Empowering employees is considered a key tenet of modern talent management practices. It leads to better filtration of ideas from the ground-up and swifter decision-making. Yet, studies have shown that while the theory sounds good, it works better in some cases, but not all. The biggest impact of empowering leaders takes place in fostering business innovations. They do best when employees were creative and supportive. It has little positive impact on routine jobs. Empowering leaders tend to be better supported by their team members. Such forms of empowerment work better in Western societies such as USA, UK or Germany, as people are inherently more independent-minded. But the reverse is true for more hierarchical societies such as those in India, China or the Koreas. Here, authoritative delegation works better. The decision to whether empower or not, and by how much degree, must ultimately be about supporting employees, either way they are comfortable. Source:https://hbr.org/2018/03/when-empowering-employees-works-and-when-it-doesnt?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_monthly&utm_campaign=leadership&referral=00206&deliveryName=DM3103

Uploaded Date:17 May 2018

Performance evaluation is a massive industry globally. In the USA alone, as per data provided by marketing research firm CEB (Corporate Executive Board), it is an activity that takes away billions of dollars’ worth each year. A study conducted on Fortune 1000 companies however, shows that in spite of the amounts spent, the overall productivity of such sessions seems low, as about two-thirds of appraisees report being dissatisfied with them. This is mainly due to the fact that people do not like getting compared with others. Most employees prefer if the appraisal is done on temporal basis, with comparisons being made about their own fluctuating performances at various times within any period rather than against that of others. The latter form is known as social comparison evaluations. Surprisingly, this preference for temporal comparisons stands true even when the one evaluated is actually praised. Thus, companies would be well-advised to keep their appraisals temporal rather than social comparisons.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/03/people-dont-want-to-be-compared-with-others-in-performance-reviews-they-want-to-be-compared-with-themselves?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert&referral=00563&deliveryName=DM3402

Uploaded Date:17 May 2018

At times of major business challenge, adversity and transformation, it is companies with the best of talent management practices that succeed. Facebook, Haier, Black Stone, Back Rock, Apple, Google, Aon, Telenor and Tata Communications are few such companies praised for their practices. They do not rely solely on the HR for people-related initiatives but consider it a collective effort. These companies also put tremendous focus on identification of leaders. One task that CEOs have at such companies is to ensure complete alignment among the values and objectives of the employees with the corporate strategy at the top. Talent driven organizations need to be lead a G-3 involving the CEO, CFO and CHRO. People allocation needs to be followed as stringently as one would allocate finance. The board of directors need to be brought onside with this philosophy. The top talent at each level needs constant nudging in order to further improve.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/an-agenda-for-the-talent-first-ceo

Uploaded Date:17 March 2018

Performance management reviews tend to be like the Pandora’s Box. They open up trouble for all. The ones reviewed often feel demotivated as they do not feel their work getting valued, while the reviewers are let down by their efforts not having the desired effect of increasing motivation levels within the team. That is why, a number of companies have already made changes to their performance management systems. Many companies try to recover from their flaws too quickly making a mess of the entire process. After due observation, two steps have been identified, which can help ensure such reviews benefit all the stakeholder groups. Firstly, the organization’s corporate strategy as well as future outlook must be clearly defined. All processes must align with this bigger picture in mind. The ‘how’ has now become as important as the ‘why’ at such reviews. Another tenet of talent management, oft-ignored is employee engagement. This includes a thorough analysis of what employees, desire from these meetings and their pain points at work. Instead of being a mere HR exercise, the performance management redesign must be curated with due discussion with the actual people involved.

Source:https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-organization-blog/crucial-steps-to-shape-your-future-performance-management?cid=other-soc-twi-mip-mck-oth-1802&kui=oRwLpIXVoSJfnDl6CuO1hg

Uploaded Date:17 March 2018

Motivating employees is an important ingredient for proper talent management. This is particularly important now as lots of changes are set to be rung in due to use of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics. Some ways have been identified post a study by PwC on best ways to inspiring employees. First of all, employees must be provided clear direction on what AI means for them and how automation will affect their industry. Instead of focusing just on the kind of jobs they perform, there must be adequate impetus given to the skills that existing employees innately possess. Reskilling is going to be the buzzword of 2018, so all top executives must take this into their stride. For this, the right corporate training sessions ought to be provided so that the existing personnel may be molded towards new-age skills. Employees must get a holistic experience at the workplace. There exist certain topics that test the trust factor. On these pre-identified ones, the company needs to be totally transparent with the stakeholders.

Source:https://www.pwc.com/us/peoplestrategies

Uploaded Date:16 March 2018

Just as it is nearly impossible to judge any person’s human values during the first meeting or few, similarly it is highly difficult to gauge any candidate’s suitability during the interview process alone. That is why several companies have devised personality tests for the talent recruitment and staff development processes. Unfortunately, most of these personality tests tend to ignore aspects around moral character. This is a dangerous trend, as moral character leads to the employee’s interpersonal interactions and ethical choices made. To cite an example, people with high levels of “guilt proneness” have a strong conscience so they strive hard to avoid their own mistakes or those by others. There is even a Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale that was devised by a professor at the Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. Moral character can best be evaluated from open-ended interview questions to do with behaviours. The model best followed here is the HIDE or hidden information, distribution and evaluation.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/article/How-Your-Hiring-Process-Could-Predict-Unethical-Behavior?gko=ca578

Uploaded Date:03 March 2018

Abraham Maslow’s famous pyramid in the Hierarchy of Needs theory is considered a central principle in companies’ battle for talent management and retention. However, this pyramid was drawn up many decades back, at a time when most of the workforce was engaged in manufacturing. Today, this has become less relevant as companies are battling it out to be rated as the best places to work, as such ratings in turn have generally led to much improved productivity levels. This is why there is a need for a new such scale, so three parameters were found to be most important today being- Career, Community and Cause. A detailed study was conducted on Facebook to deduce the importance of these terms across diverse backgrounds. Contrary to popular perception, Millennials were not as enthused about the cause part as those above fifty-five years of age were. Trends are similar if one compares against location across the world or even within North America in particular. There is some variation when compared among professions, with tech employees generally less concerned about cause and business pros most concerned about their careers.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/02/people-want-3-things-from-work-but-most-companies-are-built-around-only-one?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_weekly&utm_campaign=weeklyhotlist&referral=00202&spMailingID=19088896&spUserID=OTY0OTMwNTk5NwS2&spJobID=1201699181&spReportId=MTIwMTY5OTE4MQS2

Uploaded Date:03 March 2018