During Talent Management discussion with various customers and the SF Talent Management implementation experience, there was one common question that each one of them had – “How exactly will Talent Search Help us ? ” and their approach to using the Talent Search was more as a Search tool which according to me defeated the whole purpose and philosophy behind the functionality. Yes, it is a Search tool, but the buck does not stop there, and its utility lies in how well the processes are designed “before” and “after” the search activity.

The Central Idea if I may put it for the Talent Search is “Find the Best of the Lot”. It is not only about searching the employees or candidates based on your criteria, but it also about streamlining the process around choosing the best one.

So How does “Talent Search” help ?

In order to streamline the search and “Select the Best of the Lot”. I would put across just 3 Pre-Requisites

1. Consolidate the Information – During the implementation, I think the customer should think ahead in terms of their process to understand “What Information do I use to identify a Talent either internal or external” and the same should be incorporated into your system to ensure these details are captured from the candidates and the employees and are made available readily.

2. Have we completed a Talent Review process – Most organizations consider Performance Review as their central process for identifying talent, however I believe that performance being mostly retrospective in nature does not give you a right baseline to identify your talents. “Potential” being forward looking, is a much better indicator for your talent identification process and should be used in conjunction with the Performance reviews to identify your “Stars”.

3. Competency Based Evaluation – Talents are all about behaviors and skills. Yes, Goals and Targets are required however in order for anyone to achieve them, the employees should be exhibiting the required skills and competencies. Hence without an appropriate Competency evaluation for present and future roles, the identification process again goes back to next available option which is performance which again only tells you how good an employee was but extrapolating the same for future talent identification might not be giving you the correct data. This also applies to the Hiring Process i.e. the candidates are evaluated on the Competencies and skills rather than just their achievements.

With the above 3 processes in place, I believe one can extract the full potential of the Talent Search functionality.

1. Create Criteria using vast amount of information captured i.e. the Competency Rating range, Experience, Talent Flags e.t.c. With Talent data now available form the review process and the competency evaluation done, build the right criteria using the competency score, data and required weight against each criteria. This is important since without this, it comes out to be just a search tool as good as an Excel, and the talent identification goes back to being filtering an excel to find out the right person.

2. Understand the Search Result Page

Based on the Criteria and Weight provided for each criteria, the search result provides the results and ranks them based on the match %. In addition to that the Talent Review result (9-Box) is provided on the search result page for quick view. I would emphasize again on the step 1 here because, Without proper criteria, the search results just churns out name just as in a directory!

3. Analyze

The Analysis tool is the most important step in the talent process where one can have the Side-by-Side view of the selected employees and it gives you the option to compare on all the data attributes that are captured or the performance and Potential attributes of the employees.

Lastly I would say

Without the right tool, any process can become tedious and error prone. With the right tool not being used in the right manner, the process can be made much more tedious and error prone. Hence it is important that one understands the philosophy behind the tool and use it the right way and in a way it was designed to be used.

During a Performance evaluation cycle, one concern that every process owner has is regarding the scenarios where there are role changes for Employees or Manager changes. This is typically a universal question regardless of any system in place and in this post I have tried to consolidate those concern and possible approaches to tackle these scenarios from SuccessFactors point of view.

Broadly, the changes that can potentially affect the workflow and the Performance process are:

1. Employee Manager Change while Employee is still in the same role
   1. Manager Moves to different role/department within the company
   2. Manager Leaves the organization
2. Employee Role changes which also is followed by a manager change
3. Employee role changes but the reporting manager does not change

For any of the above scenarios, the most common solution or solution components within SuccessFactors is effective use of

• “Notes” Functionality. With regular use of Notes by employees and managers through the year, we can ensure that critical checkpoints and critical information regarding the employee’s work e.g. appreciation or inputs are captured and can be accessed directly from the performance forms by any manager reviewing the employee. This ensures information flow through to the new manager or assessing manager.

“Get Feedback” functionality: every performance form has the option to get feedback from various people within the organization which could also include the previous managers and peers so as to facilitate the relevant information gathering during the review process.

Use of 360 Forms as a feedback tool: the 360 forms can effectively be used as a feedback tool so as to gather feedback from various people – managers, Peers, and external participants which can also then be accessed from the performance form and the reports are particularly useful for a holistic review of the employee.

In addition, the administrative options to ensure that the form re-routes to the new assessing manager (s) makes the Manager change process handling much simpler and with the above mentioned tools, the new manager can gather enough information to have a fruitful performance review and discussion with the employee.

This however works well for a typical manage change scenario, however one of the challenging one is the case where the employee role changes with or without the manager change. In such scenarios its not just enough to get feedback, however the whole Performance criteria has to be re-looked at and revised. This calls for a revamp in Goals or KPIs for the employee but also we have to make sure that the older KPIs are tracked and evaluated during the year end process. This case can typically be handled through approaches:

1. Close evaluation of the current goals or KPIs and reset the Goal Sheet: Since there is no restriction on the number of performance forms that can be launched for an employee, the evaluation form can be closed for the current role and the new form can be launched with new set of KPIS. The Performance Portlet on the profile can consolidate all the evaluation for the employee. However the biggest challenge is – How do we get one rating int he End ? . Due to the current limitations the logic to pro-rate the ratings and calculation of the final performance rating has to be done offline and then uploaded into the system, but, if the Criteria is a simple average, then the system automatically can average the ratings for Calibration or Talent management purposes.
2. Eventually, the final solution depends on the various business scenarios and there is no “One Solution” for the problem, but a combination of the various approaches mentioned will help address some of the typical concerns.Redistribute and realign the goals after adding the new KPIs: If all the Goals and KPIs are to be evaluated together in the end, then the Weights can be realigned or redistributed so as to account for any pro-rating. For a better approach or design some of the questions that one has to consider are:
   1. Who will Assess the Employee ?
   2. Which Calibration group will the employee be part of ?
   3. Will there be a weighted average for each role basis the duration ?
   4. What happens to the old Role goals ?

Over the past few decades, Learning Management System (LMS) has become one of the most critical applications for organizations that heavily depend on “humans” as their “key resource”.

This article focuses on (a) Features and benefits of an LMS, (b) how to prepare a business case while purchasing an LMS, and (c) steps to evaluate and select an LMS.

Features and Benefits of LMS
An LMS helps to manage the administration, delivery, tracking and reporting of various learning events. Also it provides automation that replaces rigorous and expensive manual work, saves time, and enables you to organize your content, data, and learner audiences. It reports on data that can help you measure results and forecast demand.

An LMS helps in:
• Managing users, instructors, vendors, courses and generating reports
• Web-based course delivery
• Managing learning assignments and tracking their completion status
• Displaying course completion status, grades/scores to learners
• Messaging and notification to learners, supervisors, instructors etc.
• Conducting exams/quizzes to assess the learners
• Making and publishing training calendar
• Managing competency
• Managing commerce associated with learning
• Managing infrastructure, facility, equipment associated with learning

Most of the new-generation LMS heavily focuses on:
• Providing access to learning content from anywhere, using mobile applications
• Providing features that helps administrators in ensuring compliance
• Integrating social learning along with formal learning
• Managing web-based learning and content administration in an efficient manner
• Supporting most of the industry content standards, such as SCROM and AICC
• Providing comprehensive analytics for taking better decisions
• Making administration more powerful

Preparing Business Case
Despite the various benefits an LMS can provide, getting an approval for implementing LMS is challenging. Hence preparing a strong business case is very important in this process and following are key elements.

1. Present Hard Cost Savings
Showcase the various hard cost savings the organization gets by implementing LMS. Some examples are
a. Reduced (a) cost for travel and training facilities by moving training on-line, (b) time away from job, (c) record keeping costs, (d) cost for preparing, shipping, and storing and update course materials.
b. Improved (a) training efficiencies, (b) scheduling and enrolment efficiencies, (c) user experience, by reducing multiple systems to one centralized access point.

2. Estimate Top-Line Revenue Benefits
Showcase the various top-line revenue benefits the organization gets by implementing LMS. Some examples are
a. Improve (a) time-to-market : speed at which training can be delivered, which helping in ramping up the team faster at lower cost so that organization gets an edge over the competitors, (b) custom course creation and delivering : speed at which organization can create custom courses and assign to targeted audience
b. Give employees more time to do their jobs by offering “anywhere, just-in-time” training.
c. Reduce redundant and unnecessary efforts for administrators and improve their efficiency.

3. Calculate Initial ROI
Showcase the ROI based on the above inputs

[Hard Costs + Top Line Revenue Benefits] / Cost of the System = Return

Example:
Hard Cost Savings: $600,000
Top Line Revenue Benefits: $200,000
————————————————————————-
Sum of Benefits: $800,000

Less Cost of Investment: $200,000
————————————————————————-
Return Before Investment: $600,000

Return Before Investment: $600,000/
Cost of Investment: $200,000
————————————————————————-
Return: 3.0 (or 300%)

This means, for every $1.00 invested, you expect $3.00 benefits in return

[Investment / Sum of Hard Savings & Benefits] x Time Period = Payback Period

Example:
($200,000 / $800,000) x 12 Months = .25 x 12 Months = 3 Months or 90 Days

This means, the application would deliver 300% ROI and pay for itself in 90 days.

4. Highlight Strategic Benefits
Showcase the various strategic benefits the organization gets by implementing LMS. Some examples are
a. The benefits/ROI based on the ability to integrate with other HR Systems
b. The benefits based on the ability to reduce regulatory risks and liabilities
c. The benefits based on the ability to assign learning at faster rate, engaging & retaining employees, foster collaboration and consistency in process
d. Organization competency assessment and gap analysis

5. Highlight Individual Benefits
Showcase the various benefits the individuals get by implementing LMS. Some examples are
a. Ability for employees to manage their learning and career development, both immediate and long term
b. Ability to establish high performance and learning culture by including training goals during annual review

Steps to evaluate and select an LMS
Once the business case is approved, now then in front of an organization will be, “what are the steps to evaluate and select an LMS?” Here is a proven practice for selecting an LMS

Step 1: Need Analysis
a. The first major step is need analysis. Interview your leadership and conduct focus groups with stakeholders throughout the organization, to understand the business need.
b. Discuss with the training group to understand the various strategic, tactical and operational need which they expect the LMS application should support/
c. Work with internal IT Team to understand the technical needs and standards the LMS application should possess.

Step 2: Requirement Definition
a. Based on the analysis done, draft the requirements for your LMS. Categorize them under various headings like functional, technical and cost.
b. Ensure that you are drafting the need and not the solution. The clearer and more complete you draft the requirement, the easier to evaluate the product.
c. Each requirement should be discrete, without repeating or overlapping other requirements, and you should write it at the same broad-based level of detail.
d. Prioritize your requirements.

Step 3: Product Vetting
a. The first challenge is to narrow the choices to a short list of product from the numerous products available in the market. For that identify the top distinctive requirements that helps in rule out non-qualifying products.
b. Features like license model, license cost, pricing model/range, multi-language support, security restrictions, exams/quizzes development and deployment, etc. are some examples.
c. Once the features are identified, use that during product evaluation.

Step 4: Product Evaluation
This can be done in 6 steps

a. RFI (Request for Information)
i. This document should contain your requirements in detail
ii. The document is published to various LMS vendors
iii. The vendors should perform the feasibility check and should revert to you

b. Use Case Demonstration
i. The vendor should perform demo of the application
ii. This should include real time scenarios and how their product can cater your need

c. Sandbox or Trial Version
i. Request the vendor to share a test instance and request your Learning Team and IT Team to review the features.
ii. If possible, under a closed environment as end users to evaluate the product and get their feedback

d. Referrals
i. Look for referrals from organizations similar to your business, size and nature.
ii. Get inputs from renowned industry analysts like Gartner Group, Forrester Research etc. on the various products in the market.

e. Health
i. Check the financial reports of the vendor who is offering you LMS solution.
ii. Get inputs from renowned industry analysts like Gartner Group, Forrester Research etc.
iii. The strength of your vendor’s financial position and customer base helps ensure that the vendor will support your product well and will continue to evolve and improve with sufficient funding for product research and development.

f. Product Selection (RFP)
i. The final step is to settle on a product. Work on how you can negotiate for a better pricing model.
ii. Send request for proposal (RFP) to all finalist vendors.
iii. Work with your purchasing or procurement departments, if appropriate.
iv. Compare the responses, and don’t be afraid to go back to each vendor to ask them for a better price or more feature options comparable to incentives the other vendor finalists are offering.

To conclude, here is Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Talent Management Suites.

Happy learning!

Courtesy: http://www.successfactors.com, http://www.gartner.com, http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com

 

Rolling Arrays is Asia’s premier award winning HR transformation company, headquartered in Singapore with offices in 6 countries. Since its inception in transformation projects for more than 50 blue-chip clients across Asia. A consultative approach to HR processes, HR functions and HR software is Rolling Arrays core expertise and the primary catalyst for its success.

A lot of our customers are overwhelmed by the SuccessFactors Goal Execution module but at the same time they also question practicality of the product when implemented. While we look back at this question, I believe we need to understand the philosophy behind the concept of Goal Execution as I see it. Appreciate the effectiveness and the need to adapt to the concept.

We all agree that one main dimension that affects performance of an employee is “motivation”.  If we look back at DR Edwin Locke’s research on goal setting and motivation in the 60’s, it has been clearly established that specific and difficult goals, with feedback, lead to higher motivation and this has been substantiated by studies conducted at workplaces. So, how does goal-setting theory work?

• Directs attention
• Regulate effort
• Increase persistence
• Foster the development and application of task strategies and action plans

Most companies today have adopted the “SMART” Goal setting process but we also need to look at the 5 principles of the goal setting in parallel and strike the right balance which can help companies drive motivation and that is where goal execution plays a very significant role.

Clarity – The Goals have to be clear and unambiguous. It is clearly seen that when employees have clear goals and a definite time set for completion, it drives motivation through clear expectations rather than vague goal such as “Be Proactive” which has limited motivational value.

Challenge – Employees are motivated by achievement and their engagement and effort is driven by the sense of Significance. Tying the rewards to the goals make sure that there is sense of accomplishment and from an organization point of view its fulfilling to reward such goals. One has to also ensure that a right balance it maintained between Challenging and Realistic. Setting unrealistic challenging goals will be demotivating and may have worse effect than setting simple goals.

Commitment – Commitment can be driven by Proactive goal setting by employees or having a goal setting discussion where Managers set or cascade the goals to the employees or combination of these methods.  Commitment is also driven by the difficulty of the goal and it is observed that difficult and challenging goals motivate employees and the rewards tied to such goals are also fulfilling.

Feedback – Constant engagement, reviews and discussion is important. Since the goals are measurable, it may be broken down into smaller milestones and regular feedbacks and checkpoints will keep the employees focussed and motivated. However one has to ensure that there is constructive feedback during the process.

Task Complexity – For goals or assignments that are highly complex, one has to ensure that the work targets do not go out of reach. It’s therefore important to Give realistic Time frame and Provide tools and opportunities to learn in order for the employee to develop required skill set to execute the goal

In summary,

• Setting Specific and difficult goals, with feedback, lead to higher performance, particularly for simple rather than complex tasks
• Goal commitment strengthen the effect of goal-setting on performance regardless of how the goal was set – self assigned, cascaded or discussed.

 

Rolling Arrays is Asia’s premier award winning HR transformation company, headquartered in Singapore with offices in 6 countries. Since its inception in transformation projects for more than 50 blue-chip clients across Asia. A consultative approach to HR processes, HR functions and HR software is Rolling Arrays core expertise and the primary catalyst for its success.

During any implementation for SuccessFactors Career Development Planning Module, one question seems to be universal – “Its great, but can we open it up for employees ?”

For long, career development has been focused at managers and their guidance to help the employees develop within the organization. But there seems to be a definite paradigm shift currently where a transparent and effective system needs to be in place. “DIY” seems to be mantra.

SuccessFactors Career Development Planning does provide a great platform to enable the employees

Here are a few factors that the HR needs to ensure so as to realize the full utility of the system in place.

1. Comprehensive Competency Model: The whole model of career worksheet and its readiness evaluation depends entirely on the competency model. HR needs to first ensure that the right competency models are in place, specifically an exhaustive job specific competency model.

2. Defined Career Path: The main utility of SuccessFactors Career Development Planning lies in providing the employees with career possibilities within the organization. As an employee the worst situation I can imagine to be in is when I do not know the answer to the question – “What Next? “. It puts the person into a black out zone where there is no clarity in terms of where am I headed within the company and what do I need to do.

3. Effective Evaluation system: The employees need to be regularly evaluated on their competencies. This is the crux of a readiness calculator. The readiness meter can only be as accurate and as updated as your competency evaluation and hence regular and comprehensive competency evaluation is required to realize the full potential of the readiness meter.

4. Comprehensive Training catalog: The whole purpose of career development is lost if the employees have no ways to close the gaps and to ensure they develop themselves on their competencies. Right training and competency targeted training is essential.

The four factors are just the sanity check, and of course one needs to have well rounded policies around the career development in order to make sure the employees are engaged, enabled and developed.

Make the most of the CDP and hopefully no exiting employees shall say “I quit because I find better career opportunities elsewhere”

About Us

Rolling Arrays is Asia’s premier award winning HR transformation company, headquartered in Singapore with offices in 6 countries. Since its inception in 2009, Rolling Arrays has successfully delivered more than 100 HR transformation projects for more than 50 blue-chip clients across Asia. A consultative approach to HR Processes, HR Functions and HR Software is Rolling Arrays core expertise and the primary catalyst for its’ success.

Edward Bono, an expert on study of how people think, developed the “six thinking hats”1 approach to allow individuals and group to attend to all parts of the problem. He took the “Let’s put on our analytical hats” analogy one step further and I intend to take it a little further towards out EMPOWER methodology.

During a typical implementation we do not realize what questions to ask at each step that will lead us in the right answers during the implementation. Through experience our consultants have learnt that each step needs to address specific questions and problems and often we forget this holistic approach in our race to the finish line. If we keep the hats analogy in mind while we approach the implementation, I believe that a lot of our implementation problems can be addressed and the process streamlined further. What this will also do is prepare the customers with right tools and questions to help their organization embrace the change.

The Six thinking Hats DeBono has identified are:

1. White Hat: Deals with Facts Figures and Objective Information
   1. What’s the timeline?
   2. You missed a crucial piece of information in your analysis?
2. Red Hat: Deals with Emotions and Feelings
   1. How do you feel about this approach?
   2. What Level 2 impact will it have on people on our team?
   3. Am I comfortable with this approach?
3. Black Hat: Deals with Logical errors in thinking
   1. Have you thought through the implications of this on Timelines and Quality?
   2. You missed some important details in the second section of the proposal?
   3. Risk Management Plan?
4. Yellow Hat: Deals with Positive Constructive thoughts
   1. I like this idea! What are the potential benefits if we take this approach?
   2. Can I bring in the Customer Delight with this approach?
5. Green Hat: Deals with creativity and New ideas
   1. Here’s another angle we could take on this proposal.
   2. What other ways might we consider to build support for this idea?
6. Blue Hat: Deals with control of other hats and thinking steps
   1. Now that we’ve looked at this using all the hats, what should we do next?
   2. What stands out to you, now that you’ve heard all the opinions and reactions?
   3. Let’s integrate the ideas into a coherent plan.

We suggest, do consider the Six Thinking Hats as a model to approach problem-solving, meetings and requirement gathering and do remember that always wear the Blue Hat last and learn from each experience.

BizXpert	HATS
PREPARE: Very important to build customer trust, information gathering and plan the whole exercise. Crucial phase where the approach is discussed and designed. This is the phase where the interaction and communication has to be clear, consistent and frequent.	White Hat, , Black and Yellow  and the Red Hat: Get the facts right and connect with the customers at an emotional level to build trust and confidence in the team. This will help get the approach Vetted as well as clarity of through for the consultants on the approach and configuration. This also helps provide the first insight into the product directly for the customer.
REALIZE: The Realization of the efforts that have gone into the previous phase. This is the phase where the thoughts will be translated into the tangible product and it’s important to make sure that “we are building the right thing” and in the “building it in the right way”.	Red, Black, Yellow and Green Hats. It is always important to maintain the trust and connect with the customer through the project in addition to helping them get the hands on feel of the product that will be their Change agent within the organization. While we have the approach decided in the previous step, invariably the customers would want changes as they see more and more of the product. Hence a clear mind and ability to think of alternative approaches and its implications well is important. Give most of your time for Yellow and Green so that creative ideas may be adopted bringing in possible customer delight as well.
VERIFY: Being the messenger of change to a select group of people, it is important to send across the message appropriately. The idea is to not just explain the project but also explain the reason behind the project and the effect it will have in the organization.	Red and Yellow Hats: It is important to stay connected at the emotional level as well as be a advocate of the ideas that were put into the product. At this stage it is also important to get the Blue hat going at all times, as you would want to listen to the opinion and reactions and bring it all into a coherent plan. This is the major takeaway point within the project life cycle.
LAUNCH: Get the ball of Change rolling	Blue Hat all the way. At the end of each project it is important to look back and learn. Customers are your best teachers and at the end of each implementation put on your blue thinking hat on and look into the next steps, what were the takeaways, what were the areas of improvement, what were the opinions and reactions and how do I incorporate those best practices into my other projects and help other customers.

This is our humble attempt to put the theories into practice and an attempt to adopt the research methodologies and findings in our day to day project approach. Though it may not be a one approach fit all option, but we hope that the above hats and the questions they try to address will help bring about positive effect on our projects.

 

 

Further Reading:

Edward DeBono’s Book, Six Thinking Hats | Rick Maurer’s, Change without Migranes | www.rickmaurer.com | www.askaboutchange.com