Turning Workforce Talent into Business Success: Six Imperatives for Getting it Right

Turning workforce talent into business success: Six imperatives for getting it right
By David Clinton

Mired in a global economic downturn, are companies finding that the "war for talent" is over, at least temporarily? Not if they are seeking long-term competitive advantage. In fact, as executives are forced to make difficult decisions about headcount reductions, remaining employees are under increasing pressure to improve performance, add new skills and take on increased responsibilities. And this means the importance of people continues to be a constant that demands attention.

According to a yearlong research initiative sponsored by Accenture there is still pain out there when it comes to developing a high-performing workforce and linking that performance to enhanced business value. The study found that attracting and retaining the best people are still at or near the top of just about every executive's agenda. Even the slowing economy has not changed the fact that competitive advantage is based on the performance of a company's people.

Yet there is cause for concern beneath the apparent support for improving the quality of workforce performance. Human performance strategies are still a source of puzzlement for many executives. Too many companies either are investing inadequately in key human performance areas or are not investing at all in the broader range of programs necessary to truly link improved workforce performance to profitability. If they are to remain competitive, companies must make some significant changes to how they recruit, develop, measure and reward their workforces.

Creating a high-performance workforce
Why is a high-performance workforce a source of competitive advantage? Perhaps the most important reason is because a company's culture cannot be as readily imitated as its products and marketing strategies. Several companies are getting many parts of the human performance agenda right, as the Accenture research initiative uncovered.

What, after all, sets high-performing companies such as General Electric, Nokia, Microsoft and Sony apart from their competitors? A variety of things, of course, but these and many other global companies today consistently follow six imperatives that can create a workforce with sustained high-performance levels.

1. Do not just hire skilled workers; hire "skillable" workers. Successful companies are going after particular kinds of people today:
• Able to learn: Leading companies hire not just those individuals with the "skill du jour" but those who are good learners—people who will be able to adopt new skills as strategies change.
• Diverse: With business increasingly being played on a global stage, workforce diversity—not only of race and gender but also age, language, thinking style, religion and culture—is critical.
• Technology-savvy: Companies need employees who understand the strategic value of IT and who not only can envision the new technological future but also can help make it a reality.
• Flexible: Organizations are increasingly concerned with how "nimble" they are—and need people who can quickly change to meet new strategic demands
2. Match talent with the right opportunities. A principal reason why many companies have trouble retaining key talent is that they hinder people's mobility within and across the organization—and therefore limit their opportunities to grow. Companies that make it easier for employees to find and take on new opportunities within the organization are better at enhancing overall workforce performance. They also excel at keeping key individuals loyal, motivated and engaged longer than companies with rigid advancement and staffing policies.

Many companies try to boost retention simply by throwing more money at key performers. But the fact is that most research on job satisfaction and retention, including the Accenture study, shows that such a tactic may actually undermine the culture and the performance of the organization. What employees really want—besides a competitive compensation package—is the opportunity to grow and develop, both personally and professionally.

3. Measure and develop talent in real time. The traditional approach to performance management rarely provides for real-time feedback about how people are performing right now. The only way performance management can truly influence the behavior of employees is if feedback comes very soon on the heels of the actions a company wants to reinforce (or discourage).

Today's leading companies recognize that their measurement and development models must operate in real time and support a geographically dispersed workforce. To accomplish that objective, an increasing number of companies are taking advantage of new technology-based performance management tools. In essence, these bring the same type of analytics and tools to human performance management that has been available to supply chain managers for years.

4. Use adaptive goal setting. A frequent charge levied by employees against their managers is a simple uncertainty about expectations. This lack of clarity hampers the performance not only of the employees but of the entire company. Research has shown a clear increase in shareholder value by companies that can successfully focus their people on the right strategy.

A number of innovative tools and approaches have arisen to address this need. The same performance management tools discussed above, for example, also are helping set and achieve goals by enabling managers to communicate objectives and expectations to their workers in real time via a personalized Web portal. As a result, team members can change direction more quickly to align actions and behavior.

5. Link workforce actions to strategy and results. People cannot execute a strategy if they do not know what it is. One way to broaden the horizons of workers is to get them more closely involved with corporate strategy. In some parts of the world, employee participation on the board has been not only effective but even mandated by law. A less formal approach, through focus groups or employee forums, may be more appropriate for other kinds of companies. Involving people in strategy development gives them a higher commitment to their tasks and a sense of being a part of the overall organization's performance.

Using "causal maps," a graphical communications method, can help companies spell out exactly what the relationship is between their business strategy and employee behavior. These sorts of approaches are helping management and employees work together toward common goals and for mutual benefit.

6. Focus resources and new techniques on building skills and competencies. Once a company has effectively communicated goals to its employees and vendors, and it has implemented tools and programs for measuring performance, it must resolve any shortcomings in the entire "talent network" of the company, which may include not only its employees but also workers from external consultants, vendors and other companies with which it does business.

The most successful companies make available a wide range of learning, training and knowledge management programs to their entire talent network. And because knowledge becomes obsolete more quickly than ever before, companies need to take an enterprise-level approach, continuously refresh their training and knowledge management content, capabilities and infrastructure so that people always have access to the most up-to-date information. Because of these needs, which are also felt among a more global workforce population, new e-learning methods are revolutionizing training and development by providing solutions that are both more effective and more efficient.

The war for talent may be easing but good people—meaning those who excel at what they do, whether it is crafting corporate strategy, reading a spreadsheet, maintaining an aircraft engine or interacting with customers—continue to be in demand. Following these six imperatives will help company leaders ensure that their recruiting and retention practices acknowledge and encourage people's desire to learn, develop and grow.