Development centres
August 14, 2008
The other day I was discussing how development centres can be used to identify potential future leaders for succession planning exercises. Development centres and assessment centres can be quite expensive and complicated to implement, but can bring excellent benefits to organisations using them, as well as the individuals involved. Assessment and development centres are basically a number of tests and tasks, some individual and some in groups, that are carried out by a number of people and observed by ‘assessors’ or ‘observers’. An assessment or development centre is not a place, it is an event, and activities used include presentations, group exercises, psychometric testing and interviews.
Assessment centres and development centres are similar in structure and form, but have different purposes for organisations. Whilst an assessment centre is used as an extensive way of selecting candidate(s) for a particular role, a development centre is used to evaluate existing employees’ skills and knowledge against those needed for their role, and identify gaps to then establish a development plan. Development centres have become a sophisticated method of diagnosing and facilitating development solutions, and can be effective for a number of reasons:
- The development centre can link to organisational and HR strategy. Participants are normally measured against competencies that are relevant for their role, or perhaps the role they are looking to progress into, and these should be drawn directly from the future needs of the business. This also means the development centre can link well to other HR practices such as recruitment and selection or performance management, for a holistic approach to HRM. If this link doesn’t happen, or the development centre is simply used as a one of ‘fad’, then the outcomes are likely to be much less effective.
- A key feature of the development centre is that participants are encouraged to reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses, through understanding the process and receiving clear and constructive feedback from the observers. This means that employees who have been through a development centre will develop a habit of planning and managing their own development.
- The development centre is a more valid and reliable way of measuring an employee’s progress against the competencies required for their job or future jobs than, for example, a straightforward performance appraisal from their line manager. This is because each competency can be measured more than once, by different assessors or observers, in different exercises. This is not to say that the development centre should replace the performance appraisal, however the data gathered can provide a useful base for discussion alongside assessment of job specific objectives in the review meeting.
Of course, all of these benefits can only be realised with a well planned and executed development centre, and there are a number of steps that need to be taken to ensure the validity of the data gathered in the process. In the next article I’ll look at how to design a successful development centre and some of the pitfalls to be avoided.
You might need your GCSE’s after all!
August 13, 2008
When I was at school studying for my GCSE’s, I always thought that Science was a waste of time. When am I ever going to have to think about chemical bonds or the process of photosynthesis ever again in my life? Well, it seems that it is more important than I thought.
It seems that nearly 59% of firms have had difficulty in recruiting employees that have the necessary scientific skills. Jobs in the this industry are increasing and by 2014 it looks like there will be 2million jobs that require science skills.
In order for young people to take up careers in Science, the high achievers at school are being encouraged to do three separate GCSE’s in Biology, Physics and Chemistry rather than double or single awards.
The director from the Confederation of British Industry, Richard Lambert has said:
“We need to create an environment in schools that reflects the importance of science, and the value of studying it. We also need to send an unambiguous message to young people who are good at science that science as a career can be fascinating and worthwhile, and will reward you well.”
It isn’t just this industry that has problems finding people with the correct skill set, this is probably an issue in most firms, finding the right candidate isn’t as easy as it seems.
Have you had a problem with finding the right employee’s for a role? if you have, let me know.
Job prospects fall to a record low
August 12, 2008
It appears that Job prospects have fallen to a record low according to a recent CIPD/KPMG survey, and it looks like there is going to be an increase in redundancies and recruitment is falling sharply.
The survey showed that employment prospects are at their weakest level since 2004 when the survey first began.
In the third quarter of 2009, 29% of employers expect to increase staff levels, this is quite a drop from the 37% who said they want to boost their recruitment in the previous quarter.
Redundancies are also planning on increasing, with 27% of employers planning for them between the second and third quarters this year.
The CIPD’s Chief economist, John Philpott had something to say on the matter:
“The jobs market has been one of the few bright spots in the UK economy, but cracks are appearing in the face of an increasingly uncertain economic outlook. Even if we avoid the scale of jobs fallout suffered in previous downturns, the era of the candidate’s recruitment market is already over, with people in work becoming increasingly anxious that their P45 might soon be on its way.”
This is quite scary business, redundancy is an awful thing to go through, and it just makes you wonder whether your job is as safe as you think it is.
Dealing with HIV in the workplace
August 11, 2008
I’ve just read about a man that worked as a control room officer for the Greater Manchester Fire Service who is claiming disability discrimination against his former employer for the way he was treated when he was diagnosed with the HIV virus two years ago. Michael Ashton claims that he was threatened with disciplinary action due to taking too much time off work in the few months after he was diagnosed. Ashton has also stated that work related stress, caused by his employer’s treatment of him, caused his immune system to be even weaker than it would be normally, even with the virus. He feels that he has been treated unfairly by the Fire Service, and was offered no support in a time when he needed it most.
This is a very sensitive issue. Whilst the treatment of HIV has developed so much that it is now possible for people with the virus to remain well for a long time, and are therefore able to stay in work, I can understand why many people hide their condition from their employers for as long as possible, especially when reading about cases like this one. There is a lot of prejudice against people with HIV, much of which is probably due to a lack of understanding about the virus, and fear of the risks associated with it. HIV is covered under the Disability Discrimination Act, and people with the virus are now covered under this legislation from the day they are diagnosed, which is just one reason for employers to devote some time to removing the stigma attached to HIV in their organisations. Some large organisations have policies specifically stating that discrimination will not be tolerated in relation to any employee’s HIV status, although for many smaller organisations this may be too specific. Aids campaigners have said that if HIV isn’t specified within discrimination policies, people won’t know whether they are covered. This could also be true for other chronic diseases, so perhaps it would be a good idea to list the types of diseases that are covered under the discrimination policy to make this clear for everyone. I would normally say that the way an organisation or management team behaves towards its workforce is the best indicator of its approach to equal opportunities and anti-discrimination. However it’s a big risk for an employee with HIV to tell an employer if they’re not quite sure what kind of reaction they will receive, so a sentence within a policy or handbook at least gives an indication of the employer’s intent to manage this issue effectively when needed.
There needs to be an open dialogue about this issue, as many problems can arise with an employee who is hiding their HIV status, but having to take time off to receive treatment, or may be off sick more often than other employees. As with any longer term illness or disability, an employer who is willing to discuss the implications with their employee and offer support and flexibility where needed will ultimately find a better performing and happier employee in the long term.
Has anyone had experience of dealing with this employment issue? What were the implication and how did you manage them?
Succession planning (2)
August 8, 2008
Yesterday I was discussing the definition of succession planning and the fact that traditional models of this practice are no longer relevant in today’s business environment. So how can succession planning be effectively implemented within the constraints facing companies today?
As I said yesterday, identifying the roles that the company will need to fill in the future may be difficult due to the rapid changes that take place, in some industries more than others. Where I work the current management team looks completely different now than it did only a year ago, because the needs of the industry have changed, and because innovative thinking within the company has led to whole new departments that have required management structures being implemented. Therefore I think that in succession planning activities, it will be more relevant and useful to identify the likely skills and competencies of future leaders rather than specific jobs that will need to be carried out. Many companies use competency frameworks for their selection and performance management processes, and these can be developed to be used in succession planning. Information from performance management activities can be used to identify potential, or for a more in depth way of identifying talent, development centres provide a way to measure individuals and encourage them to contribute to/manage their own development.
Skills and competencies of potential leaders may be quite different to the skills and competencies they need in their current role. It is common to promote people into leadership roles within a team because they are exceptional at the role that they will in future be managing, but this does not necessarily lead to success. Many excellent leaders are in fact better at facilitating others’ success in a particular practice than actually doing it themselves. Skills such as motivating others, coordinating workloads, listening and coaching are more important than operational skills – there’s no point being great at something if you can’t get your staff to do it effectively as well. Moving into a leadership or management role can be challenging as it’s quite hard to stop ‘doing’ when you should be ‘managing’. Effective succession planning needs to allow the time and space for future leaders to practice ‘letting go’ and coordinating activities instead of doing them all themselves.
Progression can no longer always be about promotion to more senior positions within a company, due to the changing shape of organisations as I discussed yesterday. However this doesn’t mean that individuals cannot grow and develop themselves, and this needs to be recognised, highlighted and rewarded where appropriate. Traditional succession planning might concentrate on management development, probably involving formal training courses and focussing the development in the one area where the individual would eventually end up. As we know, in the new business climate, leaders need to be aware of wider strategic issues and understand where their particular function contributes to the strategy. Therefore more appropriate succession planning activities may involve ‘lateral moves’ such as secondments to different parts of the business, different challenges such as new projects or initiatives, or simply more autonomy or responsibility within their role. A lot of candidates ask me about ‘progression opportunities’ within the organisation and I tend to explain that while the traditional routes to senior positions are not necessarily available for everyone who would wish this, there is a great deal of personal progression within the role, for example working with more complex projects or with higher profile clients. It is really important to make sure employees understand how they are progressing and measure this realistically instead of benchmarking against traditional career paths that are not completely realistic in the current business environment.
Succession planning, to me, is about managing expectations and understanding aspirations as much as it is about planning for the future of the business. It’s no good setting long term plans in motion that will make the organisation a huge success if the employees involved don’t see where they’re going or understand their place in the plan. The last thing you need is employees who are gaining all the good skills you’ll need in the future to leave because they didn’t see the potential in the career they had in the company.
What is succession planning?
August 7, 2008
With all the talk about ‘the war for talent’ and the lack of leadership and management skills in the UK labour force, there’s quite an emphasis within the HR community on succession planning at the moment. I’ve done a little bit of digging into what this exactly means as it’s a phrase that’s used a lot but the exact purpose and meaning isn’t always completely clear, and I think this is because career development as an idea has evolved and developed in recent decades. This is due to many things including the changing nature of business in a now global environment and the increase in women on the ‘career ladder’ instead of working up to the time when family commitments take over and then dropping out of the labour market.
The CIPD describes succession planning as ‘identifying future potential leaders to fill key positions’. Three key problems with this idea come immediately to mind:
- Firstly, with the rapid pace of change in today’s business environment, it’s sometimes impossible to predict what senior positions will be available in the future, so it’s difficult to identify potential and then nurture it.
- Secondly, the idea of a ‘career’ as a succession of jobs in the one company or even one industry is completely outdated. A few weeks ago I was talking about ‘career changers’ going into the teaching profession and there’s a lot more movement between different industries and jobs now than in the past. Now you hear about ‘protean careers’ – i.e. people having more than one different career in their lives, and ‘portfolio careers’ – i.e. the people who manage a number of different roles within the one career (consultancy and teaching together, for example). And these types of careers are now more of a life choice rather than a need. So with these ideas in mind, there are fewer employees willing to stay in a company for the long term awaiting a succession of promotions as there would have been a number of years ago.
- Thirdly, the structure of organisations has changed in many places, and we now see flatter, or sometimes ‘matrix’ structures where the opportunities for progression in the traditional sense are few and far between.
So succession planning has become more of a two-way relationship. As well as attempting to consider the business needs of the future, employers need to ensure they are meeting the career expectations of those they are intending to develop into the leaders of the future, at a quick enough pace, otherwise all their good work may be wasted when the employees go off to succeed a leader in another company. Another area to be aware of is the growing acceptance that employees have family lives, and will assert their rights to these lives more now than ever. So succession planning needs to be flexible to individuals’ needs for a work-life balance and a family-friendly career.
So, after thinking about the definition of succession planning, it seems that the practice is much more complicated than you would think, and there seems to be a lot than can go wrong. However it is an important practice to think about. Whilst the labour market looks set to grow due to increasing unemployment, this doesn’t mean that the employees left behind deserve less attention and development, nor that companies should start recruiting all their leaders from outside of the company just because there is more availability of candidates. However on the other hand, some companies tend to promote from within simply because an individual has been with the organisation a long time or has shown favourable traits such as commitment and loyalty, but if this is the case across the board there is a danger of ending up with a senior team that has not had enough developmental attention or that has been poorly selected for the positions.
Tomorrow I’ll look at how companies can carry out effective succession planning within the constraints and difficulties of today’s business environment.
The key to successful company growth? It’s HR!
August 6, 2008
It’s extremely important that when a company decides to grow it takes everything into consideration. Not only how much things are going to cost but also how this could effect employees.
HR have a big part to play in ensuring that all issues that come with merges and acquisitions including due diligence, reward structures, pensions, people challenges and risks and liabilities are all looked into.
One company that has acquired 29 companies in the past four years and are also in the process of acquiring another 2 is British Telecom.
BT is one company that has a seperate HR team just to deal with the growth of the company and all the problems that could come along with it.
James Hastings who is the vice president of HR for the organisation believes that its very important that employees are informed at every step of the growth, and i agree with him.
“People are the centre of any integration strategy – it’s important to establish clear principles early on and ensure stakeholders are fully aligned, You must engage audiences clearly, honestly and simply. People should know when decisions are made and how they are made.”
“Increasingly BT is looking at issues such as change management – the challenges of integrating teams, leadership style and minimising disruption and attrition rates, this is especially important when you are buying service companies where the value is in the people. If you are unable to integrate teams successfully, then the value of the company dissolves.”
If your company is big enough and is focused on growing and acquiring other companies on a regular basis, then i think having a HR team purely to make sure that everything runs smoothly is a fantastic idea.
What do you think?
Do your employees really need mobile phones?
August 5, 2008
A lot of employees are lucky enough to be given a mobile phone or PDA device to assist them with their work, whether they are out on the road or regularly out of the office at client meetings, supplying employees a phone is becoming very common.
However, some employees see this as a luxury gift and the chance to ditch their personal mobile phone and use the one issued by work to call their friends and arrange their weekends.
The mobile phone is becoming one of the biggest culprits for bleeding the IT communication funds dry in most companies and its normally done without people knowing it.
The best way to control the amount of money your company spends on Mobile phones is to receive regular volume reports from your supplier. This way you can review who is making more calls than they should be and who is using their device for personal use. Another way is to look into who actually needs a mobile, You may find that people who are based more in the office don’t in fact need one and can just use the phone located on their desk.
A good way to make sure your employees are not abusing the system is to have a call allowance. This way, if the employee does go over the set amount of minutes that they have been allocated, the money will have to be deducted from their pay packet.
I think the best way to cut back on costs is to give employees a basic mobile phone, they don’t need to have an all singing all dancing device, a Nokia 6500 Classic is a perfect example of what they need. Then re-evaluate who actually needs a phone, people who stay in the office can use the land line phone, it’s people who are out and about that need one!
Have you had employees that have abused the system? If so, how did you handle it?
Religion - it’s important you follow the guidelines!
August 4, 2008
Religion has always been a major talking point from the workplace to schools with people not following the correct rules and regulations.
With the number of different religions that are in society today, it’s extremley important to make sure that law’s are taken into account when drawing up HR policies.
A leading law firm has warned employers that they must take religion seriously and can’t complain about Muslim employees slipping out of the office a couple of times a day for prayer.
The firm pointed out that its just the same as letting employees who smoke have cigarette breaks throughout the day.
Adrian Hoggarth from Norton Rose recently expressed his views on this topic at a seminar this month:
“The Muslim Council of Britain says it takes 10-12 minutes for a devotee to go through their prayers, which is about the time it takes for a smoker to get through a large cigarette or small cigar.”
This has never been a major issue where i work. We have many staff from different religious backgrounds and always strive to accomodate them the best we can. Have you had any conflicts in your workplace with incorporating religion into work?
Equal pay victory will mean a big increase in further claims
August 1, 2008
This week the outcome of a Court of Appeal case has opened the door to thousands of potential equal pay claims for women working in local authorities across the country. Women working for local councils in the North East had been battling for four years to claim for years of bonuses they should have been entitled to when their male co-workers received them.
This situation came about with schemes introduced in the 1990s to try to resolve the differences in pay between male and female local authority workers. Male workers would have received a drop in pay as a result, so they were given payment protections which meant their salaries were topped up to lessen the blow of the equal pay schemes. The women in the ‘landmark’ case have successfully argued that this simply reinforced the disparity in pay rather than resolve it. The councils tried to argue that this was a practical, and therefore lawful way of dealing with the situation, but failed and will now have to pay out large sums of money.
This will pave the way for many more claims of this kind, and there is now the fear that this will add more pressure to the legal system which has already been dealing with 44,000 equal pay claims in the last year.