Andrew J Warneck, Managing Principal, Korn Ferry Hay Group
Finding out what both executives and HR practitioners want, as well as knowing what we should know about learning and development, is crucial to making it more meaningful in organisations. Speaking about the findings from recent Korn Ferry research, Andrew J Warneck, Managing Principal, Korn Ferry Hay Group stated that while the 7,000 CEOs and Executives surveyed were looking to increase market share, surprisingly one of the major priorities they had was innovation and wanting leaders who can drive strategic change.
Amongst the big problems facing firms, firstly HR does struggle to get CEOs sponsoring development efforts and getting them onboard with training. Secondly, programmes are not being reviewed regularly enough—which is especially a problem with the millennial generation who are looking to build up their experience. What’s more, these programmes are not being aligned with strategic goals and unfortunately ROIs have proven not to be as high as firms wanted.
Looking to what we should know, the overarching theme is knowing how development happens. In this sense, knowing strategy is key but sometimes HR practitioners and CEOs are at odds. As Warneck said, “CEOs tend to talk about culture but practitioners talk about talent.” Firms need to ask themselves broadly if they are looking to keep customers, expand into markets, innovate or prepare for mergers and acquisitions. Different goals means a different L&D strategy is needed.
Then firms need to apply a diagnostic mindset when thinking about the kind of talent needed. What talent do we need? What talent do we have? What can we do to close the gaps? —and in particular, the last part is where L&D will come in. L&D can be a source that fills those important gaps—using the example of CEO Jeffery Immelt of General Electric who sprang up the ranks within 20 years, Warneck stated that, “Your next CEOs are sitting in your organisations right now.” As such, making sure there are programmes which adequately evaluate, identify and train employees on-the-go is critical to having future leaders. Such investment is risky—and sometimes five different job moves are required in those 20 years to make it right—but HR needs to manage the risk on high potential people early on.
Of course companies need to get to the heart of what are the core competencies that they need right now. There are many but a sensible level is around eight to 12 in total. But firms also need to look towards the future to see where there current employees will go. Ways are evaluating this are fourfold. First, firms need to see if an employee is competent to undergo a programme. Second, if employees have potential, they are more likely to take time to develop and are at the beginning of the process. Third, readiness means that the amount of development needed will be less but firms should be thinking about time frame for taking up a new role. Lastly, if an employee is at the fit stage, leaders can be in a position to ask whether the roles available will be a good fit for them.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
