting relationships but the core competency descriptions that are tailored to each position. The same competencies are included in each employee’s performance appraisal instrument so that he/she is evaluated on the same criteria that are specified in the job description.

Step 4: Competency-Based Matrix:

For career development purposes, new employees (or potential employees) will be interested in career progression options available once they master different competency levels. As career options become more complex and sophisticated, the core competencies are elevated in terms of sophistication as well.

Step 5: Individual Development Planning:

Using the job-descriptions and the performance appraisal process as a foundation, Human Resources can provide coaching for individuals based on their unique developmental needs. For example; if a sales representative is interested in a position as Sales Manager, Human Resources professional can counsel this person about current strengths and areas for improvement and point out the competency levels required for the higher level position.

Then the employee and the HR person can jointly map out a plan for the employee’s development (courses, workshops, mentoring, etc.)

Assessment Centre as a Method of Competency Mapping

“Assessment Centre” is a mechanism to identify the potential for growth. It is a procedure that uses a variety of techniques to evaluate employees for manpower purpose and decisions. It was initiated by American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1960. An essential feature of the assessment center is the use of situational test to observe specific job behaviour.

Since it is with reference to a job, elements related to the job are simulated through a variety of tests. The assessors observe the behaviour and make independent evaluation of what they have observed, which results in identifying strengths and weaknesses of the attributes being studied?

The International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) has identified the following elements, essential for a process to be considered as assessment center:

  1. Job analysis of relevant behaviour to determine attributes, skills, etc., for effective job performance and what should be evaluated by assessment center.
  2. Techniques used must be validated to assess the dimensions of skills and abilities.
  3. Multiple assessment techniques must be used.
  4. Assessment techniques must include job related simulations.
  5. Multiple assessors must be used for each assesse.
  6. Assessors must be thoroughly trained.
  7. Behavioural observations by assessors must be classified into some meaningful and relevant categories of attributes, skills and abilities, etc.
  8. Systematic procedures should be used to record observations.
  9. Assessors must prepare a report.
  10. All information thus generated must be integrated either by discussion or application of statistical techniques.

Data thus generated can become extremely useful in identifying employees with potential for growth.

University of Mumbai BMS Notes

Types of Competencies, Benefits and Limitations of implementing Competencies

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Types of Competencies

Behavioral competencies: Individual performance competencies are more specific than organizational competencies and capabilities. As such, it is important that they be defined in a measurable behavioral context in order to validate applicability and the degree of expertise (e.g. development of talent)

  • Coaching skill
  • Feedback skill
  • Group process skill
  • Negotiation skill
  • Presentation skill
  • Questioning skill
  • Relationship building skill
  • Writing skill.

Core competencies: Capabilities and/or technical expertise unique to an organization, i.e. core competencies differentiate an organization from its competition (e.g. the technologies, methodologies, strategies or processes of the organization that create competitive advantage in the marketplace). An organizational core competency is an organization’s strategic strength.

Functional competencies: Functional competencies are job-specific competencies that drive proven high-performance, quality results for a given position. They are often technical or operational in nature (e.g., “backing up a database” is a functional competency).

Management competencies: Management competencies identify the specific attributes and capabilities that illustrate an individual’s management potential. Unlike leadership characteristics, management characteristics can be learned and developed with the proper training and resources. Competencies in this category should demonstrate pertinent behaviors for management to be effective.

Organizational competencies: The mission, vision, values, culture and core competencies of the organization that sets the tone and/or context in which the work of the organization is carried out (e.g. customer-driven, risk taking and cutting edge). How we treat the patient is part of the patient’s treatment.

Technical competencies: Depending on the position, both technical and performance capabilities should be weighed carefully as employment decisions are made. For example, organizations that tend to hire or promote solely on the basis of technical skills, i.e. to the exclusion of other competencies, may experience an increase in performance-related issues (e.g. systems software designs versus relationship management skills)

  1. Competency identification skill
  2. Computer competencies
  3. Career development theories and techniques understanding
  4. Electronic system skill
  5. Facilities selection skill
  6. Objective’s preparation skill
  7. Performance observation skill
  8. Training and development theories and techniques skill
  9. Research skill.

Business Competencies:

Business competencies include knowledge and skills essentially required for decision-making and to run a business.

Some business competencies are:

  • Business understanding skill
  • Cost benefit analysis skill
  • Delegation skill
  • Organization behaviour understanding
  • Organization understanding
  • Project management skill
  • Marketing skill
  • Concept selling skill
  • Documents and records management skill.

Benefits of competencies

Competency models can help organizations align their initiatives to their overall business strategy. By aligning competencies to business strategies, organizations can better recruit and select employees for their organizations. Competencies have become a precise way for employers to distinguish superior from average or below average performance. The reason for this is because competencies extend beyond measuring baseline characteristics and or skills used to define and assess job performance. In addition to recruitment and selection, a well sound Competency Model will help with performance management, succession planning and career development.

Career paths: Development of stepping stones necessary for promotion and long-term career-growth

  • Clarifies the skills, knowledge, and characteristics required for the job or role in question and for the follow-on jobs.
  • Identifies necessary levels of proficiency for follow-on jobs.
  • Allows for the identification of clear, valid, legally defensible and achievable benchmarks for employees to progress upward.
  • Takes the guesswork out of career progression discussions.

Identifying skill gaps: Knowing whether employees are capable of performing their role in achieving corporate strategy

  • Enables people to perform competency assessments in order to identify skill gaps at an individual and aggregate level.
  • When self-assessments are included, drives intrinsic motivation for individuals to close their own gaps.
  • Identifies re-skilling and upskilling opportunities for individuals, or consideration of other job roles.
  • Ensures organizations can rapidly act, support their people, and remain competitive.

Performance Management: Provides regular measurement of targeted behaviors and performance outcomes linked to job competency profile critical factors.

  • Provides a shared understanding of what will be monitored, measured, and rewarded.
  • Focuses and facilitates the performance appraisal discussion appropriately on performance and development.
  • Provides focus for gaining information about a person’s behavior on the job.
  • Facilitates effectiveness goal-setting around required development efforts and performance outcomes.

Selection: The use of behavioral interviewing and testing where appropriate, to screen job candidates based on whether they possess the key necessary job competency profile:

  • Provides a complete picture of the job requirements.
  • Increases the likelihood of selecting and interviewing only individuals who are likely to succeed on the job.
  • Minimizes the investment (both time and money) in people who may not meet the company’s expectations.
  • Enables a more systematic and valid interview and selection process.
  • Helps distinguish between competencies that are trainable after hiring and those are more difficult to develop.

Succession planning: Careful, methodical preparation focused on retaining and growing the competency portfolios critical for the organization to survive and prosper

  • Provides a method to assess candidates’ readiness for the role
  • Focuses training and development plans to address missing competencies or gaps in competency proficiency levels.
  • Allows an organization to measures its “bench strength” the number of high-potential performers and what they need to acquire to step up to the next level.
  • Provides a competency framework for the transfer of critical knowledge, skills, and experience. prior to succession and for preparing candidates for this transfer via training, coaching and mentoring.
  • Informs curriculum development for leadership development programs, a necessary component for management succession planning.

Training and development: Development of individual learning plans for individual or groups of employees based on the measurable “gaps” between job competencies or competency proficiency levels required for their jobs and the competency portfolio processed by the incumbent.

  • Focuses training and development plans to address missing competencies or raise level of proficiency.
  • Enables people to focus on the skills, knowledge and characteristics that have the most impact on job effectiveness.
  • Ensures that training and development opportunities are aligned with organizational needs.
  • Makes the most effective use of training and development time and dollars.
  • Provides a competency framework for ongoing coaching and feedback, both development and remedial.

Limitations of implementing Competencies

  1. Competency Framework: Can we come out with common competency framework applicable for the organization from different industries/similar industries? No, we can’t have a similar competency framework even if it is similar industry because it differs from organization to organization based on its people, culture, structure, systems and processes, technology, etc. To determine competency framework, its’ essential the HR looks into the vision of the organization, organizations’ future plan, existing employee capability and industry practices and standards.
  2. Identification of competency: The major challenge here is understanding what is competency and how to identify the list of competency. Competency is defined as the knowledge, skills and attitudes that lead to superior performance. Remember competency is not just knowledge, or combination of knowledge and skills or skills and attitude or knowledge and attitude, but it’s the combination of K+S+A. The challenge arises when it is seen either as K/S/A and not as K+S+A.

The next challenge is to list out the competency. It’s a known fact that competency is assessed based on past experience and listed based on the required competency in the future. While we list out the competency, it is essential that we consider the vision of the organization, current roles, expected knowledge, skills to achieve the future goals and how much essential these competencies are to achieve the goals.

3. Developing competency dictionary: Dictionary is the heart of competency based management. If this goes wrong, your assessments, your interpretation and development intervention will take you in a very wrong direction. When you write the dictionary you must look into the following points:

The definition of the competency: This must be broad and comprehensive enough to divide various aspects of the definition into 4 or 5 proficiency levels. Most important it must be relevant to the organizational context.

Behavioural Indicators: When we write the behavioural indicators we have to see the indicators reflects the KSA. In a four point scale we have to see that first two levels indicates the individual need for support and guidance (learning, execution with support) whereas when it comes to third level its’ about ensuring the value adds & results and in the fourth level, more from strategic best practices or from organizational growth perspective

Some of the aspects that needs to be considered in writing a good competency dictionary are:

  • Behavioural indicators are not the JD
  • Behavioural indicators are written in sequence
  • It indicates the individual, team and organizational perspective
  • Language used must be simple and inevitably understood in the same way by all the assessors
  • Able to demonstrate the behavior so that measurement can be done
  1. Assessment development centre: Major challenge comes in probing and getting into details that will aid in correct rating. The rating must not be surprising to the participants and they must not say that they have instances of demonstrated behavior but have either missed or have not been asked. It is important that we give at-least two opportunities to the participant to demonstrate the behavior. Also ensure that your questions are such that it helps the participant to provide relevant information.
  2. Reports: Report writing must be given importance as it can mould an individual behavior in the right direction. It is a tedious process wherein lots of observed facts are analyzed and then arrive at a conclusion. It is often seen that this part of the job is outsourced by giving limited information to whosoever is working on the report. Report is not about the language, it’s not about making the other person feel good or bad on reading the report but it’s about how you place the evidences captured in the right way and how the participants can relate to his development area without a second thought on it.  Reports are the first step for the participant to move towards the development.  Report gives an insight to the participant on what are the competencies that he/she needs to focus on and take up right interventions.  Reports must be essentially be written by the person who has assessed the participant.
  3. IDP: This is an area which is not much explored and highly unorganized approach is adopted. Most of them feel that after feedback the action plans suggested for improvements become only paper records and no actions are taken either by the participant or by the organization.  This happens when the developmental avenues are forced upon on the participant and when the activity is not reviewed periodically.  Based on my experience I feel that organization first must find out what are the various avenues that will aid in developing the competency in the individual.  Once the avenues are listed against the competency, the assessor must facilitate and the participant must take the ownership in the chosen technique for development.  And most important it must be reviewed periodically.  If there are no reviews then most of the participants will be involved in their daily work and not take any initiative for improving.
Management Notes

Talent Management Information Technology

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Talent management software is technology that human resource management professionals use to manage employees as a competitive advantage. Talent management can refer to a standalone application from a niche vendor that specifically addresses one part of the process, such as a learning management system. Or the HR technology can be an integrated suite of software applications aimed at the entire employee lifecycle.

In the latter sense, talent management software is often referred to as a talent management system and automates certain processes from the time potential employees apply to when they are hired until they retire. Talent management systems typically contain applications that fall into the broad functional areas, referred to as pillars. In recent years, cloud-based talent management software has become the prevailing norm.

Pillars of talent management

Traditionally, there were four pillars or modules of talent management applications, but in recent years, a number of experts and vendors refer to five pillars of talent management. Regardless of the number and names, talent management systems include applications that fall into one of these following broad functional areas. The names and number of pillars change depending on the talent management systems vendor, but the concepts remain the same:

  • Recruitment and onboarding
  • Learning and development
  • Performance management
  • Compensation management
  • Succession planning

Talent Management System is designed to keep track of talent within an organization. Talent is classified as valuable members of personnel and prospective employment candidates who have applied for open positions. If you plan on working the expanding field of TMS, you will need to learn how to navigate through a TMS system and how to utilize the system as you scope out, qualify and hire talent. The best TMS used today by mid-sized and large corporations will keep track of data at many different points in the employee life cycle. The data that the system compiles can then be used for strategic professionals for several different purposes that benefit the organization.

Data can be used by professionals who work in the Human Resources department in a number of different ways. You have to consider how organizing company data and running specific reports can help you do your job in HR before you reject the efficiency of any type of program. If you work in HRM, you can integrate your TMS system and your application tracking system so that you can easily sift through applications and organize them. This helps you efficiently identify quality applicants or place others on a wait list for future job postings.

Another benefit of a quality TMS system is that other departmental managers can enter data and rate an employee’s progress. This helps HR assess the employee’s performance to see if they are candidates for a raise or a promotion. By having this system in place, you can retain those who are an asset and discipline those who have not been committed to their job. If there is room for improvement, managers and HR professionals can provide their employees with training materials so that employees can further their skills. By keeping track of the talent in these software systems, only the best applicants are chosen and only the best employees are retained. This eliminates costs and reduces the time it takes to manage human capital.

Assessing an organization’s human capital to ensure that everyone has the right skills is very important. By using a TMS, organizations can eliminate hindering talent gaps that might exist to create a skilled workforce. Today, HR is all about strategy. Using specific metrics and data to assess the quality of the workforce is extremely important for recruitment, training and even incentive purposes. By working as a team, HR managers, supervisors and departmental managers can all work together to make better organizational talent decisions. With answers to the question, “What is a Talent Management System?,” you can build your understanding and show employers why you are a good candidate.

In adverse economic conditions, many companies feel the need to cut expenses. This should be the ideal environment to execute a talent management system as a means of optimizing the performance of each employee and the organization. Selection offers are large return on investments. Job analysis and assessment validation help enhance the predictive power of selection tools. Data points such as cost-per-placement or average time to recruit are critical in predictive analytics for talent management. These evaluation methods use historical data to provide insight. However, within many companies the concept of human capital management has just begun to develop. With more companies in the process of deepening their global footprints, more questions have been asked about new strategies and products, but very few on the kind of leadership structure that will bring them success in their globalization process. “In fact, only 5 percent of organizations say they have a clear talent management strategy and operational programs in place today.” The impact of globalization on talent management practices is specifically covered in several recent books.

Management Notes

Talent Management in India

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Today, the staffing companies in India have realised the potential to correct Talent Management Strategies. The burning issue with many companies is that they spend a lot of time developing their talent but spend very little to retain and develop them. A glowing example of a successful talent management strategy is third party payroll. Talent management is also sometimes known as HCM (Human Capital Management) and HRIS (Human Resource Information System). Contractual staffing will have a significant role to play in the talent management system of the future.

Distinctly called human capital management, employee relationship management and workforce management, among others, talent management is not a new concept, but one that in the past corporations haven’t been set to finalize. India Talent Management has become one of the most important buzzwords in Corporate HR and Training today. Right talent is the greatest asset for any enterprise and one of the essential roles of HR is to make sure that the employees with the right skills stick with the company for long enough. The issue with many companies today is that their organizations put tremendous effort into attracting employees to their company, but spend little time into retaining and developing talent.

Employees who had high performance and high qualification scores were classified as “stars” and constituted the talent pool. Employees in other segments needed performance development, qualification development, or both.

Defining Strategic priorities: For any business strategy, the starting point is always the business’s strategy. Strategic priorities are vital in selecting the focus areas of HR. They answer questions like should we value more sales or marketing. Are we focusing more on enlarging the customer base or on deepening our customer relationship? Is third party payroll a viable option? Are we working in a project-based manner, or are we an operational partner for our clients? Indeed, the answers to these questions will impact the skills you are looking for in the new employees, and the staffing companies in India realize that.

Workflows: A number of workflows can be redesigned based on talent management practices. For example, you can support the digital transformation that the organization is going through by adding digital skills to your company’s pre-selection assessment.

Software Systems: Software plays an essential role in executing a talent management strategy, and in the future, it will play a significant role, especially in third party payroll.

Training: Training will be another central focus area, especially in this digital age, where company-wide transformations are common.

Money is not enough

Money attracts but it does not retain. The job-hopping frenzy in the Indian workforce, particularly among ambitious, talented millenials is enough to prove that point. A recent Mercer survey backs it up: 54% of Indians are seriously considering leaving their current employer, and in the 16-24 year age bracket, that increases to 66%. Yes, two-thirds of your call center could potentially be gone by the end of the year. Some will no doubt be chasing a hike in salary, but as is the case elsewhere, when it comes to knowledge workers, more knowledge is also what they are after.

Talent management in India should be seen for what it is: a risk management strategy against the business impact of having inadequate or insufficient human resources to fulfill organizational objectives. If that is the case, both local Indian companies and multinationals operating in India have much work to do.

Management Notes

Role of Information Technology in effective Talent Management Systems

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Information technology and system have changed the way business gets conducted. Every decision-making process is enhanced with utilization of an information system. Information systems have been deployed by human-resource team to enhance employee employer relationship.

Companies require great deal of contribution from employee for its success though information systems have made several processes automated.

Talent Management

Talent management and human-resource management are completely two different fields, although the human-resource team is responsible for talent management.

Talent management is organization focus towards complete management of recruitment, retention, development of brightest talent available. The focus of talent management is to attract best talent in the market and convert them into efficient and effective work force. Talent management team is responsible for hiring, maintaining and retaining the best talent.

Talent Management Evolution

Talent management finds its roots in earlier workforce management and human management concept. Earlier concept saw intervention of human resource in managing and retaining talent. However, with talent management, this responsibility is transferred to manager.

Talent management empowers manager to take upon greater responsibility. The manager is actively involved from talent acquisition, recruitment process, retaining and development of the employee. Organizations have their own approach towards talent management. Certain organizations include only their star performers as part of talent management, whereas some organizations consider all staff within talent management.

Talent Management as a Strategic Tool

The race for talent has never been more competitive, even as organizations try to load the “talent” in their workforce. The “talent” employees with specialized skills and competence who ensure the organization is able to win in today’s competitive market and sustain itself during times of uncertainties such as the one we face today.  Needless to say, organizations also feel the need and pressure to manage these key resources.

With the “Talent” becoming the most critical resource, it is imperative for CHRO (Chief Human Resource Officer) of today to have the required intelligence, real-time data and information of the talent management processes implemented within the organization and right tools and techniques to measure the effectiveness of those processes. They have realized that it is equally critical to build and maintain a talent management ecosystem, which includes seamlessly integrated digital and IT (Information Technology) empowered systems, which enable real-time information tracking, thereby enabling speedier and accurate decision making.

Talent management is actively used by organization as a strategic tool. Companies need to blend talent management with business strategy as to boost employee management activities. The onus of attracting and managing the best industry talent is on the respective managers.

Organization needs to develop a process through which employee talent can be recognized and shared. This would enable best utilization of talent across the organization.

Employees are encouraged to manage their individual development plan.

Talent Management System

A talent management system is an information technology solution to manage four corner points of human-resource management:

  • Recruitment
  • Performance management
  • Learning-development management
  • Compensation management

The existing enterprise resource planning systems are focused on employee transaction such as payroll, leave management, etc. The talent management system looks at providing human-resource solution for long-term strategic goals.

The key features and development history are as follows:

  • Talent management system became a reality with the advent of client/server technology. It was now possible to electronically manage applicant base important for multi-national companies. The Internet and data analytics also helped the development of the talent management system.
  • Talent management system became important to manage high-performance work environment, reduced top management attrition, increase employee satisfaction, create talent pipeline, and develop better compensation models and creation of uniform performance measure metrics.
  • The two driving points of the talent management system are recruitment and retention.

An organization needs to align its business strategy with human-resource strategy to develop and manage effective talent management system. A development of the talent management system requires the following:

  • Finalization of various competencies around which future development of an employee is to take place.
  • Creating of a human-resource model to rank and stack the existing workforce.
  • Examine the current human-resource process to identify the developmental areas.
  • Develop tools to increase existing talent pool.
  • Pro-actively identifies future skill set requirements and manages the talent pool accordingly.

Adoption of technology focuses on below key areas in an integrated talent management ecosystem:

  • Digitize HR processes across talent management areas
  • Align talent with business strategic needs
  • Precise decision making in real-time
  • Improved talent pipeline management
  • Wider and targeted global talents reach
  • Reduce hiring cycles and recruitment costs
  • Effective talent mobilization and deployment
  • Improve networking and collaboration among talents, employee engagement
  • Align compensation and rewards with employee performance and business objectives
  • Predict future situations and realign strategies by taking evidence based actions
  • Measure impact of the HR value chain
Management Notes

Five Steps to a Talent Management Information Technology

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A talent management solution can bring a variety of benefits to an organization. For one, implementing an integrated Talent Management Suite (TMS) can smooth the flow of information across HR, payroll, and benefits administration. This sharing of data can enable your business to better innovate and your employees to better perform. It doesn’t only help HR administrative needs however, talent management is a business strategy, so the software simplifies business processes and allows room for improvement in the top talent in the company.

Involve Employees Right off the Bat

When you’re determining your businesses requirements with respect to features and functionality, it is important to consult your employees, managers, recruiters, learning and development specialists and/or HR specialists to find out what they think they need in order to improve business strategies. Although HR specialists will be the ones using the software the most, it’s critical to get input from your employees and managers because they will be the ones most committed to its adoption. So it’s helpful getting them involved with the requirement settings and identifying any challenges/ day-to-day work the new talent management software will need to address.

Involve a Cross-Section of Users in the Software Selection Process

Once you’ve got your basic requirements down and are ready to look for a product/vendor, involving a cross-section of users from across the organization to participate in the process can help a lot. This approach will help you ensure the selected product or vendor will in fact meet the needs of the various departments and users in the organization, and that no group or department is overlooked. This also helps ensure a better understanding in terms of what is available in TMS and, if any, what compromises may need to be made and why.

Cultivate Top Talent

Another key step to ensuring employees across an organization get on board with a new TMS is to cultivate top talent in all areas of the organization. These employees are considered top talent because they are more than ready to embrace the change and help the organization move forward. If you engage these people in the implementation processes, you build on their knowledge and engagement with the software so they may become social influencers for others. By leveraging their enthusiasm and early adopter mentality, it will help to encourage other employees to be just as enthusiastic of the new software.

Test the Software Before Launching It

Testing your new talent management software, processes and forms is another important step to a successful user adoption. The last thing you want to do is discourage new users with small issues or glitches; it is easy to make a bad first impression and hard to recover from it. By conducting thorough user testing, for every area, avoids this challenge and reassures a smooth launch. Involving users from each department, especially the top talent employees, may be helpful as well. Having multiple sets of eyes to pay attention to the details will bring different perspectives, making it more likely to catch any problems before making the software available to the entire organization as a whole.

Provide Training and Support

Last, but certainly not least, providing extensive training and support to all your employees is extremely important. Regardless of how easy the user interface, it’s vital for users/employees to be given an introduction to the new software. Don’t overlook the importance of refresher training or more in-depth training down the road as well, this encourages ongoing engagement and use of the new software and avoids information overload in the initial training. Making it simple for users to get help or support, both in the early days and going forward is important as well.

No cookie-cutter approach

These five steps need to be carefully and individually designed for each enterprise. They cannot be deployed with a checklist mentality. 50% of executives who rate their talent programs as excellent stated that they apply design thinking well, and self-identified high-performing companies are three to four times more likely than their competitors to be applying design thinking to their people practices

It is possible to see why such a rigorous approach is necessary. A recent survey found that 63% of all respondents are concerned about the scarcity of critical talent available in the external market. And hand-in-hand with identifying internal talent comes the need to match it to the right roles. According to Aberdeen Group, best-in-class organizations are 81.2% more likely to have a process which identifies the job roles are critical to organizational success.

Identify success measures and milestones

Reaping the full value of an integrated and business-based talent management initiative can require up to two to three years of effort. Therefore, it is critical to articulate before the work begins how you’ll know if you are making the appropriate progress. Set milestones that will help the team assess progress, pace and direction, and agree on the results metrics that will define the ultimate value and impact of this work.

Management Notes

Ethical and Legal obligations Associated with Talent Management

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Human resources managers strive to hire employees who fit in with a company’s culture. They must also keep an eye on diversity and equal opportunity as well as both ethical and legal hiring practices. In other words, a company’s culture can be at odds with what’s the right thing to do for HR managers. As issues arise, the HR manager must be adept at resolving conflicts between the demands of company culture and those of ethical behavior.

Harming Some While Benefitting Others

HR managers do much of the screening during the hiring process. By its very nature, screening leaves some people out and allows others to move forward. In short, the ones left out will be harmed by not getting the job no matter how much they need it. HR managers can avoid the emotionalism of such situations by adhering strictly to the skill sets and other requirements of the position, but there will always be a gray area where HR managers may weigh how much each applicant wants and needs the job. If the company culture values skill sets more than desire, the HR manager may have to go against her own urge to reward applicants who have more drive than technical skill.

Equal Opportunity

The Commission regularly monitors company’s hiring practices to make sure there is no discrimination in the hiring process based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, race, religion and disability. However, simply complying with EEOC guidelines does not guarantee ethical behavior. For example, if an HR manager recommends an applicant in order to fill a quota, that decision is unethical, because it will eliminate other applicants that may be more qualified. If the culture of the company emphasizes minimum adherence to the law, the HR manager may face an ethical dilemma when recommending a highly qualified applicant who does not fit the background needed for a company quota.

Privacy

Privacy is always a delicate matter for an HR manager. Though a company culture may be friendly and open and encourage employees to freely discuss personal details and lifestyles, the HR manager has an ethical obligation to keep such matters confidential. This particularly comes into play when the competing company calls for a reference on an employee. To remain ethical, HR managers must stick to the job-related details and leave out knowledge of an employee’s personal life.

Compensation and Skills

HR managers can recommend compensation. While these recommendations may be based on a salary range for each position, ethical dilemmas arise when it comes to compensating employees differently for the same skills. For example, a highly sought-after executive may be able to negotiate a higher salary than someone who has been with the company for several years. This can become an ethical problem when the lower-paid employee learns of the discrepancy and questions whether it is based on characteristics such as gender and race.

Some of the major issues an organization deals with is handling ethical challenges in workforce diversity.

Harming Some While Benefitting Others

HR managers do much of the screening while the hiring process is still on. By its very nature, screening leaves some people out and permits others to move forward. In short, the ones left out will be affected by not getting the job, no matter how much they need it.

HR managers can neglect the emotionalism of such situations by adhering strictly to the skill sets and other needs of the position, but there will always be a gray area where HR managers may scale how much each applicant wants and needs the job.

Labor Costs

HR must cope with conflicting needs to keep labor costs as low as possible and to invite fair wages. Ethics come into action when HR must select between outsourcing labor to countries with lower wages and harsh living conditions and paying competitive wages.

While there is nothing illegal about outsourcing labor, this issue has the potential to build a public relations problem if consumers object to using underpaid workers to save money.

Opportunity for New Skills

If the HR department selects who gets training, it can run into ethical issues. As training is a chance for development and broadened opportunities, employees who are left out of training may debate that they are not being given equal opportunities in the workplace.

Fair Hiring and Justified Termination

Hiring and termination decisions must be made without regard to ethnicity, race, gender, sexual preference or religious beliefs. HR must take precautions to eliminate any bias from the hiring and firing process by making sure such actions adhere to strict business criteria.

Fair Working Conditions

Companies are basically expected to provide fair working conditions for their employees in the business environment, but being answerable for employee treatment typically means higher labor costs and resource utilization.

Fair pay and benefits for work are more obvious factors of a fair workplace. Another important factor is provision of a non-discriminatory work environment, which again may have costs engaged for diversity management and training.

By now it’s pretty clear that while working in an organization, we come across people with different backgrounds, cultural beliefs and we need to respect their beliefs. In case an employee feels left out due to some problem, it may not work in the favor of the organization.

Management Notes

Current Trends in Talent Management

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The prime focus of talent management is enabling and developing people, since the quality of an organization is determined by the people it employs and has onboard. After hiring and deploying we may say that retaining and nurturing talent is quintessential.

Talent management also known as human capital management is evolving as a discipline that encompasses process right from hiring people to retaining and developing the same. So, it includes recruitment, selection, learning, training and development, competency management, succession planning etc. These are all critical processes that enable an organization to compete and stand out in the market place when managed well!

Talent management is now looked upon as a critical HR activity; the discipline is evolving every day.

  • Technology and Talent Management: Technology is increasingly getting introduced into people development. Online employee portals have become common place in organizations to offer easy access to employees to various benefits and schemes. In addition, employees can also manage their careers through these portals and it also helps organizations understand their employees better.
  • Talent War: Finding and retaining the best talent is the most difficult aspect of HR management. HR survey consultancies are one in their view that organizations globally are facing a dearth of talented employees and it’s often more difficult to retain them. Further research has also shown that there is clear link between talent issues and overall productivity.
  • Promoting Talent Internally: An individual is hired, when there is a fit between his abilities or skills and the requirements of the organization. The next step is enabling learning and development of the same so that he/she stays with the organization. This is employee retention. An enabled or empowered means an empowered organization.

It is also of interest to organizations to know their skills inventories and then develop the right individual for succession planning internally.

  • Talent Management to rescue HR: HR has been compelled to focus on qualitative aspects equally and even more than quantitative aspects like the head count etc. Through talent management more effort is now being laid on designing and maintaining employee scorecards and employee surveys for ensuring that talent is nurtured and grown perpetually.
  • Population Worries Globally: World populations are either young or aging. For example, stats have it that by 2050 60% of Europe’s working population will be over 60! On the other hand, a country like India can boast of a young population in the coming and present times. Population demographics are thus a disturbing factor for people managers. Still more researches have predicted that demographic changes in United States will lead to shortage of 10 million workers in the near future.
  • Increase in Employer of Choice Initiatives: An organization’s perceived value as an employer as helps improve its brand value in the eyes of its consumer. Most importantly it helps it attract the right talent.

Emergence of Digital HR

The number of people using smartphones and accessing the internet is growing at an exponential rate. This increase in digitization has an impact not only on the individuals but on organizations as well.

An increasing number of companies will have to build and design mobile apps for critical HR functions (e.g. recruiting, onboarding, learning, performance, feedback, attendance, payroll etc.) that are easy to use. Digital HR is not just about a mobile App, but how they can leverage technology to connect with their people.

Talent management through focused coaching & mentoring

Companies and their employees both need to keep up with the technology. Companies have the responsibility to invest and to explore coaching programs for that. For instance, peer-to-peer training is a cost-effective, integrated and culture driven model. HR should encourage employees for mentoring others by introducing a rewards program for that.

Recruitment backed by data analysis

Technological advancement has revolutionized the recruitment process. Talent acquisition leaders no longer use the old ways to connect with prospects. Rather, they interact on professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn. These platforms have made accessing candidates’ information easy and affordable. Networking platforms also have analytics tools that help HR leaders in making strategic & informed recruiting decision. HR teams now have a better understanding of the job market which makes them more effective in hiring quality people.

Transparent & advanced performance reviews

The old-fashioned, once-a-year performance review system which is both opaque and complicated will be phased out. Today websites like Glassdoor, give employees a forum to rate their company & their managers in a transparent manner. In the years to come, this trend will gain traction in which employees can not only review but also give feedback on a real-time basis.

Impetus on employee engagement, Culture & Brand building

In this global market, top skills are rare to find, and the competition to attract them is fierce. Talent acquisition leaders realize this, and they are focusing more on brand building to attract top talent. The new trend of employee engagement & culture will have a higher value in the years to come.

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