Guest Post By Candi Varisco, International Country Manager at Aquire

A review of The 30-Minute Guide to Talent and Succession Management, by Doris Sims

Talent and succession management may be unfamiliar ideas to many business leaders, but when they are likened to more recognizable business concepts – like financial budgeting and sales pipelines – they not only quickly become clear, but clearly necessary. The 30-Minute Guide to Talent and Succession Management by Doris Sims does exactly this; concisely demonstrating how important and easy it is for every organization to create and maintain talent and succession management plans. And, yes, it really can be read in about half an hour. 

The book is surprisingly comprehensive for its relative brevity, covering everything from basic definitions of talent, succession and performance management, to teaching how to identify top talent, to demonstrating the use of assessment tools like the elegantly simple 9-Box Chart. Throughout, Sims reinforces her forward-thinking philosophy that organizational success depends just as much on the development and retention of top talent as it does on good financial planning. In Sims’ own words:

“If you are able to identify and retain top talent, and provide an environment that fosters engagement and productivity, EVERYTHING else you are striving to achieve for your organization will naturally follow.”

The beauty of this book is that it not only provides an easy-to-follow roadmap for achieving this organizational ideal, but also a compelling case for business leaders to start viewing talent management as the equal of established business processes like new product development, advertising, mergers and acquisitions, etc. After all, who better to develop better products, advertise company services, and navigate change than an organization full of loyal and efficient top talent? Likewise, as Sims points out, talent management is a lot like risk management: a process that analyzes data, helps make informed decisions, and reduces risk – in this case, the risk of leadership vacancy, which can seriously damage an organization’s momentum.

Even though the book can be read in just 30 minutes, it still manages to serve as a comprehensive desk reference with straightforward indexing of key points. In addition, good use of graphics and charts throughout the book not only reinforce the concepts described, but could also easily serve as basic implementation models.

Kind Regards,
Candi Varisco

 There are a number of challenges facing the HRIS and ERP vendors in the Talent Management space. I believe the 5 items listed here will make it increasingly difficult for them to sell their Talent Management tools.

1.  Cost – which, for both the time and the license of ERP talent management, appears to be exponentially higher than alternatives in the market. If you cannot provide significantly more and better functionality then you are not likely to claim the larger money. Vendors can’t claim brand and stability either when the focused Talent Management players have famously strong brands as well.
2. Legacy mindset – Talent Management is a rapidly evolving industry. The HRIS vendors are often restricted in their development to fit the paradigm of their existing products. This isn’t a good way to pursue a burgeoning industry.
3. Different buyers – the top executive might be the same buyer for both Talent Management technology and HRIS systems, but the influencers, users and often the decision makers at a lower level of the organization, are different. The strategic thinkers in the Talent Management divisions of companies are separating themselves from the more tactical, even though critically important, transactional folks.
4. ERP vendors design for HR – even with the development of MSS or ESS systems, the design is focused on the benefit it delivers the HR department. Talent Management is a business owner user and is needed for their benefit in developing, evaluating, managing, and planning for their workforce. This is a different paradigm than the HRIS vendors are accustomed to on a day-to-day basis.
5. Long development and implementation cycles – vendors can’t make changes fast enough to keep pace with the evolving growth of this infant industry of Talent Management. Changes that address pressing business needs must happen quickly.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,
Lois

Related blogs:

8 Essential Questions for Every Software Purchase

Being in the human resource software industry for over 15 years, I like to really pay attention to one of the most important issues of doing business with a company, or when people do business with Aquire.

As software options grow from “integrated” solutions to “best of breed” solutions, so many considerations must be taken into account. The cost of an integrated talent management suite may or may not be worth the one-stop shopping and support. The succession planning feature in the last version of the HRMS really has to be worth the longer implementation cycle it requires. All of this, and so much more, requires a great deal of thought and due diligence.

Some members of the human resource technology market use organizations like IHRIM to seek advice from their peers online or at their conference. Some organizations attend tradeshows by vendors or the Human Resource Executive’s HR Technology Conference to do their shopping. Everybody asks a multitude of questions of their vendors and perspective vendors to support their decisions. I have created a list of the top 8 items I think companies should add to their consideration when evaluating a software company. I think these points are all powerful components of the customer experience you will have once you make a software selection.

1. What is the tenure of the developers on the development team, and has there been a lot of turn over?

The experience on the team should foster a depth of understanding of the code and the customer issues involved. This also speaks of the respect the company gives to their important assets and how hard they work to keep their people.

2. What is the tenure of the support team?

Depth of knowledge of the product can be taught more rapidly than some can imagine. The reason this is a good question is that it demonstrates the respect the company gives to their support people, to make them feel it is worth staying in a mentally stimulating but exhausting job. When you are handling support calls, you are always “on.” You are on the “stage” even if the stage you’re performing on is only through the phone.

3. What percentage of technical support calls are due to people wanting to know how to do something and what percentage is for bugs and software that will perform as advertised?

This gives an indication whether or not customers are always finding bugs and problems in the software.

4. How are features and products designed and enhancements considered, and how involved are the executives?

It’s imperative to find evidence of customer participation in this process. There should also be a mechanism for sales people to bring requests and ideas into the development team and have them taken seriously. Enhancements and features are often specifics gathered from many sources, and the better plugged into the market the employees are, the more ideas can be gathered for consideration. Sometimes products or new features need to be designed before the customers realize they need them. The visionaries within the company decide how that occurs.

5. Who has owned the software code; how many times has the executive leadership changed for a product or a company?

It’s important that at least some of the developers on the team now also wrote the product for earlier versions. Let me put it this way, have you ever heard of a Monet being finished by another painter? Other than a relay, can anybody else finish a race for you? It is not always possible, but I like some consistency on the teams, somewhere along the line.

6. Have there been any litigation issues with customers?

That can happen even within the best companies. But something must have changed to prevent it from happening again.

7. Is the company actively involved in their industry?

Companies should give back to the community that buys from them. Organizations have to learn from their market place by participating in conferences, committees, associations, etc. This shows a willingness to learn and a respect for the market place.

8. Can you try out the software before you buy it to test for usability and stability?

Maybe some software is functional within a pilot program, maybe some might need a lab environment for testing. Be creative to verify that things are not just smoke and mirrors. You can seldom expect to work with a fully functional implementation without an investment, but the company must ensure your comfort level with the tools you will be investing your time and money on.

There are so MANY additional elements of a software evaluation. These are just a few that I think need to be added to the mix.

Cheers,
Lois

Another worthy topic that spawned from Gary Hamel’s presentation at HCI Human Capital Summit this week is the creativity of our employees. This blog includes his ideas and topic, but is also woven with my own ideas inspired by him. Hamel challenges us to tap the creativity of our employees. We need to seek their ideas more often.

If you don’t think the average employee is creative, think again. Consider just who in the world is creating all those cool YouTube Broadcast Yourself^TM videos, customizing cars, growing the scrapbook industry, blogging, and learning how to cook from one of the fastest-growing segments on TV, cooking shows. Our people are creative.

How are we tapping that creativity to improve our businesses? And if you do tap into their creativity, won’t it lead to further employee engagement?

I have heard some objections to soliciting employee ideas, and often the excuse of “then if we don’t implement their ideas they’ll think we don’t listen.” So the company doesn’t do anything. What if employees were submitting hundreds or thousands of ideas? They wouldn’t expect all of them to be implemented. If you ask for both the wild and pragmatic you will see some things you can use. Toyota received an astounding 540,000 employee suggestions in one year alone!

So now Gary Hamel and I challenge you – tap into the creativity of your employees. It just might be amazing.

Cheers,
Lois

Which are you hiring: people or talent? Talent brings skills and competencies that will help you achieve your mission. People can fill a position and do a job.

Talent can see things and do things others can’t or won’t see. People will get some work done and collect a paycheck.

Talent will pour themselves into work that has a purpose and vision they understand. People want to work for a pay check, and a job is something they are supposed to do.

Which are you hiring, people or talent? Which is your recruiting process designed for?

Think about it.

Cheers,
Lois