Transforming Talent

95 Pages·2015·1.53 MB·English

Transforming Talent

Project Sponsors
Nigel Carruthers, LGA
Kerry Furness, Norfolk County Council and PPMA

Authors
Professor David Clutterbuck and Dr Julie Haddock-Millar

02/06/2014
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 4
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Report Structure ................................................................................................................................. 7
CONTEXT ................................................................................................................................................. 8
METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................... 12
RESULTS and DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................... 14
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 14
Challenges ......................................................................................................................................... 14
Talent management strategy ............................................................................................................ 16
Integration: A systemic approach ................................................................................................. 22
Succession planning ...................................................................................................................... 24
Leadership ..................................................................................................................................... 31
Equality and Diversity ................................................................................................................... 33
Defining talent .................................................................................................................................. 37
Recruiting and identifying talent ...................................................................................................... 41
Developing and retaining talent ....................................................................................................... 55
Facilitating Career Ownership and Accountability............................................................................ 66
Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 70
RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 71
Talent management strategy ............................................................................................................ 72
Defining, recruiting and identifying talent ........................................................................................ 76
Developing and retaining talent ....................................................................................................... 78
Facilitating career ownership and accountability ............................................................................. 81
Conversation 1: the inner dialogue ............................................................................................... 83
Conversation 2: systemic dialogue with immediate stakeholders ................................................ 83
Conversation 3: between the organisation and the employees .................................................... 84
Conversation 4: between social networks ..................................................................................... 85
Conversation 5: between HR, senior managers and line managers ............................................. 86
Recommendations for individuals and team .................................................................................... 87
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 89
CONTRIBUTORS ..................................................................................................................................... 95

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Figures

Figure 1: Data Analysis Process ............................................................................................................. 13
Figure 2: Results of Thematic Analysis .................................................................................................. 15
Figure 3: Level of confidence in the talent management strategy ....................................................... 19
Figure 4: Staff levels of confidence in the talent management strategy .............................................. 19
Figure 5: Approaches to succession planning ....................................................................................... 27
Figure 6: Organisational success in enabling workforce movement .................................................... 28
Figure 7: Employees willingness to change roles .................................................................................. 29
Figure 8: Diversity in senior organisational positions ........................................................................... 35
Figure 9: Nine-Box Grid ......................................................................................................................... 46
Figure 10: Organisation's success in identifying talent ......................................................................... 51
Figure 11: Method used to identify talent ............................................................................................ 52
Figure 12: Evaluation and/or measurement processes ........................................................................ 53
Figure 13: Methods used to develop talent .......................................................................................... 59
Figure 14: Effectiveness of talent development methods .................................................................... 62
Figure 15: Measurement of talent development approaches .............................................................. 64
Figure 16: Quality of career conversations ........................................................................................... 66
Figure 17: Communicating change messages ....................................................................................... 69
Figure 18: Five types of critical conversation for talent management ................................................. 82

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The intent of this project was to identify the key challenges facing the Local Government
Sector in talent management, how authorities are tackling those challenges and examples of
good practice both within the sector and in the wider world of employment. The need to
take a radical look at talent management and create new, more systemic (as opposed to
systematic) approaches is common to all sectors. Indeed, comparing the results of this study
with other recent multi-sector global studies, it appears that the sector is far from being in
the rear-guard of change – the need to achieve more with less has stimulated many
authorities to experiment with new, more flexible, more dynamic approaches that align
employee and organisational aspirations more closely. Our study, which consisted of a
survey, interviews with those responsible for talent management both within and outside
the sector, and an extensive literature search, identified five core themes the sector needs
urgently to address.
 How to create a viable and coherent talent management strategy. Standard HR
practice is increasingly inadequate to cope with the complexity of today’s rapidly
evolving, resource-stretched employment environment – examples of defined
practice in this area include, amongst others, BAE Systems, Birmingham City Council,
Danny Kalman Consulting, Manchester City Council, Sunderland City Council and
Warwickshire County Council
 How to define talent. How widely or narrowly should we define it? How do we
establish a sufficiently diverse talent population to meet evolving job roles? –
examples of defined practice in this area include, amongst others, Andrew Mayo
Learning, BAE Systems, Hertfordshire County Council and Unilever
 How to recruit and identify talent. Should we be trying to identify talent or find
better ways for talented people to identify themselves? – examples of defined
practice in this area include, amongst others, Hertfordshire County Council,
Nottingham City Council,
 How to develop and retain talent. Is it justifiable to invest developmental resources
preferentially in a “chosen few” high potentials? How do we balance the need for
specific expertise against the need for increased role flexibility? – examples of
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defined practice in this area include, amongst others, East Sussex County
Council/PPMA, Hertfordshire County Council and Unilever
 How to facilitate talented employees to take accountability for and manage their
own careers and self-development. What processes and structures will remove the
barriers? How can we engage people in constructive dialogue that aligns employee
and employer aspirations? – examples of defined practice in this area include,
amongst others, Adobe, Birmingham City Council, Manchester City Council and
Unilever
We present evidence from both within and outside the sector, exploring these themes in
greater depth and illustrating good practice. We provide a number of recommendations in
line with the themes that emerged and suggest critical questions to ask in relation to each,
and suggest five types of critical conversation to facilitate talent management as illustrated
in the diagram below.

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6

Retaining and Developing Talent in a Dynamic Environment:
Five Conversations to Harness the Talent Wave
Recruitment Development
Succession Retention
Planning
C3 Between the
C2 Systemic Dialogue Organisation and C4 Between
with Immediate Employee Social Networks
Stakeholders
Talent Management
Strategy
C1 The Inner C5 Between
Dialogue HR, Senior Managers
Employee’s Internal and Line Managers
Conversation
INTRODUCTION

The overarching aim of this research is to provide a platform to disseminate the latest
thinking and evidence around talent management across the sector and to prompt
conversation and debate around this with Chief Executives (CX) and Heads of Organisational
Development (OD) and Human Resources (HR). The purpose of this report is three-fold; first,
provide an in-depth review of the strategies and processes of talent management, talent
development and succession management in the Local Government Sector. Second, identify
the key challenges in relation to talent management. Third, begin the conversation around
what good practice might look like in addressing those future challenges, to stimulate
further debate, action and change. We identify and build on good practice talent
management to date, and challenge the areas where there is little evidence of their
effectiveness. A starting point for this research project is the recognition that, in an
environment of shrinking numbers and reducing costs, new service delivery models are
needed. Therefore it is an important time to review the people approaches and the
processes that go with them, both in this sector and in other sectors.
Report Structure
The first chapter provides the policy and practice context, beginning with an overview of the
LGA’s role in relation to Local Government and then identifying the reasons why the LGA
chose to invest in this research project. The second chapter provides the research approach,
describing the primary data collection methods and profile of the individuals and
organisations that contributed to this piece of research. The third chapter presents the
results from the survey and the interviews. This chapter is divided into five macro themes;
the micro themes are embedded within. Within each theme we situate the findings within
some of the current theoretical and practice-led debates. The aim of this chapter is not to
present a comprehensive overview of the literature but instead, signpost some of the major
discussion points rooted in the topics. The fourth chapter provides outlines our
recommendations and suggestions some of ways in which local government can begin to
address the systemic, strategic and process issues identified in chapter three.
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CONTEXT
The Local Government Association’s (LGA) 2013/14 top priorities for local government are:
reform of the finance systems to enable councils to have confidence their financing is
sustainable and fair; recognition of the importance of councils in contributing to economic
growth, jobs and prosperity; and supporting public service reform, delivering more effective
services for local people and holding other providers to account (LGA Business Plan,
2013/14: 7). The top priorities provide an indication of the challenges facing local
government and the increasing pressure to transformation service models, in large part,
triggered by the current spending review of public sector cuts of up to 30 per cent. Local
government’s funding is shrinking; conversely the demand for council services is rising. The
scale of the budget reductions and impact on staff numbers in local authorities is illustrated
by a number of HR practitioner interviewees.

County Council: “We’ve changed from about 11,200 and we are now about 8,200, we

have had to take out around £200 million. We have taken out over 30% in our middle and
senior manager roles.”

County Council: “We achieved £150million in savings in the last three to four years and
that is a similar figure, £189 million for the next three years. We’ve gone from about
11,000 down to 7,000 staff.”
City Council: “In 2011 we had 7,313 employees and as of the end of last month, so the
end of November 2013, we had 5,753. That is the scale of reduction. It is very
significant. (21% cut in headcount).”
City Council: “In 2009 we employed 21,000 at that point and to date it is 14,000 the
prediction within the next two to three years instead it was going to be 7,000 .”
City Council: “Since 2011 and we’ve just achieved £70million in workforce savings and we
are just over £24million within the next 4 years.”
District Council: “When I first arrived in 2002 there were between 400 – 550 members of
staff, now were down to 130; we are going even smaller, probably under 100 by April of
next year.”

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There is already significant evidence of changing models and practice. Just over a year ago,
the Municipal Journal stated that the overwhelming majority of local authorities have now
signed up to shared services initiatives to make combined savings worth £263m. Joint
working is just one of the ways in which local authorities will need to find innovative ways to
improve the efficiency and productivity of services and teams, particularly if the same
pattern of cuts be replicated in the next spending review. Radical reforms can only be
achieved by engaging the workforce at all levels in developing and improving their
performance and the performance of their organisation.
Local authorities recognise the need to find innovative ways to address the increasing
budget constraints and have brought it to the attention of the LGA through the annual
survey. Every year, the LGA asked its members to identify their top 10 priorities. In 2012,
local authorities repeatedly identified talent management as a top priority. This is not
surprising considering the significant downsizing of workforce headcount caused by overall
budget reductions and cost step changes triggered by the spending review. Many talented
people have left the sector, choosing to move into the private sector or third sector, taking
with them a high degree of tacit knowledge: operational know-how, insights about the
dimensions of the sector, region and locality, as well as business judgement (Hansen et al,
1999). The situation local authorities find themselves in is difficult: How do they downsize
without losing their intellectual capital? How do they identify knowledge and retain
knowledge? In most cases, local authorities have been in a state of crisis, needing to reduce
headcount whilst trying to retain critical roles and individuals. Local authorities have
grasped the need to develop their talent management strategy but few know how best to
address the issues they face.
Recent research and evidence has indicated that more flexible, dynamic systems that allow
for constant change are needed. But where do we start? It is undeniable that the word
‘talent’ is difficult. Questioning our assumptions about what talent is and, how we assist it in
becoming more mobile and flexible is fundamental in enabling a more dynamic and
responsive people, consumer and service focused organisation. This sounds perfectly
sensible but questioning our assumptions at the individual, group and organisational level
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requires a high degree of self-awareness, reflectivity and honesty -which can be difficult.
The problems with talent are many and varied:
 Talent often refers to the select few, less than 1% or even closer to 0.25% depending on
how ‘headcount’ is calculated. Can it really be the case that 99.75% - 99% of the
workforce don’t possess talent?
 Many organisations do not know who their talent is. Judgements about individuals are
often arbitrary, inconsistent and based on hearsay (Sorcher and Brant, 2002).
 When leaders look for potential, they can introduce gender and racial bias; talent
management programmes unconsciously reflect and promote traits shown by the
organisation’s mainly male leadership team (Warren, 2009).
 Employees and organisations are generally not very honest in their discussions about
succession planning issues.
 The language is inconsistent: talent planning, succession planning, workforce planning!
 There is not a single or concise definition (Ashton and Morton, 2005). The terminology
means different things to different people; a lack of clarity and transparency can create
confusion and tension.
 Talent management is often substituted for the term human resource management,
which can limit discussion to topics such as recruitment, leadership development,
succession planning etc (Mellahi and Collings, 2010).
 Talent pools or pipelines narrow focus to projection and progression rather than
broader potential and wider movement (Lewis and Heckman, 2006).
 The term talent and competitive advantage suggests that key positions and therefore
‘A-list performers’ have the potential to contribute competitive advantage (Huselid, at
al., 2005) representing an ‘exclusive club’.
 Charts and tables don’t reflect the complexity of the interface between the organisation
and its employees.
 Competency frameworks do not take sufficient account of the changing needs of jobs,
are not sufficiently flexible and are backward-looking rather than forward-looking
(Bolden and Gosling, 2006; Gravells and Wallace, 2011).
 Key activities such as attraction, development and retention can interact in negative
ways (Delery, 1998). The importance of alignment and integration with strategy,
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