Archive for the 'Talent Management' Category

Show #013: NHS Employers Conference 2008

Published by Karen Wormwell on 12 November, 2008 in NHS Employers Conference 2008, Talent Management, Employee Engagement, HR Leadership and Leadership. 0 Comments

The NHS is the largest employer in Europe and the annual NHS Employers Conference was held in Birmingham last week. This month’s show comes straight from the event.

To listen to the podcast, click the grey arrow below.

 
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Leading Workforce Thinking, is the conference theme and in addition to some high profile plenary sessions there are 4 strand themes - Engaging Staff for Success, Facing the Future, Focus on Fundamentals and Policy into Practice.

The conference featured some highly inspirational and informative sessions and in this episode, we hear from a selection of the speakers across the three days. First up, is Sian Thomas and Alastair Henderson, Joint Acting Directors of NHS Employers who tell us more about the conference.

Podcast running order and timings (in minutes and seconds)

  • 00.00 - 00.44 Introduction

  • 00.45 - 02.55 Sian Thomas and Alastair Henderson talk about the challenges ahead for the NHS HR community and the key elements of the new workforce proposals

  • 02.56 - 06.20 Professor Beverley Alimo-Metcalfe, Professor of Leadership Studies at Bradford School of Management and Chief Executive of Real World Group, talks about the style of leadership that is best suited to today’s workplace

  • 06.21 - 07.36 Dr Anthony Hesketh, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster School of Management, gives us his views on whether the HR function as we currently know it, has outlived its usefulness

  • 07.37 - 09.48 Sahar Hashemi founder of Coffee Republic, shares her thoughts about how to turn your vision into reality

  • 09.49 - 13.12 Rachael McIlroy Policy Officer at the TUC and Paula McDonald, Deputy Director, Public Service Workforce Reform at the Cabinet Office, tell us more about their joint Drive for Change initiative

  • 13.13 - 14.51 Andy Randall Ex Chief Executive of iGrasp and Advisor to leading edge businesses explains how on-line recruitment will develop in the future

  • 14.52 - 17.56 Steve Sonsoni, bestselling author, motivational speaker and Fellow in the Centre for Management Development at London Business School gives his top 3 leadership tips on how to boost productivity and performance

  • 17.57 - 20.16 Professor Derek Mowbray from Organisation Health talks about the prime cause of stress in the workplace and the best way an employer can overcome this

  • 20.17 - 21.59 Gareth Malone, Choirmaster for the London Symphony Orchestra is probably best know for his achievements in the BBC2 documentary ‘The Choir’ he explains how he helps people to believe in themselves in order to fulfill their potential and how they can then turn that  into team achievement

  • 22.00 - 23.21 Steve Barnett, Chief Executive of NHS Confederation reflects on the success of the Conference and the things he would like delegates to take away  

  • 23.25 - 24.25 Finally we hear from some of the delegates to find out their thoughts on the conference

  • 24.26 - 25.00 Close

Listening to the show is simple, you can do it in a number of ways and you don’t need an iPod or MP3 player. Simply click on the grey arrow underneath the show heading and it will play through your computer.

Alternatively, you can easily download the file and listen to it later, or transfer it onto an MP3 player, just right click on ‘Download’ and select ‘Save Target As…’ The show can also be played on iTunes.

To make sure that you never miss an episode, you can subscribe free via email, or by clicking the orange RSS icon or iTunes button. Each new show will then be delivered automatically to your computer, along with notes about the show, useful contact details and links to additional information.

I would love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for further shows. Either email me directly at karen@publicsectorhrpodcast.co.uk or click on ‘Comment’ underneath the show title and type away.

Show #012: Talent Management

Published by Karen Wormwell on 12 October, 2008 in Talent Management. 0 Comments

A talent management system is something that every organisation has, whether it recognises it or not - this is just one of the findings of a two year study carried out by Ashridge Consulting. In this episode, we find out more about the study and hear from the Department for Work and Pensions about how their talent management strategy helps to ensure they have the right people in place, for both today and the future.

To listen to the podcast, click the grey arrow below.

 
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The DWP are the UK’s biggest government department with over 100,000 staff and Claire Wilson is their Head of Talent Development and Resourcing. Claire talks to me about what the term ‘talent management’ means to the DWP and gives some great insights about what initiatives work well for them. 

Claire’s advice on developing a TM strategy includes:

  • UNDERSTAND THE PRIORITIES OF THE ORGANISATION - what capabilities it needs and what kind of leaders it needs and design a talent strategy around those needs

  • LISTEN TO WHAT MATTERS TO THE MANAGERS - focus on their problems such as having the right skills and building capability within their teams

  • USE A 9 BOX GRID - using performance and potential to rate people

  • GIVE LINE MANAGERS THE SKILLS TO SUPPORT TALENT - and reward them when they do

  • RECOGNISE THE DEMANDS AND PRESSURES TALENTED PEOPLE ARE UNDER - because they are deeply committed and work twice as hard

  • ALLOW TALENT TO TAKE MORE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN DEVELOPMENT - to decide themselves what kind of things they want to do, e.g. Non-Executive Director, coaching or working with reverse mentors

  • TALK TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN THERE - rather than focusing too much on the theoretical side of talent management

To play Claire’s quick video message, click in the middle of screen below.

Claire recommends the CIPD, Corporate Leadership Council and IES as good sources for further information. You can also find out more about DWP’s work at www.dwp.gov.uk

Ashridge Consulting, part of Ashridge Business School, have spent two years studying the area of talent management. The results of this research have recently been published and Guy Lubitsh, Principal Consultant at Ashridge tells me what the objectives of the research were and details the key findings.

The research explores areas of best practice within a number of large complex organisations in a variety of sectors and settings. It also has a specific interest in what lessons can be learnt from the public sector. The questions focused on how organisations recruit, retain and develop talent.

The 4 key findings are:

  1. LEADING ORGANISATIONS TAKE TALENT MANAGEMENT VERY SERIOUSLY - they view it as a long term investment of 5 - 10 years, investing money, resources and executive time

  2. THERE IS A FORMAL AND INFORMAL SYSTEM - the informal system was stronger than the organisation declared. For organisations who did not think they were managing talent, they are actually managing it in some way and the people and talent will draw their own conclusions about what is going on

  3. THERE IS NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL APPROACH - it’s very important to take into account the culture and strategy of specific organisations and their context

  4. THERE ARE 18 STRATEGIC DIMENSIONS - that need to be considered when looking at your talent management strategy

Key differences between the public sector organisations and private sector organisations are :

The private sector is:

  • WILLING TO DIFFERENTIATE MORE CLEARLY - between people that are talent, people that are not talent and poor performers and offering more differentiators and tailored developmental routes to meet individual needs 

  • DIFFERENT ATTITUDE TO RISK - i.e. more willing to give stretch assignments

  • SENIOR TEAM SPEND MORE TIME - on succession planning, critical roles and the pipeline of talent they have within the organisation

Guy’s advice on how public sector organisations can win the ‘War for Talent’ are:

  1. MAKE SURE YOU GET THE BASICS RIGHT - there’s no point talking about a talent management system if you don’t have good appraisal, selection and recruitment processes or you are not dealing with poor performers effectively

  2. ESTABLISH A FAIR, OPEN, TRANSPARENT CRITERIA - about who is talent and who is not and what criteria you are using, ensure it’s inclusive and communicate it well across the organisation

  3. MAKE SURE YOU ALIGN YOUR DIRECTION OF TRAVEL WITH TALENT MANAGEMENT - ensure you have all of the right people to support your strategy

  4. GEN Y ARE INTERESTED IN WORK-LIFE BALANCE, ETHICS, VALUES AND EXCITING WORK OPPORTUNITIES - think of ways of using these levers to attract and retain these individuals

More about the research and Guy’s work can be found at www.ashridgeconsulting.com

Listening to the show is simple, you can do it in a number of ways and you don’t need an iPod or MP3 player. Simply click on the grey arrow underneath the show heading and it will play through your computer.

Alternatively, you can easily download the file and listen to it later, or transfer it onto an MP3 player, just right click on ‘Download’ and select ‘Save Target As…’ The show can also be played on iTunes.

To make sure that you never miss an episode, you can subscribe free via email, or by clicking the orange RSS icon or iTunes button. Each new show will then be delivered automatically to your computer, along with notes about the show, useful contact details and links to additional information.

I would love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for further shows. Either email me directly at karen@publicsectorhrpodcast.co.uk or click on ‘Comment’ underneath the show title and type away.