Have you left it too late to secure future talent?

PwC have posted an interesting view point about the future of talent on their website.

If you want to hear about:

what the leading companies have been doing in the people space during the recession

what the HR function should be focusing on right now

how the talent landscape will change in the next 5 years

....then take a listen.



Or you can click on this link to see the video too.

Taking the change journey

One of the parts of my job that motivates me is finding ways to help organisations change their behaviours in order to achieve something different. It is often a really tough challenge and I don't think even Mr Kotter has all of the answers.

Of course training and capability development is a really important change leaver that can have a powerful impact if used in conjunction with the many other levers that you can pull.

Holger Nauheimer published a Change Journey Map that helps people understand all of the different aspects of change that need to be addressed in order to be successful. The concept is simple but I like the insights he provides into the various places where you need to visit on your journey.

For example:

The Mall of Human Needs - a place to explore people's aspirations and potential reasons for resistance or The Gym of Skills and Capabilities - where we identify and grow the essential skills we need for the future.

If you are involved in change (who isn't..) the it is worth taking a look. If you want to know more then take a look at this video

Who is setting your capability development agenda?

I read an interesting article written by McKinsey earlier this week discussing who is setting the agenda for capability development in organisations.

They have published a survey with some interesting results:

"Nearly 60 percent of respondents to a recent McKinsey survey say that building organizational capabilities such as lean operations or project or talent management is a top-three priority for their companies. Yet only a third of companies actually focus their training programs on building the capability that adds the most value to their companies’ business performance."

The article brings out a couple of key points:

• Most organisations do not focus on developing the capability that they need the most
• When senior executives are involved in setting the focus for capability development companies are more successful at aligning those agendas with the capability most important to business performance.

When I think about the different organisations I have worked with and worked for I have seen a wide variety of ways in which L&D budgets and focus areas are set. Some organisations follow a rigorous training needs analysis each year from which they recommend the focus areas for capability development. Other organisations just take a punt on what feels right to focus on. Are either of these right or wrong?

For me the most important part is looking at the business strategy of the organisation and then looking at the capabilities needed to achieve this. Whether you do this through some detailed analysis or not you have to make sure that there is a clear link. Having the 'top team' involved in this process is critical and without this you are having to second guess what the priorities really are.

The key question is how do you get the 'top team' engaged in the process? In some organisations (the successful ones) they already are engaged but for others there is still work to do....we'll leave that to another post though I think (I feel a discussion about HR having a seat at the board table coming on...!).

PS. This is my first post for a while following a bit of a break from blogging to focus on some other stuff. I doubt if anyone noticed but if you did......thanks!