Building Blocks of Effective

Talent Management System

for organization excellence-1
Introduction
Successful organizations proactively and
systematically take action to ensure that they
have the human resource capability to meet
their current and future business
requirements.
 These organizations have made talent
management a critical force in their drive for
excellence.
 Although there are a variety of approaches
to talent management, experience and
research indicates that the underlying model
used by high-performing organizations
consists of three linked elements:

Creed- Strategy-
1. Talent Creed
A talent management creed is composed of a widely
publicized set of core principles, values, and
mutual expectations that guide the behaviour
of an institution and its people.
Collectively, the stated principles depict the type
of culture an organization strives to create to
achieve its unique portrait of success.
The principles of the creed are embedded into
both talent management strategy and in
talent management system by incorporating its
doctrines into selection criteria, competency
definitions, performance criteria, and internal
selection and development processes.
2. Talent Strategy
A talent strategy makes explicit the type of
investments an organization makes today in
the people whom it believes will best help it
achieve competitive excellence in the future.
A talent management strategy views a
workforce as a portfolio of human resource
assets that are differentiated based on an
assessment of each person's current and
potential contribution to organization
success.
The types of people that will receive different
types of investment are rooted in the
organization's talent creed.
It has been found that, regardless of the
content of an organization's creed, the talent
strategies of most high performing
organizations contain the following three
directives:
2.1. Cultivate the Superkeeper.
2.2. Retain key position backups.
2.3. Appropriately allocate training,
rewards, education, assignments, and
develoment (TREADs).
2.1. Cultivate the Superkeeper
This directive involves the identification,
selection, development, and retention of
Superkeepers.
Superkeepers are a very small group of
individuals (about 3 percent of an
organization) who have demonstrated
superior accomplishments, have inspired
others to attain superior accomplishments,
and embody the creed, core competencies,
and values of their organization.
Their loss or absence severely inhibits
organization growth because of their
disproportionately powerful impact on
current and future organization performance.
2.2. Retain Key Position Backups

 The second directive comprises the identification and

development of high-quality replacements for a small number of
positions designated as key to current and future organization
success.
 Gaps in replacement activity for incumbents in key positions are
highly disruptive, costly, and distracting to an organization.
 To achieve organizational excellence, key positions should be
staffed by, and have replacements that have, historically
exceeded organization performance expectations, show a
commitment to develop others, and are role models for the
organization's creed.
 One of the most important talent management decisions the
organization will make is the designation of key positions.
 Every organization likes to think of all its positions as key and
estimated that, when honestly rationalized, no more than 20
percent of an organization's jobs should be designated as key.
There are a number of useful criteria for determining whether a
position is key.
Following is a short list of some of them:

 Immediacy: The short-term loss of the incumbent would

seriously affect profit, revenue growth, operations, work
processes, products, services, employee morale, stakeholder
satisfaction, competitive advantage, or the prestige of the
organization.
 Uniqueness: The position requires a competency or set of
competencies that is, or will be, unique to the organization
or its industry.
 Demand: The job market for incumbents holding the
position is tight now or will be in the future.
 Strategic Impact: The loss of a qualified incumbent for even
a modest amount of time would affect the future success of
the organization.
 Basic: The organization could not survive without the
incumbent.

2.3. Allocate TREADs Appropriately

TREADs refer to investments made by an

organization today in the form of training, rewards,
education, assignments, and development activities.
The return on most of these investments, however,
will not be realized until the future.
To properly invest its TREADs, an organization must
classify each of its employees based on his or her
actual or potential for adding value to the
organization.
The employee groups, for investment purpose, can
be classified on the basis of their level of
performance and competencies, their leadership
and development of others, and their position as
role models for the organization's creed.
These classifications are as follows:

 Superkeepers those employees who greatly exceed

expectations now and are projected to do so in the future (3
percent);
 Keepers, those employees who exceed expectations now and
are projected to do so in the future (20 percent);
 Solid Citizens, those employees who meet organization
expectations (75 percent); and
 Misfits, those employees who are below organization
expectations (2 percent). Employees are placed in this
category when they are either weak performers or lack the
competencies for doing their job.
 Poor allocation of TREADs can lead to unwanted turnover,
morale, and performance problems, particularly in
Superkeeper and Keeper groups.
 In the best performing organization, 5 percent of the resources
are allocated to the Superkeepers, 25 percent of the
resources are allocated to the Keepers, 68 percent of the
resources are allocated to the Solid Citizens, and 2 percent go
to resurrecting some of the Misfits with potential for
performance improvement.
3. Talent Management System
Once an organization commits to excellence by embracing a creed
and a strategy, the two strategic talent management drivers
explained above, it will need to put into place a human resources
system to ensure talent management implementation.

 A talent management system is a set of procedures and

processes that translate an organization's talent creed and
strategy into a diagnostic and implementation program for
achieving organization excellence.

Most successful talent management systems consist of the following

four components:
3.1. Assessment tools,
3.2. Multi-rater assessment,
3.3. Diagnostic tools, and
3.4. Monitoring processes
3.1. Assessment Tools
 Successful organizations use a talent management model that
contains the five assessment tools, or building blocks, listed
below.
 The assessment tools should be linked to ensure that each
assessment is consistent with the other four evaluations.
 Collectively, the assessments can serve as the basis for making
investment decisions consistent with the three part strategy
outlined above.
3.1.1Competency Assessment.
Competencies are the building blocks of a talent management
system.
They are any behavior, skill, knowledge, or other type of stated
expectation that is crucial to the success of each employee and
to the success of the entire organization.
 Competencies used for employee assessment must always
include the organization's creed.
 Research has determined that most organizations use between
four and nine competencies in their talent management process.
3.1.2 Performance Appraisal:
A performance appraisal is a measurement of actual results achieved
within those areas for which the employee is held accountable and/or
the competencies deemed critical to job and organization success.
There are number of ways organizations measure employee performance.
3.1.3. Potential Forecast:
A potential forecast is a prediction of how many levels
(organization/job) an employee can progress within an
organization based on his or her past or current performance
appraisals, training and development needs, career preferences,
and actual and projected competency levels and positions that
represent realistic future job opportunities.
 Like any forecast, an individual's potential is subject to periodic
evaluation. It is heavily influenced by the quality of the input provided
by different assessor groups and by a variety of situational factors
associated with job conditions at different moments in time.
 Murray Dalziel, Prof. from Harward, feels that collectively three
critical attributes can be used to assess potential no matter what
assessment process or rating system is used. These attributes are
as follows:
 "How does the individual set his or her business agenda?"
 "How does the person take others with him or her?"
 "How does the person present him or herself as a leader?"
3.1.4. Measurement Scales for Performance and Potential:
 Simple five-point scale is used to measure performance and
potential. The most common scale for performance
measurement is as follows:
 greatly exceeds expectations (5),
 exceeds expectations (4),
 meets expectations (3),
 below expectations (2),
 greatly below expectations (1).

 The most common scale for potential assessment is:

 high potential (5),
 promotable (4),
 lateral or job enrichment (3),
 marginal (2),
 none (1).
These scales are simpler is better. The scales are straightforward
and they achieve credible results.
3.1.5. Succession Planning & Career
planning:
 Succession Planning :In the broadest
sense, the process that seeks to identify
replacement candidates for current
incumbents, and potential future job
openings, and to assess the time frames in
which they can move to these positions.
 Career Planning: This process identifies
potential next steps in an employee's career
and his or her readiness for movement to new
positions. Career planning merges the
organization's assessment of employee
growth readiness (succession plan), employee
career preferences, and the likelihood that
3.2. Multi-rater assessment
The best talent management systems utilize the input on
an ongoing basis of different raters.
Critical assessments come from the "vertical and
horizontal organization," because most decisions on
succession planning, career planning, and job
assignments require the approval and ownership of
progressively higher levels of management as well as
different functions.
Performance appraisals almost always are confirmed by
two levels of supervision.
This multi-rater approach should be utilized in the other
types of assessment and extended to more assessors.
The addition of assessors and assessment tools
necessitates a reconciliation process to ensure a
consistent and mutually agreeable basis upon
which TREADs investments can be made.
Final assessment, and decisions, regarding
upward mobility or job reassignment must
minimally include input from the following:
Employee. The owner of the career plan that
is aligned with the succession plan.
Boss. The primary assessor who, in most
cases, is most familiar with the employee.
Boss's boss. The key link in the vertical
succession and career plan.
Boss's peer group. Source of potential new
assignments in the same or other function.

3.3. Diagnostic Tools

Diagnostic tools are analytical devices an organization uses

to convert the assessment of its people into a talent
management plan. The five core diagnostic tools that are
typically used by high performing organizations involve
identifying the following strategic drivers:
3.3.1. Superkeeper reservoir. Superkeepers are
employees whose performance greatly exceeds
expectations, who inspire others to greatly exceed
expectations, and who embody institutional competencies
(including the creed). An organization must ensure that it
has a cadre of these critical employees, since they will
ensure its sustainability.
3.3.2. Key position backups. The "insurance policies"
that ensure organization continuity. Every key position
should have at least one backup at the "Keeper" (exceed job
expectations) level.
3.3.3 Surpluses.
Positions with more than one replacement for an
incumbent. While ostensibly a positive result of the
talent management process, it can be a potential
source of turnover and morale problems if the
replacements are blocked by a non-promotable
incumbent and/or there is no realistic way most of the
promotable replacements can advance
3.3.4. Voids. Positions without a qualified backup.
Once voids are identified, the organization should
determine whether it will transfer someone from the
surplus pool, develop alternative candidates, or recruit
externally.
3.3.5. Blockages. Non-promotable incumbents
standing in the path of one or more high-potential or
promotable employees.

3.3.6. Problem employees. Those not
meeting job expectations (measured
achievement or competency proficiency).
They should be given the opportunity to
improve, receive remedial action, or be
terminated. The time frame for observed
improvement should be no longer than six
months.
3.3.7. TREADs allocation. The value of
investments in training, rewards, education,
assignments, and development based on an
employee's current and projected
contribution to the organization-that is, the
investment in Superkeepers and Keepers, key
position backups, and solid citizens. See
allocation of TREADS above.
3.4. Monitoring the Process
The robustness of any talent management
process should be periodically measured to
ensure that it continues to be effective.
Monitoring enables an organization to fine-
tune its talent management system on an
ongoing basis in accordance with its creed and
talent management strategy.
The best-performing companies minimally use
the following four broad measures:
Quality. Is the talent management strategy
delivering results as measured by the
maintenance of a sufficient reservoir of
Superkeepers and backups for key positions
with at least Keeper-level replacements?
Are TREAD investments aligned with actual and
forecasted employee contribution? Are the results
of the talent management process seen at tactical
levels, as evidenced by higher organization
performance, lower turnover rates, reduction in
both voids and surpluses, weeding out of the
misfits, employee performance distributions aligned
with overall company performance, pay decisions
aligned with performance, and high levels of
employee engagement and morale?
Timeliness. Does the talent management system
work in a stated time frame or is it viewed as too
protracted as a decision-making process?
Credibility. Are management and employees
engaged by system? Do people believe the system
works and is fair?