Despite the economic turmoil, talent management and development must continue. Here are seven key issues that organisations must focus on:

Joan Mather

 
1. Raise the leadership bar
Leaders who were successful driving growth may be less effective deploying skills and personal attributes that are important in a crisis or downturn. Growth demands risk-taking and experimentation; downturns require an initial surge of operational control countered by enough innovation to meet opportunities and prepare for the upturn.
 
The uncertainty of a downturn creates anxiety and stress, and leaders are confronted with emotional demands from team members that they seldom encounter in normal times. To make matters worse, the stress also threatens to bring out leaders’ worst personal qualities – those which are usually under control but able to be derailed under pressure. Leaders need to understand what they have to do differently to survive uncertain times. Evidence from behavioural assessments, personality inventories and multi-rater feedback can give leaders self-insight and guide them toward effective actions.
 
2. Move from the generic to the specific
Generalised and generic leadership activities that support the long-term vision should not be started now and should be questioned if they are currently in progress. What is most important now is developing the leadership skills critical to see your organisation through the tough times in front of us. It may be necessary, for instance, to develop the senior leadership team’s ability to shape and execute strategy in the new world.
 
An exception may be to the more junior leaders in an organisation. This group needs to be equipped with skills that are universal and which they will need at all stages in their careers.
 
3. Use, don’t lose, your ‘A’ players
‘High potentials’ are now ‘highly capables’ and the time to call them into action has come.  Many groups of high potentials are typically formed into teams to tackle problems. Rather than charge these teams with long-term goals, they need to be engaged to find ways to reduce costs or increase productivity.
 
High potentials can also be used as ambassadors, to spread confidence and reinforce culture. And cultivating goodwill with them now will pay off when the economy improves and the war for talent becomes hotter than ever. But also, there’s still a job market for top talent.
 
4. Position the workforce now for long-term growth
Sadly, downsizing is occurring. How this process is handled can easily turn an already tough situation into a disaster. If an organisation must prune, it is important to:
 
1. Try to get it over with in one swoop and move on.
2. Adopt a process called top stacking or top ranking, to rank employees based on a number of
    factors including performance, criticality of job/function, difficulty/cost of replacing employees in the
    future etc.
3. Identify those organisational functions that may be at the highest risk if layoffs occur.
4. Consider the long-term cost of replacing (not just the short-term savings of) a layoff.  Who stays
    and who goes should still be tied to your business needs.
 
5. Find the ‘golden goose eggs’
Are we talking about reducing a workforce and hiring in this economy? Yes, absolutely. Hiring organisations have the power – it is a buyer’s market. This is the perfect time for organisations to fill vacant positions with the very best talent.  High quality people who have lost their jobs will be more abundant. And ‘A’ players may be ripe targets for plucking with the right offers if they feel they have less opportunity within their
current job.
 
6. Manage the climate
The one organisational asset that feels the effects of this recession more than any other is people. Layoffs impact everyone. Concerns and fear of what’s coming next can paralyse people at all levels, negatively affecting productivity at a time when organisations most need it.

To maintain engagement:
 
1. It is imperative that employees are kept informed on a regular basis, even if the situation hasn’t
    changed much from the last update. Just as important is the value employees experience when
    their leaders listen to their issues, concerns and questions.
2. Due to downsizing or changes in demand for services, some teams and work groups will need to
    shift their priorities, rethink work processes, reassign roles and responsibilities and set new goals.
3. Encourage leaders to adopt a bias for action.
4. Make sure everyone keeps sight of the long-term vision. Remember, this recession will end
    at some point.
 
7. Reassess your metrics
Traditional measures of HR effectiveness – retention, turnover and training satisfaction scores, for example – may be so disconnected from today’s priorities that they are irrelevant.  Some questions on engagement surveys will also be lowered as a result of uncertainty in the workplace.
 
So what should constutute measures? Look at the retention of critical groups, for example high potentials and senior leaders. You might need to employ different retention targets for different groups of people.
 
Joan Mather is Manager, Organisational Development, Sheffield Ltd Auckland
Based on a paper by Simon Mitchell and Richard S Wellins of Development Dimensions International (DDI).

(Source: IoD Boardroom)