Welcome to part 2 of our New Work of HR series.
In part 1, our Founders considered their perspectives on Talent and Performance Management within the context of the Jobs To Be Done. Part 2 builds on these insights by exploring how Talent and Performance Management practices must change in order to meet today’s demands of greater impact and growth.
When it comes to Talent and Performance Management, how do we double the impact in half the time?
The simple answer to this question is that we’re only playing with the talent part of the equation. The best answer is, of course, much more nuanced.
Talent and Performance Management as we know it is stuck in the past. Its processes are conducted in a somewhat less-than-transparent way. Not only should we be addressing role design, we also need to democratize the process.
It’s understood that attrition is lowest at the top levels of a large company and that it increases as you go further down the organizational pyramid. This correlation between attrition and the current state of Talent Management exists because we are not factoring in the role design process. The talent knows when a company doesn’t really understand how well they are performing or what they are doing day-to-day.
Focusing on just talent is like using a blunt instrument when a scalpel is needed to make precise incisions.
Now, what do we mean by democratization?
Companies often put all the energy into the “top of the house” (the Chief Talent Officer or CHRO) and that energy doesn’t translate through all levels of the organization. Democratizing means taking this energy and applying it deeper into the organization; to the young brand manager or the new associate who feels the same edge on how their performance and career is managed as those at higher levels.
In earlier eras of HR, we hired a thousand people at the base of the organization. Fifty of them were management trainees from the top schools, and we created an exclusive activity system around them to accelerate their growth. This was the past.
The challenge for us today in Talent Management is to scale this growth throughout the organization. Using technology and the connection to role and performance, these leadership development efforts –that previously were focused on the few people at the top— can now reach the thousand people that have been hired at the base of the pyramid.
