Employers that fail to formally identify staff potential ‘risk losing’ hidden gems

CIPD – People Management

http://www.cipd.co.uk/pm/peoplemanagement/b/weblog/archive/2016/01/21/employers-that-fail-
to-formally-identify-employee-potential-risk-losing-hidden-gems.aspx

Vicki Arnstein 21 Jan 2016

Survey reveals that more than three-quarters of organisations have no talent assessment process

The majority of employers (79 per cent) have no assessment processes or tools in place to spot
employees with potential that could help the business in future, a survey has revealed.

The research with 1,000 managers, conducted by HR consultancy Penna, also found that 30 per cent
of respondents said their organisation had no single definition of what potential looks like for them.

This is despite a similarly high proportion (81 per cent) agreeing that developing staff potential was
either 'fairly' or 'extremely' important.

A third of respondents said they lacked senior management support for formalising the process,
while a quarter said it wasn't a business priority. And a further 24 per cent said there was little point
identifying talent because there were no development programmes in place to support it.

Yet survey respondents did recognised that a lack of talent management could lead to staff
disengagement (cited by 50 per cent), high staff turnover and recruitment costs (43 per cent) and
decreased productivity (34 per cent).

Penna also surveyed 1,000 employees. Of these, 71 per cent said they were more likely to stay with
an organisation that recognised their potential, but 24 per cent had no idea whether or not their
company thought they had what it takes.

Respondents to the employee survey said that when potential was recognised, only 23 per cent said
there had been any investment in developing their skills.
And when potential was identified, employees in the 25 to 34 age range were seen to be the focus of
attention for 62 per cent of managers.

From the findings, Penna estimated that 23 per cent of talent has quit their organisations in the past
twelve months due to lack of talent recognition.

Penny de Valk, managing director of Penna Talent Practice, advised organisations to take a more
disciplined and systematic approach to identifying potential.

“It is time organisations recognised the importance of spotting potential and did something about it.
Organisations need to have a clear definition of what potential actually looks like, a clear way of
measuring it, and link this to appropriate development interventions to ensure potential is
optimised," she said.

Lesley Uren, talent management expert at PA Consulting Group, said focussing on the 25 to 34 age
group could be a significant problem for organisations in the future. "We know people are going to
spend longer in work and the days of thinking potential is fixed are gone. Potential changes because
aspirations and ambitions change," she said.

Uren advised organisations to look deeper than the top 250 people when mapping out talent. "You
need to look at talent as being those individuals who drive competitive advantage for your
organisation, which may mean you are looking much deeper and focussing on people who are close
to the customer, as opposed to people who are close to the board."

She also urged businesses to mine their data for talent information, such as that collected during the
interview and review process. "We lose memory of the things people were good at before they
joined. There is a lot of hidden talent and skills and the data is there - we don't mine it."