David's Employee Performance and Talent Management Blog

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July 2007

Recent Articles

July 31, 2007 11:34 AM

Learning about Talent Management from Accountants?

By: Donna Ronayne

Great article on Economist.com that we picked up from Jim Holincheck's blog. The article discusses how the big four accounting firms (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers) are leading the way when it comes to employee performance and talent management. Some great observations in the article and well worth a read. Of particular note is how these firms are attracting top performers and the importance of employees having a clear career path.

When people are the number one asset -- makes sense that they'd focus in this area. As the article says "their product is their employee's knowledge and their distribution channels are the relationships between their staff and clients."

I definitely see this forward-thinking approach to talent management among the accounting firms using our solution. Actually, this holds true for professional services firms in general as they have a unique number of challenges including an educated workforce and the tightest market for talent around. Those professional services firms that "get" talent management now will continue to succeed and thriving despite labor market condition in the coming years.

What challenges do you think are facing professional services firms? Are the accounting firms getting it right?

PermaLink | Trackbacks(0) | Add/View Comments(0) Posted by Peter DeRosa

July 25, 2007 10:48 AM

Why Does Employee Performance Management Matter to CEOs?

How paper-based systems don't make the cut

Seems that everyone is talking about the increased visibility HR is getting in the boardroom. But why? In a webinar we're hosting on Thursday, learn why CEO's should care about employee performance and talent management. Discover how to design an automated HR system that addresses their particular concerns. Only by understanding what top stakeholders want from the performance management system will HR get the support it needs for the system to be effective.

In particular, we'll discuss how technology has changed the game -- how for the first time in decades it's possible to be really optimistic about how HR's performance management system will be received by top management.

To register, or for more information, click here.

PermaLink | Trackbacks(0) | Add/View Comments(0) Posted by David

July 16, 2007 8:47 AM

Is Everyone In The Organization Pulling In The Same Direction?

By: David Creelman

Experienced managers know it is far harder to get alignment than one might expect. Each business unit, each person, has their own interests and their own way of hearing things. What seems like a straightforward communication may not be heard, not acted upon, or it may be misunderstood.

There are two core methods to improve alignment: culture and goal management. A strong culture creates a common mindset, while goal setting ensures that the specifics are spelled out. An employee performance and talent management system, enabled by technology, allows the cascading of goals so that each department's goals are aligned with the organization's vision and each individual's objectives support the department's goals.

Secondly performance management technology allows a CEO to see at a glance how many employees are working towards each of the organization's goals, check the status and further drill down to see the goals and status of any individual. It creates visibility through the fog of organizational life. In theory you can do this with a paper system; the CEO could ask HR to go to the files and dig out the employee evaluation form with the goals of a group of employees - but in practice that doesn' t happen because it is too much work. However, if that information is available on-line then the visibility is real. It is also immediate.

How does your organization work to get alignment?

PermaLink | Trackbacks(0) | Add/View Comments(0) Posted by David

July 11, 2007 6:03 AM

Can an Organization Keep its Best Employees

By David Creelman

Normally we think of management control systems as something employees don't like but that is not really the case. Employees like having clear goals. They are flattered if managers a level or two above them care about their goals. They are impressed if a company has an effective on-line system that helps their manager set goals give feedback and assign appropriate training. And most of all, if they genuinely are high performers they are pleased when that performance is recognized.

Unforunately, it's common to hear people say, "I've been at my company for two years and I've never had a performance review." This is a major cause of dissatisfaction. Employee performance and talent management ensures this doesn't happen anymore. It also ensures the employee performance assessment process is fair and meaningful, as all transactions can easily be reviewed on-line and any exceptions flagged and dealt with quickly.

Most pay-for-performance systems do not, in practice, make large differentiations in pay between average and high performers. One reason for this is that no one has much confidence in the appraisals. Automated employee performance appraisals makes the process faster, more consistent and more reliable. It provides better and timelier data to management and HR. This creates the foundation for pay-for-performance that has been missing.

From a CEO's perspective a smoothly run employee performance and talent management system is an important way of keeping talented employees happy. It supports the retention of employees, and in particular, the retention of the best employees. It is an effective way to ensure the intent of a reward system is realized in practice.

PermaLink | Trackbacks(0) | Add/View Comments(0) Posted by David

July 4, 2007 6:43 AM

Managing Superstars - Talent Management

How not to overlook your talent workhorses

A common problem in a lot of companies is that managers focus all their time and energy on the lowest performers, overlooking the workhorses - the "superstars".  An article in the June issue of HR Magazine provides some great reasons why managers need to spend more time with their superstars. In the current talent market, one of the biggest reasons should be to ensure that the employee's needs are met, and that she isn't going to jump ship for another opportunity.

The article outlines a number of specific actions that managers should take with their superstar performers. A couple of particular interest include helping them grow and develop, and do more for the top performers. All good advice, but one of the stumbling blocks is ensuring that managers and organizations as a whole are set up to meet the needs of superstars on an ongoing basis. This could be everything from ensuring pay for performance is flexible enough to accommodate some special rewards, to implementing the right training and development programs, to constant and accurate feedback on performance.

These programs will be best able to meet the needs of superstars if they are flexible and enable managers to routinely provide these employees with what they need, without adding a lot of complexity to their already-busy management role.

How does your company handle superstars? What role do your employee performance and talent management processes and technology have in supporting these retention efforts?

PermaLink | Trackbacks(0) | Add/View Comments(1) Posted by David

June 30, 2008 8:15 AM

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June 26, 2008 9:15 AM

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June 23, 2008 5:15 AM

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