Human Capital

Development Newsletter
– June 2002

Welcome to our June Edition of our Human Capital Development Newsletter for 2002

In last month’s issue, I proposed there are three issues facing most of our clients in human resources
right now:

1. The War for Talent isn’t over, it has only just begun
2. Retention remains one of the biggest challenges an organisation faces
3. Employees are re-evaluating their psychological contract with you in the light of recent experience

Surprisingly, I found that during my recent Job Index Survey with 21 of our clients they said the same thing! Firstly
they said…if we could hire the right staff we wouldn’t have leadership or performance issues that we are currently
facing. The next challenge they reported is how to keep top-flight staff long enough to make a positive and lasting
contribution in the company. Retention of top performers remains a critical issue.

This newsletter explores some solutions to the retention dilemma. We know that as the business travels through
its growth cycle it will need to change, adapt and restructure to meet shifting external and internal challenges. Let’s
list the major groups of issues faced in this cycle:

1. Cost of staff turnover, hiring and firing costs

2. Time-lag for staff replacement & staff productivity to be reached
3. HR relationship with the business – to adequately predict who is needed, when and be able to deliver talent
4. Career Development – a structured program of developing contributions from all staff but especially top performers through planned
work experiences, projects, work restructuring, training, executive coaching and other development activities.
5. Recognition systems – compensation and benefits, but equally important are personal recognition from immediate supervisors and the
company for both staff and for top performances
6. Transition Management – managing changes in structure, people and functions within the organisation
7. Measuring the relationship between HR and the business to ensure that HR remains focused where the business needs it most
8. Leadership Development – renewing the vision, mission, values and communications to staff to keep the focus of all staff well attuned
to the business

John M. Read
To find out more about TMP’s
Talent Development Solutions,
please call John Read at Tel: 6430 5324
Recent Research♣ in Company shows 529% return on investment in Executive
Coaching, concludes: The target population for the survey was 43 leadership development participants. These participants were drawn from two
♣

regions: Eastern United States (37) and Mexico (6). These participants represented a cross section of the business and included those in sales, operations,
technology, finance and marketing. Source: ASTD Article 2002

• Three-quarters (77%) of the 30 respondents indicated that coaching had significant or very significant impact on at
least one of nine business measures.
• Overall, productivity (60% favorable) and employee satisfaction (53%) were cited as the most significantly impacted
by the coaching.

TMP Worldwide Singapore is planning to introduce a new 2-day “Fundamentals of Coaching Practice” Course under
licence with the Psychology of Coaching Unit at University of Sydney, Australia. This course is aimed at providing middle
managers and senior managers with a core set of skills around coaching of their staff. Recent examples of companies
using our services in this area include Telstra Australia and ANZ Bank Australia.

The Gallup Organisation have already determined that a key issue of retention is the quality of relationship between each
staff member and their immediate supervisor. This is consistently the key factor across all levels of a company or
organisation. Leaders being able to coach their staff can enable these relationships to be win-win-win. The company and
each party can benefit from applying coaching as a tool for staff performance development. Coaching places the
responsibility for development into the hands of the staff concerned but enables managers to guide and direct the focus
and strategy of development to suit each individual.
More information on this to follow: if you would like to be kept informed about developments in this area, please drop me an email at
john.read@tmp.com

Managing Transitions
There are many in the current business cycle: from induction to performing in the job, from performance to performance
improvement, then possibly as the business re-structures, the next transition could be outplacement for some and re-
hiring for others. A core skill requirement is managing transitions, or change management as it is often known. Human
resources needs awareness of the need for managing these transitions, they need to know what is involved and how to
make it work best for their organisation in terms of public and internal relations, as well as productivity and cost control
too. A quick search on the internet shows the following sample of competencies needed by managers and leaders in this
area:

“To understand and apply the principles of change management to achieve organisational goals

• to view change as an opportunity for growth

• to apply the principles of change management
• to shift priorities, adapt to changes to fulfil the agenda
• to be attuned with developments in the global picture
• to gain support for non-traditional activities/decisions
• to support staff in dealing with change
[http://learnet.gc.ca/eng/comcentr/manage/building/profen19.htm]”

These competencies have corresponding skills and knowledge together with specific individual attributes that will lead to
effective delivery of response to change in individuals. Each level of management and leadership will have quite specific
roles, competencies and development needs in this arena. TMP Worldwide Human Capital Development can assist you
to define, develop and implement effective change management and transition management programs inside your
organisation.
www.sg.tmp.com
Taking change into a different domain, Let’s look at changing some very commonly held assumptions:

What if we could change jobs easily, say on a daily or weekly basis? Who said work has to be fixed to one
employer alone? I know contract work is growing but why can’t we all work as sessional staff…become
responsible for our attendance, quality and deliverables in each location we choose to work.

What if we could hold more than one job at a time, say work when there was work to be done and choose which
work we wanted to do, because that’s the work we do best?

This raises an interesting concept I met recently in career coaching known as the career portfolio. Carol Poore,
Author has translated investment strategy into the career domain. As she puts it "This book is designed to help
each reader develop a dynamic CareerPortfolio of wise career investments-- investments that pay off in the ability
to fulfills personal purpose and navigate lifelong career transitions.". By creating investment of time and purpose
across several key domains including primary source of income, secondary sources of income, volunteer work
and life-long learning, individuals can capitalise their energy most effectively and balance risk. When loss of job
strikes we can have other sources of income, a wider range of networks and a ready source of ideas and
experiences to advance our next career choice from.

As an outplacement consultant I have found this model of career and life/wok balance very useful in aiding my
coachees at all levels to spread their investment and balance the risk inherent in all our careers. Being smarter in
the career domain means taking charge of your career and life portfolio so as to maximise your returns and
minimise your risk. Like investments everyone has a different appetite for risk. Of course this can vary with age,
life situation and the type of risk concerned too. Maybe now is a good time for your company to help its staff to
take stock of their career portfolio. In this way they can get your help to re-evaluate their psychological contract
with you