Managing the Older Worker (by Peter Cappelli)

Experience counts, especially when a talent pool lacks tacit knowledge,

needs to meet unusual demands at peak times, or needs to contain

on-boarding and turnover costs.

 

Talent managers continue to complain about the job applicant pool. The problem isn’t lack of academic skills.  Poor   work ethics, lack of interpersonal skills and notenough work experience head the list of complaints. What’s missing is the tacit knowledge that  can only be learned on the job. Talent managers also complain they don’t have the time to train or develop employees, though they admit employees need skills to do their jobs. To find a pool of qualified applicants who have the experience needed to succeed, companies can stop looking to India and the developing world and instead look in their own backyards at the huge, growing pool of older workers.

Older workers do better on every relevant measure of job performance. They are absent less, have less turnover, have better interpersonal skills and are better at job tasks they have been performing for years. They are already trained, and many are not looking for career advancement. Nor do they cost more. Wages are higher for experience in the labor market because that reflects better job skills and performance, but there is no premium for age. Using retired employees, for example, is especially effective as it saves the organization the cost to on-board a new hire, or bring in a temp or contract worker, and the retirees also know the culture and the organization’s operating procedures.

Hiring Older Workers Is a Good Move

The growing life expectancy of baby boomers is an important factor driving the need to employ older individuals. Longer life spans mean people both want and need to keep working. Older workers often experience a fundamental change in their employment relationship related to age. This may happen via retirement policies or late-career layoffs causing them to seek new jobs or work in a different way. Older workers are also victims of age-related prejudice, which can appear as young as 40 for workers in some industries, and in the United States that is when legislative protections against age discrimination begin. In professions where skills are portable, it may be later, into the 60s.

Discrimination against older individuals is common and especially pernicious because it eventually affects everyone who lives to their life expectancy. The difficulty they face securing employment relates in part to misunderstandings about their abilities, in part to management practices that don’t allow employers to engage them, and in part to outright prejudice. To prevent recruiters from discriminating and to get older individuals in the door, talent leaders need to ensure their recruiting materials show older employees. They need to train recruiters to focus on experience rather than age — some companies have moved to phone interviews to reduce age bias — and they need to highlight success stories about older candidates. Employers are trying to figure out how to engage young workers, fixating on trivial differences in the interests of Generation X, Generation Y and whatever name comes next, while ignoring the massive workforce represented by older workers.

The biggest obstacle to getting access to jobs lies with younger managers, who are often concerned that hiring older workers will lead to conflicts when they are managed by younger supervisors. It could happen, but it won’t if talent leaders ensure younger managers know how to manage older workers, and if older workers are taught how to get what they need from younger managers. The military often has to address the supervisor-subordinate conflicts when junior officers lead older and more experienced personnel. To address these challenges, West Point rotates majors and captains from command positions back into the academy of leading in the field, and the issue of working witholder noncommissioned officers features prominently in those discussions. The Naval Academy takes a more structured, classroom-based approach to the topic through its required leadership course. Donald Horner, a leadership professor there, said the underlying model begins with an understanding of the attributes of the officers and of the personnel they command: How do differences or similarities in age between us affect the approach I should take to lead each group?

Different Management Practices Make Sense

Managing older workers requires a different approach than what is traditionally used. Trying to motivate employees with money, promises of promotions and career advancement — and at least implicitly with thefear of being fired if they don’t perform — doesn’t work so well with older individuals, who likely are near the end of their careers. Older workers are an asset for almost any organization, but they are not identical to their younger colleagues. Their reasons for working are typically different and can lead to mismatches with many employers’ management practices. Older workers may not care about an opportunity to compete for promotions. Those who have had career success already have experienced the joys and headaches of leadership positions at the top of hierarchies.

Those who have had less success in climbing the career ladder are unlikely to be motivated by the possibility of a promotion toward the end of their careers. They may not have the time left for the prospect of an eventual promotion to be attractive. It also can be a mismatch to focus on financial rewards. Money is of interest to older workers, but not always as much as for younger employees who still face financial challenges such as buying houses, funding college and saving for retirement. The third and perhaps worst mismatch is to rely on the fear of being fired to motivate and manage older employees. Few talent managers will threaten employees with dismissals to keep them in line, but many do fall back on the fear of being fired as a default management technique because they don’t offer much else to motivate and manage their workforce.

To make better use of the mature workforce, begin by offering opportunities to extend the employees’ working life. To become an employer of choice for this talent pool, companies should:

Lead with mission: Older workers are often motivated by the chance to contribute something. There are two parts to that sense of mission. The first is the importance of doing good, of contributing something important to the community and to others. To attract older workers, companies can highlight the social purposes their organization serves, perhaps assigning older workers to projects that target community interests and good works. A second more general aspect of mission gets at the more basic sense of being useful, of making a contribution. Individuals should be able to see the connection between what they are doing in their individual jobs and the service or product being produced.

Build social relationships: It’s important for older workers to develop and maintain relationships with others. GlaxoSmithKline builds social relationships and support systems for older employees via an affinity group. Its Prime Time Partners Network, which began in 2007, is targeted to mid- and later-career employees, and brings them together for lunch-hour meetings and other programs on life-phase transitions that focus on older workers and retirees who have come back for project work. Promote flexibility and work-life balance: Younger workers aren’t the only ones interested in work-life balance. Flexible work arrangements could include: when the employee works (outside the traditional 9 to 5); where the employee works (telecommuting); how the employee works (job sharing); and what the employee receives for working (benefits are dependent on an employee’s needs and stages of life).

Train to upgrade skills: Older workers also can be motivated by offering opportunities to upgrade their skills. The chance to learn new things can be compelling for older individuals who want or have to keep working, and training may be especially important for older workers whose self-confidence in changing jobs or roles is low.

Some companies expand these opportunities to alumni who may have left before retirement. A few novel arrangements have developed where companies make their retirees available to each other, effectively swapping them back and forth. Cigna, for example, has been bringing back its retirees for the past 20 years with its Encore Program. Under this program, Cinga retirees can work up to 80 hours per month. They are considered hourly part-time employees and as such can receive retiree medical insurance coverage and can contribute to their 401(k) plans.

Monsanto’s Retiree Resource Corps is built around an advanced database outlining the skills and competencies of its retirees who want to work part-time, full-time or on special assignment.

The Benefits of Experience

Older workers can meet special needs in organizations that younger workers cannot. Some of these have to do with talent management issues, including:

• Knowledge transfer: Older workers have tacit knowledge their younger peers have yet to acquire. Even in technical roles where knowledge dates quickly, experienced individuals understand issues around application and execution about which the latest college graduate has no idea. Attempting to capture all of the knowledge in advance of an older worker’s retirement is a huge undertaking. A good process to follow is to keep on the employee as a mentor, consultant or in-house expert, rather than trying to pay two employees during the knowledge transfer process or to copy down all the knowledge in advance. This process is cheaper and ensures the transition isn’t constrained to a fixed period.

• Mentoring: Experienced employees, especially those who have finished their careers and are officially retired, make excellent mentors for younger employees, as the former know a lot about the organization, no longer have a personal stake in office politics and can be objective. They typically are at the point in their lives where giving back and helping others is important, which can make them excellent coaches.

• Solidifying culture: Experienced workers, especially retirees returning to an organization, already know the norms and values and are able to pass them along to new hires in a credible way. “I was there when this happened” beats having a trainer tell a story about company history every day.

• Unusual demands: Older workers can serve as a just-in-time workforce for special projects, meeting peak/seasonal business demands and other one-offneeds. Using retired employees saves the organization on-boarding costs for new hires or temp or contractworker fees, and retirees already know the culture and operating procedures. Even if they are not former employees, older workers often have an understanding of how things work that lets them fit in and figure out what needs to be done without a lot of explanation. Efforts to make better use of older individuals in the workplace represent one of the greatest opportunities available for business. The question is, how long will it take for organizations to decide which way to go: be at the front of the trend and get the benefits first, or lose out by trailing behind?

Peter Cappelli is the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at The Wharton School, director of Wharton’s Center for Human Resources and co-author of Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order. He can be reached at editor@talentmgt.com.

Diskriminasi Diperlukan dalam Talent Management

Perbincangan mengenai pengembangan mutu SDM kini tengah disemarakkan dengan gagasan mengenai talent management. Esensi dasar dari gagasan ini adalah bagiamana sebuah organisasi mesti mampu secara konstan merekrut, mengembangkan, dan kemudian mempertahankan barisan SDM yang bertalenta tinggi serta berkinerja unggul.

Barisan SDM dengan talenta unggul yang menduduki strategic positions pada akhirnya memang merupakan life blood dari sebuah organisasi bisnis. Disini kita mungkin perlu menyimak sebuah ungkapan dari paman Bill Gates. Begini ia pernah berujar : silakan ambil 25 eksekutif kunci dengan talenta unggul dari perusahaan kami, dan dalam waktu tak berapa lama Microsoft akan langsung roboh.

Pertanyaanya kini adalah : lalu strategi terbaik apa yang mesti dilakoni untuk mampu mengembangkan talent management secara kokoh? Dalam kaitannya dengan hal ini, saya mencoba memetakan dua catatan filosofis yang layak digenggam manakala kita hendak merajut strategi talent management secara optimal.

Catatan yang pertama adalah ini : serangkaian studi empirik menunjukkan bahwa kehebatan sebuah organisasi bisnis sangat ditentukan oleh hanya 30 % karyawannya, terutama mereka yang menduduki posisi strategic/core positions. Ilustrasinya sederhana : bagi sebuah warung makan, posisi seorang koki adalah posisi yang amat vital; dan bukan kasir atau pramusaji atau bagian purchasing. Demikian pula bagi Microsoft, posisi yang amat penting adalah barisan programmer, bukan mereka yang duduk di bagian finansial, warehouse, ataupun bagian customer service.

Implikasinya jelas : untuk mereka yang menduduki posisi core, maka kita harus mati-matian mendapatkan talenta kelas dunia. Namun bagi mereka yang tidak menduduki posisi core, kita cukup mendapatkan pekerja yang standard saja, tidak perlu bagus-bagus amat. Alasannya sederhana : seorang pramusaji dengan talenta kelas dunia tak akan memberikan impak yang signifikan bagi kemajuan sebuah rumah makan. Demikian juga, seorang finance manager yang super sekalipun tidak akan memberikan dampak yang berarti bagi maju mundurnya Micorosft. Karena itulah, untuk posisi-posisi non-core ini kita cukup memelihara karyawan yang memenuhi standard kualifikasi saja – tidak perlu berambisi merekrut yang terbaik. Sebab efek diferensiasi dari posisi-posisi non core terhadap level kinerja perusahaan tidak banyak.

Sebaliknya, untuk mereka yang menduduki posisi core atau strategis, maka kita mesti bertarung mati-matian untuk mendapatkan talenta super. Sebab dalam posisi ini, perbedaan kinerja antara level standar dengan level superior akan memberikan dampak yang sangat signifikan bagi kemajuan perusahaan. Seorang koki dengan kualifikasi standar mungkin akan membuat rumah makan kita bisa terus eksis, namun kalau kita bisa merebut koki dengan kualifikasi kelas dunia, pasti rumah makan kita akan kebanjiran pelanggan.

Fakta diatas membawa kita kepada catatan penting kedua : perusahaan mesti mengalokasikan sumber daya waktu dan energi yang lebih besar (mungkin hingga 80%) untuk mengelola dan memelihara mereka yang duduk dalam posisi kunci (strategic positions); dan sisanya untuk mengelola para non-core employees. Nah, disinilah suka muncul masalah. Sering dengan alasan pemerataan, sebuah perusahaan memperlakukan semua karyawan dengan prioritas yang sama : semua mendapatkan porsi pelatihan yang sama, besaran bonus yang sama, dan kenaikan gaji yang sama.

Gaya manajemen a la sosialisme itu kelihatannya indah, namun dalam jangka panjang tidak akan pernah mampu membawa kita menuju kinerja puncak (gaya seperti ini mungkin lebih cocok untuk negeri Uni Soviet pada tahun 70-an dulu).  Sebaliknya, kita mesti mengalokasikan sumber daya yang berbeda antara karyawan core dan non-core. Untuk karyawan non core kita cukup mengalokasikan sumber daya pengembangan yang standard saja (ya, secukupnya sajalah….). Namun untuk core employees yang bersifat strategis, kita mesti mengalokasikan sumber daya habis-habisan untuk memelihara dan mengembangkan talenta terbaik mereka.

Dengan pendekatan semacam itu, kita tidak perlu lagi repot atau terlalu ambisius untuk mengembangkan semua karyawan (dan ini sering membikin kita selalu kehabisan energi). Kita cukup memfokuskan energi terbesar kita pada karyawan yang menduduki posisi kunci dan bersifat strategis (dan acapkali jumlah karyawan golongan ini tidak lebih dari 30% jumlah total karyawan). Talenta-talenta karyawan di golongan inilah yang mesti kita hajar habis-habisan. Dengan pola ini, kita bisa lebih fokus, lebih bisa menghemat energi, dan yang paling penting : bisa meraih hasil yang jauh lebih produktif.

Demikianlah, dua filosofi kunci yang mesti selalu dikenang tatkala kita hendak membangun sebuah sistem talent management yang unggul. Sebuah filosofi yang berangkat dari keyakinan bahwa : not everyone of us is equal. Sorry, kedengarannya ini agak diskriminatif, but this is a fact of life. Accept this, or you will be left behind the dust. (Yodhia Antariksa September 15th, 2008)

Is competency-based recruitment at a dead end?

An exploration of ‘strengths’ and how they may be poised to replace competencies as the new ‘gold standard’ in assessment.

By Jamie Betts, Solutions Consultant at Ochre House

Have you ever stopped to consider what it is about your role that you find truly engaging and absorbing? Have you thought about which elements leave you feeling energised and wondered how time has passed? Do you often marvel at how quickly your day has flown?

Or, perhaps, do you work on things you can do well, but that leave you feeling somehow low and de-energised… bored, even? Is most of your time spent doing something you are perfectly competent at, but which leaves you feeling a little bit empty and unfulfilled? How does this impact on your productivity?

Now think about your average recruitment process. The vast majority of recruitment and HR professionals invest considerable effort in assessing what an individual ‘can do’, since this forms the essence of the competency-based approach to assessment.

Competency-based assessment has been the focus of recruitment and selection for over a decade. Recruiters have bought into the approach, and trust that it’s delivering an accurate assessment of an individual’s ability to perform well in a role. We’ve been told it works, and we accept that, sometimes blindly and without basis in evidence, and we preach its virtues.

Today, though, some visionary recruitment and HR professionals using this approach are beginning to suspect that something’s missing. They are left with the feeling that it‘s not a true assessment of the person. It may be that there’s a disconnect between what the candidate says they’ve done, and what they actually do when in the job. Or it could be that their interview answers seem… overly prepared. Whatever the case, how can we explain the common occurrence of a candidate who meets all the criteria on paper, and is technically able to do the job, but once employed does not seem to be fully engaged or enthusiastic? What has gone wrong? Why does an assessment of a person’s level of ‘competence’ not lead to a great hire all of the time?

The growth of positive psychology has brought recognition that an individual who ‘can do’ and ‘loves to do’ the role is more likely to achieve higher levels of job performance. But traditional competency-based approaches only measure if someone can do something, not if they enjoy doing it. So, why aren’t we investing more effort in understanding each individual in terms of what energises them, or what they truly ‘love to do’? It would, after all, undoubtedly provide a more accurate assessment of their likely performance in the role.

One key factor may be that motivation; engagement and enthusiasm have traditionally been seen as more difficult to measure objectively. However, leading occupational psychologists have long believed in the importance of assessing an individual’s ‘motivational fit’, as it correlates well with future job performance.

Recently, valid and reliable psychometric measures of ‘strengths’ have hit the assessment market, enabling an accurate assessment of what an individual finds energising, or what they both ‘can do and ‘love to do’. Some forward thinking recruitment and HR professionals have embraced this development, and collaborate with positive psychology practitioners and academics in defining how strengths can be used in assessment for recruitment.

In this white paper, we explore the benefits of strengths assessment – and challenge you to take recruitment to the next level.

Creating and Evaluating Talent Management Success

In order to set and evaluate talent management priorities, begin with how the organization hopes to describe
its human performance capabilities and capacity in the future. These descriptions will usually be focused on
organizational strengths and areas of distinction both current and developing.
1. Plan
• Numerically define strategic strengths and competencies needed to achieve organizational expectations.
• Set goals that result in closing gaps in current competencies.
• Set specific targets based on adaptive competencies that must be acquired.
• Determine metrics that will demonstrate “bench” strength needed.
• Provide measureable (cost benefit analysis) business plan proposals that demonstrate the value HR proposes
as initiatives to supply and support the performance chain.
• Clarify executive endorsement among the possible HR initiatives.
2. Set Goals
• Identify specific, measurable goals that will predict success.
• Demonstrate the line of sight established between needed organizational outcomes and HR initiatives.
3. Invest
• Clarify how HR will realign generalists’ and specialists’ efforts to serve these initiatives.
• Realign HR’s budget to serve talent management initiatives.
• Take responsibility for growth by substitution and seek initiative-based funding.

4. Perform
• Integrate HR’s initiatives and budget to achieve intended organizational performance.
• Deliver on initiatives as planned, on time and within budget.
• Report progress in annual HR reports and in the human capital plan.
5. Measure
Compare outcomes to predictions, for instance:
• Core skill areas are experiencing higher retention than the rest of the organization.
• Core skill areas are compensated at or above the target relationship to market.
• Performance in core skill areas excels.
• High performers in core skill areas report higher than average employee commitment.
• Internal promotion rates in key performance areas are higher than average.
• Strong career communities have been established in core competency areas. (BARBARA BUTTERFIELD)

Work Life Balance ala Nokia Siemens Networks

Di Jakarta, karyawan Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) di Menara Mulia, kawasan Gatot Subroto, juga dimanjakan dengan sejumlah fasilitas. Mulai dari mothers room, mini golf, massage chair, fussbal table, ninetendo wii sampai shower room untuk karyawan yang ingin mandi di kantor, khususnya bagi mereka yang bersepeda ke kantor alias bike to work.

Belum lagi program ties up. Cukup dengan menunjukkan tanda pengenal karyawan (ID Card), karyawan NSN akan mendapat diskon saat menyambangi klinik gigi, optik, salon, kafe dan pusat kebugaran yang berada di area perkantoran tersebut. Selain itu, karyawan NSN juga mendapat diskon di Dufan, Gramedia, pelatihan ESQ, juga pembelian ponsel Nokia.

Oh ya, saban Rabu, karyawan juga bisa menikmati fruit day yang digelar di area break-out yang disediakan perusahaan untuk meningkatkan kesehatan dan pola hidup sehat. Ups, ada juga event mancing bersama, nonton bareng, paintball, jam session, health talk show, pengajian, dan ulang tahun bersama karyawan yang digelar setiap bulan di area break-out. Ada pula kegiatan olah raga rutin karyawan, mulai dari futsal, aerobik, yoga, badminton, pingpong, aikido hingga klub playstation.

Shinta Fitra Dewi dari project administration NSN sangat mengapresiasi program dan fasilitas yang diberikan perusahaan. Meski, karena kesibukan bekerja, belum semua fasilitas bisa ia manfaatkan. Yang pasti, mothers room adalah fasilitas yang membuat Shinta sangat senang. Maklum, sebentar lagi ia akan menjadi seorang ibu. Sementara acara kumpul bareng karyawan, seperti paintball, dinilainya bisa lebih mengakrabkan karyawan. “Karyawan NSN banyak, kami bisa bertemu di acara-acara semacam itu,” ungkap alumni Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, itu.

Menurut Irvandi Ferizal, Country HR Director NSN Indonesia, yang dilakukan pihaknya sejatinya bukan semata untuk kenyamanan karyawan dalam bekerja, tetapi juga merupakan cara NSN menerapkan Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Konsep ini memang dari kantor pusat NSN, tetapi implementasinya diserahkan ke negara masing-masing. “Konsep EVP ini dalam rangka employee experience, bagaimana membuat karyawan punya experience. Tidak hanya bekerja, tapi ini adalah kehidupan secara total di kantor,” ujarnya.

Irvandi menjelaskan, dalam konsep EVP, ada tiga tipe aktivitas: discover (hal-hal yang berhubungan dengan pengembangan wawasan dan inovasi), care (berhubungan dengan kesehatan, hidup yang lebih baik) dan network (berhubungan dengan hubungan interpersonal/sosial). Karena itu, disediakan beragam fasilitas yang tujuan akhirnya bukan semata hiburan dan olah raga. “Tetapi, kegiatan kekaryawanan dalam payung yang disebut livelife,” katanya.

Dengan livelife, NSN menekankan pentingnya konsep work life balance (keseimbangan hidup). Jadi, di samping aktivitas rutin karyawan untuk menghasilkan prestasi terbaiknya, diharapkan mereka tetap ada keseimbangan yang dipercaya akan memacu inovasi dan adrenalin positif dalam bekerja. “Yang dibutuhkan tidak hanya rational engagement, namun juga emotional engagement. Tujuan akhir dengan disediakan fasilitas tersebut, karyawan melihat NSN sebagai sebuah rumah. Apalagi, NSN adalah perusahaan telekomunikasi yang tentunya sangat mengedepankan inovasi dan knowledge management dengan fleksibilitas yang tinggi, papar Irvandi.

Untuk mencapai tujuan tersebut, tak hanya fasilitas, ruang kerja pun didesain agar memberikan atmosfer egaliter. Semuanya terbuka. Tidak ada ruangan khusus, termasuk untuk direktur seperti lazimnya banyak perusahaan. Di setiap sudut terdapat sofa, meja-meja bundar dan kursi ala bar, yang memungkinkan karyawan bisa bekerja di mana saja — tidak harus di meja kerjanya — dengan akses Wi-Fi. Konsep ruang ini untuk mendorong iklim komunikasi yang terbuka sekaligus kultur invovasi.

Sementara untuk pembicaraan personal atau empat mata, tersedia Phone Booth (ruang kecil ala wartel) dan beberapa ruang rapat dengan nama khas, antara lain tokoh wayang dan alat musik tradisional, seperti Kresna, Nakula, Arjuna, Sasando, Angklung dan Gamelan. Nama-nama itu diberikan oleh karyawan. Di mata Shinta, suasana berbeda yang dihadirkan di ruang kerja menjadikan karyawan lebih kreatif dan inovatif. “Kultur kerja di NSN sangat cair, atasan dan bawahan bekerja dalam satu ruangan,” ungkapnya.

Dijelaskan Irvandi, semua fasilitas yang telah disebutkan di atas sebagian sudah dimulai pada saat penggabungan Nokia Networks dan Siemens Communication, yang secara global berdiri pada April 2007. Akan tetapi, secara lengkap baru diluncurkan pada Desember 2008, saat integrasi kantor pusat NSN Indonesia yang sebelumnya tersebar di beberapa tempat menjadi satu tempat, yakni di Menara Mulia. Menurutnya, tidak ada investasi khusus yang dicadangkan. Pasalnya, fasilitas yang diberikan merupakan hasil efisiensi dari integrasi multioffice menjadi satu lokasi. “Efisiensi ini jauh lebih besar daripada penyediaan fasilitas yang diyakini mendorong semangat kerja karyawan,” ungkapnya.

Irvandi mencontohkan bentuk efisiensi dalam hal energi dengan digunakannya kaca-kaca di semua lantai sehingga tidak perlu pakai tirai atau gorden. Pukul 19.30, satpam berkeliling mematikan sebagian lampu yang tentunya mendorong karyawan harus pulang sebagai wujud work life balance. “Semuanya dilakukan dalam bujet yang terjaga dan tetap efisien. NSN tetap berupaya beroperasi secara efisien,” katanya. Menurutnya, banyak hal yang bisa dilakukan tanpa harus mengeluarkan dana yang berlebihan. Ia mengaku tidak tahu besaran investasi yang dianggarkan. Yang pasti, sejak NSN terintegrasi, yang tadinya ada 33 menjadi 17 kantor, kemudian yang di Jakarta dari tiga menjadi satu kantor, ada semacam efisiensi. “Dananya dialokasikan untuk karyawan agar bisa bekerja lebih nyaman dan lebih baik,” ungkapnya.

Irvandi mengatakan, tidak semua kegiatan dibayar perusahaan. Contohnya, kerja sama dengan salon, kafe, pusat kebugaran, dan lainnya. Begitu juga dengan kegiatan paintball games yang tidak murni gratis. Aturan mainnya, terlebih dulu didata karyawan yang berminat, setelah itu baru diberikan subsidi bagi karyawan yang berminat. Atau, kegiatan penanaman pohon di Gunung Pangrango, setiap pohon membutuhkan biaya Rp 108.000 untuk tiga tahun. Nah, karyawan NSN berkontribusi Rp 18.000 dan perusahaan berkontribusi Rp 90.000. “Tetapi kebanggaan dan partisipasi karyawan jauh lebih besar,” ujarnya.

Selain itu, perusahaan juga membangun NSN sebagai family dengan melibatkan anggota keluarga dalam program NSN. Seperti lomba gambar anak karyawan, dan hasilnya dipajang di ruang rekreasi di kantor NSN. Kemudian, penanaman pohon dengan melibatkan anggota keluarga yang ingin berpartisipasi. Juga, akan digelar Kid Visit to the Office untuk membangun rasa bangga pada anak-anak yang orang tuanya bekerja di NSN. Selain, tentu saja, melanjutkan pogram-program pengembangan karyawan melalui NSN Academy ataupun Pengembangan Leadership dan lebih mengeksplorasi program-program untuk mendorong inovasi karyawan melalui program sumbang saran, yang di NSN disebut IDEAS.

Diakui Irvandi, buah dari berbagai fasilitas dan kegiatan tersebut adalah meningkatnya hasil Employee Engagement Survey. Tahun 2008, Engagement Index NSN Indonesia adalah 71, dan pada 2009 meningkat menjadi 83,3. Sebagai pembanding, high performing company di tingkat global indeksnya 84. “Dengan segala inisiatif yang dilakukan, tingkat keterikatan dan kebanggaan karyawan yang berujung pada produktivitas meningkat secara signifikan,” kata Irvandi tandas. (SWA)

How Great Managers Define Talent by Marcus Buckingham

Normally we associate talent only with celebrated excellence — with a strong emphasis on the word “celebrated.” We look at Michael Jordan, swaying and knifing his way to the basket, and we know that neither his training nor his dogged determination are the prime source of his brilliance. He may have both of these, but, then, so do most other NBA players. Alone, these cannot explain why Michael shines. Deep down we know that his secret weapon is his talent. We look at Robert De Niro and we think the same: he has talent. Tiger Woods, Jay Leno, Maya Angelou, they are all part of the talent club. They are blessed with a secret gift. For most of us, talent seems a rare and precious thing, bestowed on special, far-away people. They are different, these people with talent. They are “not us.”

Great managers disagree with this definition of talent. It is too narrow, too specialized. Instead, they define a talent as “a recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied.” The emphasis here is on the word “recurring.” Your talents, they say, are the behaviors you find yourself doing often. You have a mental filter that sifts through your world, forcing you to pay attention to some stimuli, while others slip past you, unnoticed. Your instinctive ability to remember names, rather than just faces, is a talent. Your need to alphabetize your spice rack and color code your wardrobe is a talent. So is your love of crossword puzzles, or your fascination with risk, or your impatience. Any recurring patterns of behavior that can be productively applied are talents. The key to excellent performance, of course, is finding the match between your talents and your role.

This definition of talent is deceptively neutral, almost bland. Nevertheless, it guides great managers toward a momentous discovery: Every role, performed at excellence, requires talent, because every role, performed at excellence, requires certain recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior. This means that great nurses have talent. So do great truck drivers and great teachers, great housekeepers and great flight attendants. . . .

Regardless of the role and regardless of whether the excellence is “celebrated” or anonymous, great managers know that excellence is impossible without talent

Membangun Sistem Kompensasi Berbasis Person Value

Anda pernah mendengar sebutan “Manajer 1 Miliar”? Gelar ini pernah disematkan pada sosok bernama Tanri Abeng, pada tahun 1990-an. Ketika itu, Tanri Abeng yang menjabat sebagai CEO PT Multi Bintang, berhasil mengubah paradigma umum yang menganggap pekerjaan di industri manufaktur kurang memberikan gaji yang menarik dibandingkan industri lain seperti perbankan dan telekomunikasi. Apa pelajarannya?
Keberhasilan Tanri Abeng sebagai profesional yang dibayar mahal kala itu, sekaligus membuka wacana baru tentang sistem penggajian. Bagaimana fenomena “Manajer 1 Miliar” ini terjadi? Mengapa suatu perusahaan berani membayar seorang profesional jauh lebih mahal dibandingkan profesional lain meski untuk jabatan yang sama? Apakah evaluasi jabatan yang menghasilkan job value masih relevan di era informasi dan pengetahuan sekarang ini?

Menariknya, Alex Denni, Executive Partner Dunamis Human Capital, menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan di atas melalui Disertasi yang dibuatnya sebagai persyaratan untuk memperoleh gelar Doktor di Sekolah Pascasarjana Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB), 18 Agustus 2011, pekan lalu. Dalam Disertasi berjudul “Desain Sistem Kompensasi Human Capital Berbasis Person Value pada Perusahaan Agroindustri”, Alex bermaksud menggeser pandangan lama yang menyatakan bahwa manusia adalah sumber daya dengan pandangan baru yang lebih menekankan manusia sebagai aset paling berharga bagi organisasi. Sebagaimana dikatakan Jim Collins (2001), organisasi yang hebat adalah organisasi yang mempertimbangkan orang terlebih dahulu, baru apa yang dikerjakannya.

“Di masa lalu, mesin dan peralatan produksi dinilai lebih berharga dibandingkan manusia. Akan tetapi zaman telah bergeser. Sistem manajemen sumber daya manusia (SDM) yang berkembang di era industri mengalami transformasi menuju pendekatan human capital pada era pengetahuan dan informasi sekarang ini. Manusia yang dulunya disebut sebagai sumber daya, kini dinyatakan sebagai aset yang paling berharga bagi perusahaan. Aset penting yang dimiliki manusia pada era informasi dan pengetahuan ini adalah kompetensi yang dapat diukur dari kinerjanya di organisasi. Jika dijabarkan lebih detail, kompetensi dapat berupa keterampilan (skill), pengetahuan (knowledge) dan perilaku (behavior) yang relevan dengan pekerjaan atau jabatan tertentu,” papar Alex.

Alex menyebutkan, keberadaan seseorang di organisasi erat hubungannya dengan kompensasi. Menurutnya, sistem kompensasi merupakan satu dari tiga alasan utama seorang karyawan pindah dari suatu perusahaan, di samping perilaku dari atasan langsung dan ketidak-jelasan karier. “Sayangnya, tidak banyak perusahaan yang secara transparan mau mengomunikasikan penghitungan kompensasi yang diberikan kepada karyawannya. Dengan informasi yang terbatas, karyawan biasanya mencoba membanding-bandingkan apa yang dia terima dengan apa yang diterima oleh karyawan lain. Sebagai akibatnya, karyawan akan berpersepsi negatif terhadap perusahaan tempatnya bekerja,” kata Alex mengingatkan.

Alex menambahkan persepsi yang buruk terhadap sistem kompensasi dapat menurunkan motivasi karyawan dan berdampak kepada rendahnya kinerja organisasi secara keseluruhan. Lebih jauh lagi, persepsi yang buruk atas sistem kompensasi dapat menyebabkan organisasi kehilangan orang-orang terbaiknya yang pindah ke perusahaan pesaing. Karena itu salah satu tantangan yang dihadapi para pimpinan organisasi adalah menemukan cara-cara baru dalam mengelola sistem kompensasi. “Hal ini diharapkan dapat mendukung strategi organisasi dan mampu mempertahankan talenta terbaiknya untuk memenangkan persaingan yang semakin terbuka dan kompetitif. Di samping itu, persepsi yang baik atas sistem kompensasi dapat mendorong kinerja karyawan sekaligus meningkatkan daya saing organisasi,” imbuhnya.

Alex mengatakan penelitian yang dilakukannya berangkat dari cara pandang yang berbeda karena sesungguhnya yang menghasilkan kinerja dan yang menerima gaji adalah orang sebagai pemangku jabatan. Karena itu basis dari gaji pokok seharusnya lebih ditekankan pada atribut yang dibawa oleh individu, yang oleh Alex Denni disebut sebagai person value, daripada nilai jabatan yang selama ini berlaku.

Pada sistem kompensasi yang konvensional, nilai jabatan sangat memengaruhi gaji seseorang. Nilai jabatan adalah nilai relatif dari suatu jabatan dibandingkan jabatan lain di dalam organisasi. Nilai jabatan kemudian dilekatkan pada rentang gaji yang memberikan pedoman tentang gaji maksimum dan minimum pada suatu jabatan atau klasifikasi jabatan tertentu. Untuk menentukan gaji seorang karyawan yang duduk di suatu jabatan, biasanya manajemen melakukan judgment dengan mempertimbangkan latar belakang, pengalaman, gaji saat ini dan kompetensi dari karyawan tersebut untuk ditempatkan pada rentang gaji sesuai dengan jabatan yang ditugaskan kepadanya.

Dalam studi ini, Alex menjelaskan formula penetapan gaji pokok seorang karyawan menempatkan kompetensi sebagai determinan yang dianggap paling berpengaruh terhadap kinerja. Melalui sistem ini dapat dikatakan bahwa yang lebih dominan memengaruhi gaji seseorang bukanlah nilai jabatannya, melainkan person value yang dimilikinya. Sejauh ini belum ditemukan istilah person value dalam kajian-kajian yang menyangkut sistem kompensasi. Kajian terhadap sistem kompensasi lebih banyak membahas tentang job value yang dihasilkan melalui serangkaian proses yang disebut job evaluation (evaluasi jabatan).

Alex menambahkan, penelitiannya bertujuan untuk menghasilkan desain sistem kompensasi human capital berbasis person value pada perusahaan Agroindustri yang memberikan rasa keadilan kepada karyawan. “Perbedaan person value akan ditentukan oleh kompetensi yang dimiliki seseorang, yang relevan dengan kebutuhan organisasi atau jabatan yang dipangku oleh karyawan di dalam organisasi tersebut,” katanya.

Kompetensi merupakan atribut yang dimiliki seseorang dan dapat memengaruhi kinerjanya. Atribut yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan jabatan, situasi atau tugas tertentu dapat menjadi faktor penentu dalam menghitung gaji pokok yang akan dibayarkan kepada seorang karyawan.

Berdasarkan hasil penelitian ini, Alex menyimpulkan, sistem kompensasi berbasis person value memiliki kelebihan dibandingkan sistem konvensional karena berorientasi kepada orang sebagai pemangku jabatan. Dengan begitu rasa keadilan internal akan mudah dipenuhi dalam lingkungan kerja yang beragam di era informasi dan pengetahuan. Di samping itu, sistem ini dipercaya akan mendorong karyawan untuk meningkatkan kompetensinya guna mendukung kinerja perusahaan. (PortalHR)

Talent War in Football: Belajar Talent Management dari Liga Inggris

Kurang lebih 2 bulan terakhir ini Liga Inggris, yang jadi favorit tontonan favorit saya tiap week end , sedang menjalani jeda kompetisi. Namun kondisi libur tidak menjadikan Liga Inggris ditinggal fans-nya nonton sinetron atau kurang daya tarik. Kondisinya bahkan sebaliknya, tetap mantap…!!!

Berita-berita persaingan antar klub, issue perpindahan pemain, saling incar pemain bintang klub lawan menjadi berita yang luar biasa menarik. Adu strategi mencuri hati dan memikat pemain bintang, tarik-ulur nego antara pemain dan manager apalagi ditambah dengan ulasan media, seakan tidak kalah serunya dengan permainan sepak bola yang sesungguhnya. Sungguh fenomena yang mengesankan…..It’s a Talent War in Football….

Salah satu case yang menarik terjadi pada salah satu klub papan atas, jajaran Big Four, liga Inggris yaitu Asenal. Saat ini Arsenal menjadi salah satu klub yang cukup terguncang dengan fenomena Talent War dalam sepak bola. Bayangkan, Fabregas, sang Kapten tim yang sekaligus pengatur serangan pindah ke klub Barcelona lantaran ingin merasakan tropy juara, Gael Clichy seorang bek sayap yang energik pindah ke Manchester City, klub bergelimang uang, yang notabene saingan berat dari Arsenal yang berani membayar lebih mahal, dan Emanuel Eboue gelandang bertahan senior di Arsenal pindah ke klub Galatasaray Turki karena sudah mulai jarang dimainkan.

Belum lagi issue Samir Nasri gelandang serang penguasa lapangan tengah Arsenal ini terus-menerus minta untuk dijual ke klub lawan meskipun sudah ditawari gaji yang lebih tinggi. Hampir sama dengan Fabregas ia ingin berada di klub yang bisa memberinya tropy juara. Luar biasa….untung saja saya bukan fans-nya Arsenal, kalau tidak saya pasti sudah ikut kuatir tentang kemampuan, performa dan daya saing klub ini untuk menjuarai liga Inggris, terutama pasca ditinggal para pemain kuncinya, pasti kocar-kacir, apalagi ada beberapa pemain inti lain yang cidera.

Dan prediksi saya terjawab, dalam dua laga awal setelah liga Inggris dimulai kembali, Arsenal ditahan imbang New Castle dan dikalahkan Liverpool 2-0.

Nah sekarang, mari kita coba analisa case yang menarik ini dari sisi Talent Management.
1. Irit Rekrut Pemain Bintang yang Mature
Dalam kurun waktu 4 th terakhir Arsenal bisa dibilang agak irit rekrut atau belanja pemain bintang yang mature. Sebagian besar pemainnya adalah pemain muda potensial dibawah 25 th, yang bagus dari sisi skill namun lemah dalam hal mental & karakter. Tahun lalu sebenarnya Arsenal berpotensi juara. Separuh musim mereka berhasil memimpin dengan 7 point di atas MU dan 11 point di atas Chelsea. Namun beberapa kali mereka kalah pada laga melawan klub-klub medioker, frustasi dan finish ke-4 di bawah City.

Faktor mental dari anak2 muda inilah yang kurang diantisipasi oleh Pelatih Arsenal Arsene Wenger. Wenger terlalu mengandalkan pasukan mudanya yang masih labil dan kurang mengkombinasikannya dengan pemain bintang yang cukup mature, yang dapat menjadi teladan, motivator yang menjaga semangat tim di kala mendapatkan tekanan kompetisi yang demikian besar. Wenger tidak segera mencari pengganti pemain bintang senior yang sudah resign, antara lain Patrick Viera, Thieery Hendry, Mateuw Flamini & Gallas yang selama ini menjadi panutan.

Lesson Learn: Talent Readiness, tidak hanya dilihat dari aspek kompetensi saja, tapi juga Mental dan Kedewasaan.

2. Pemain Pelapis Kurang Siap
Setelah ditinggal Fabregas, Adebayour, Eboue dan Clichy serta beberapa pemain inti yang cidera, otomatis tim utama Arsenal bergantung pada pemain lapis kedua mereka. Para pemain lapis kedua ini, biasanya memang dipersiapkan sebagai regenerasi dari tim utama. Mereka inilah para kader pemain yang direncanakan untuk melanjutkan kejayaan sebuah klub, termasuk Arsenal.
Namun dari dua pertandingan awal dimana Arsenal mengalami 1 seri dan 1 kalah, terlihat bahwa para pemain pelapis Arsenal secara kapabilitas masih jauh dibawah tim utama dan kurang pengalaman bertanding di level liga utama yang penuh tekanan. Mereka belum siap.

Lesson Learn: untuk mempertahankan kejayaan sebuah Organisasi (Sustainability) dibutuhkan sebuah regenerasi. Proses kaderisasi harus disiapkan secara matang hingga tidak ada GAP Kompetensi yang terlalu jauh dari satu generasi ke generasi berikutnya.

3. Kebanggaan Klub Luntur
Pertanyaan yang menarik dari case Arsenal adalah,” Mengapa sebagian besar pemain kunci keluar dari klub…?”.
Salah satu kondisi yang jadi melatarbelakangi hal ini, yakni Prestasi Klub. Seperti yang kita ketahui, di eropa sana sepak bola adalah sebuah industri yang dikemas secara menarik lewat kompetisi atau liga, dikelola secara professional dan disupport oleh liputan media yang luarbiasa.
Sebuah Klub dianggap Tersohor apabila mereka bisa menjadi Raja atau Juara di negaranya dan Jadi Raja di Eropa dengan menjuarai Liga Champions. Inilah yang dianggap prestasi bagi klub sepakbola eropa, To Be The King of Europe. Tidak banyak klub2 yang bisa mewujudkannya, namun jika mereka berhasil, maka mereka akan masuk dalam jajaran elit klub eropa. Buat para pemain, masuk ke dalam salah satu klub elit eropa merupakan impian. Selain akan membuat diri mereka terkenal dan digaji lebih besar tetapi bergabung dengan tim elit, akan membuat mereka punya kesempatan untuk menyentuh, mencium dan menjunjung Piala Champions, Piala tertinggi di sepakbola eropa. Itulah kebanggaan mereka sebagai pemain sepakbola.

Sekarang kembali pada kasus Arsenal, secara historical, Arsenal merupakan klub yang masuk jajaran elit liga Inggris dengan prestasi 13 kali juara liga dan merupakan langganan masuk liga Champions. Secara prestasi cukup membanggakan sebenarnya. Namun berdasarkan data, terakhir mereka menjuarai liga adalah tahun 2004, yang artinya sudah 6 tahun mereka miskin gelar. Enam tahun terakhir ini mereka kalah bersaing dengan MU dan Chelsea. Hal inilah yang jadi pemicu krisis moral para pemain Arsenal, disatu sisi mereka ingin sekali juara, disisi lain 4 tahun terakhir pelatih Arsene Wenger kurang menambah kekuatan tim dengan pemain-pemain matang yang berkelas. Itu yang membuat mereka, para pemain kunci itu, menjadi berkecil hati. Mereka berpikir tidak akan menjadi juara jika tetap bersama Arsenal, dan jalan keluarnya adalah pndah ke klub yang berpotensi JUARA.

Lesson Learn: Kebanggaan terhadap Organisasi adalah salah satu factor untuk meningkatkan Talent Engagement. Buat para Talent bangga dengan organisasi yang mereka miliki. Dan itu bisa diwujudkan dengan mengembangkan performance dan meningkatkan prestasi organisasi.

Gak nyangka ya ? dari Bola kita bisa belajar Talent Management….hehehehe (Agustinus)

Strategic Job Families By Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Without the guidance of a strategy map, most human resources development programs attempt to
meet the needs of 100% of a company’s employees — thereby underinvesting in the jobs that really
make a difference. How can companies pinpoint the strategically significant jobs and ensure they make
the most of their strategic job families?

All jobs in an organization matter — otherwise, companies wouldn’t hire and pay people to perform them. Many jobs,
however, fulfill only the organization’s basic requirements and capabilities, not the ones that differentiate the company in its marketplace. Truck drivers, computer operators, custodians, receptionists, and call center operators are certainly necessary to their organizations, and their contributions affect organizational performance.

But while organizations see the importance of developing every employee’s potential — and acknowledge that every employee’s contribution can indeed improve organizational performance — some jobs have a much greater impact on the organization’s strategy than others.  It’s the role of  strategic management to identify and focus on those critical few jobs that have the greatest impact on the strategy.  This process, and its output, is what we call Human Capital Readiness.1

To measure Human Capital Readiness, the organization must first identify the critical internal processes in the organization’s strategy map. Within the human capital requirements in the learning and growth perspective, the organization identifies the set of competencies required to perform each critical internal process.

Strategic job families are the categories of jobs in which these competencies can have the biggest impact on enhancing the organization’s critical internal processes. (See Figure 1.)

Next, the organization crafts competency profiles, detailed descriptions of the requirements of these strategic jobs. An assessment gauges the current capabilities of the organization in each of the job families based on these competency profiles. The difference between the requirements and the current capabilities represents a “competency gap,” expressed in terms of the organization’s state of Human Capital Readiness. To close the gap, the organization launches Human Capital
Development Programs.

Step 1: Identify Strategic Job Families
To understand the importance of strategic job families, consider the example of Williams-Sonoma, the kitchenware retailer. John Bronson, vice president of human resources, estimates that a mere five job families determine 80% of his strategic priorities.  The Balanced Scorecard Collaborative’s human resources research, conducted through its Human Capital Working Group, corroborates Bronson’s observation.

Figure 2 shows the strategic job families for Chemico, a hypothetical manufacturer of leading-edge specialty chemicals.  Chemico delivers a customer solutions strategy by having its engineers cultivate personal and technical relationships with the engineers employed by its key customers. Chemico’s engineers generate innovative solutions to customers’ problems by tightly linking engineering and new product development.
Chemico’s Innovation theme consists of two strategic processes: Partnering (joint ventures), to improve the diversity and speed of new product development; and Applied Research, to ensure a steady flow of proprietary new products.

Chemico’s executives identified a strategic job family for each strategic innovation process:
• Partnering in Product Development:  Joint venture program managers — individuals who effectively manage the complexities of multicompany joint ventures.4
• Applied Research: Senior scientists — individuals with a mastery of narrow technical domains who develop new product applications.

Chemico’s Customer Management theme consists of two strategic processes, each with an associated strategic job family.
• Customer Partnering (Create Value-Added Partnerships):  Solutions engineers — engineers who work as consultants, applying Chemico’s products to solve customer needs.
• Order Fulfillment: Call center representatives — specialists who work in partnership with Solutions Engineers to ensure the quality and timeliness of product deliveries.

The Operations Management theme consists of two strategic processes, with a total of three strategic job families.
• Supply Chain Design: Supply chain Management (SCM) design specialists — individuals capable of leading a major reengineering of the supply chain process.
• Supply Chain Planning: Expediters — individuals who work the interface between customer requirements and internal supply chain processes to ensure results.
• Raw Materials Acquisition: Raw materials traders — specialists who operate in a newly established energy trading office to achieve significant cost reductions by working continually in the spot market to secure necessary raw materials.

The Social Responsibility theme has one strategic process and an associated job family.
• Environmental Performance Program: Environmental engineers — a set of specialists who have mastered clean air and clean water requirements, and the procedures required to satisfy these requirements.

Based on Chemico’s strategy map, the executive team identified eight strategic job families that together employ 100, or 7%, of the company’s total workforce of 1,500. Thus, the success of the organization’s strategy would be determined by how well the company developed competencies in less than 10% of its workforce. This is the essence of strategic focus.

Step 2: Define the Competency Profile
After identifying the job families that determine strategic success, the company must next detail the requirements of these jobs, a task often referred to as job profiling or competency profiling. A competency profile describes the knowledge,  skills, and values an employee needs to be successful in a given position. Human resources departments have a variety of
methodologies for creating such profiles, for example, interviewing an individual who best understands the job requirements.

The competency profile provides the reference point that the HR department can use when recruiting, hiring, training, and developing people for that position.

A competency profile  typically has three components:
• Knowledge — the general background knowledge required to perform the job. This would encompass jobspecific
knowledge (e.g., subject matter expertise), as well as surrounding knowledge (e.g., knowing the customer) that enables an
employee to tailor his or her general knowledge to the job context and working environment.
• Skills — the skills required to supplement the general knowledge base, such as negotiating skills, consulting skills, or  project management skills.
• Values — the set of characteristics or behaviors that produce outstanding performance in a given job. Some jobs, for  instance, require teamwork, while others are built around a customer focus. Matching values to the job is essential.

Figure 2 shows a simplified competency profile for seven of Chemico’s strategic job families. For example, solutions engineers function as consultants in their direct work with customers. They apply their know-how of Chemico’s products to solve customers’ problems. The general knowledge requirements for their job include a sound understanding of a customer’s industry and business model, and a corresponding understanding of Chemico’s products and how they could best serve the customer. The solutions engineer position requires consulting skills such as problem solving, project  management, and change management, as well as relationship management skills. The solutions engineer’s dominant value is to create trusting, enduring customer partnerships.

Step 3: Assess Human Capital (Strategic) Readiness
Next, organizations must assess the current capabilities and competencies of the employees in strategic job families.
Assessors can draw from a broad range of approaches to evaluate each individual’s performance and potential.
For example, an employee might perform a self-assessment against the job requirements, which he or she could
then discuss with a mentor or career manager. Alternatively, an assessor could solicit 360˚ feedback from several
individuals on various aspects of the employee’s performance. Again, the feedback would serve as the basis for a career-development dialogue.

Both types of assessment give individuals a clear understanding of their objectives, substantive feedback on their current
competencies and performance, and a game plan for future professional development. Because of its importance,
assessing human capital readiness — the strategic readiness of employees in strategic job families — should be treated differently from the routine performance management used elsewhere in the organization.

For many organizations, articulating their strategy through the structured discipline of a strategy map is a new experience. The organization’s strategy, focusing on major areas of internal change and development, often reveals an
absence of several essential strategic job families. At Chemico, for example, four of the eight strategic job families were
actually new to the organization. The joint venture managers and environmental engineers had been introduced only in the past year, and the company had just begun to hire individuals for the supply chain and raw materials acquisition  processes.

Chemico’s HR executive appointed a manager to lead an initiative to fill positions for these two strategic job families. The manager created job profiles based on the competencies the new processes required. The manager, along with the HR executive, assessed the current staff’s readiness to fill these newly defined roles.

As illustrated in the lower portion of Figure 2, strategic  readiness in these jobs (senior scientists, solutions engineers, and call center representatives) was between 50% and 75%. (The three key numbers shown — number of individuals required, and the number and percentage currently  qualified — are the heart of the Human Capital Readiness Report.)

The manager launched a human capital  development program to close the gap. She linked this program to the performance management program, making the new competency profiles part of the personal objectives and development plans of the scientists, solution engineers, and call center representatives.

Step 4: Institute a Human Capital Development Program
The strategy map provides focus to an organization’s human resources programs — the recruiting, training, and career planning — that develop its human capital. Without the guidance of a strategy map, most HR development programs attempt to meet the needs of 100% of the workforce, and therefore underinvest in the jobs that really make a difference. By focusing human capital investments and development programs on the relatively small number of employees
(often less than 10%) in “strategic” jobs, organizations can achieve breakthrough performance faster and less expensively.

The Strategic Job Family Model allows the organization to do just this. (See Figure 3.) Focusing HR programs on the  critical few jobs that are pivotal to the organization’s strategy helps accelerate action and enhances efficiency in spending. But this approach implies that 95% of a company’s employees are “nonstrategic” and that the company could ignore their
legitimate development needs. A second development approach, the Strategic Values Model, begins with the premise
that strategy is everyone’s job — that strategy involves a set of values and priorities that should be incorporated into
every employee’s objectives and actions.

Clearly, both of these models are legitimate. Both fit our definition of focus and have been used successfully in practice. And both, we believe, are necessary for success. In our experience, they cannot be run as one integrated program. The programs to develop the competencies of individuals in strategic job families should be segregated and funded separately, just as capital investments are funded and managed separately from annual operational spending programs. The progress a company makes in closing the competency gaps in its strategic job families is the basis for reporting on strategic human capital readiness.

Road Map to Strategic Readiness
Human capital must be aligned to strategy if the organization is to gain value from its employee competencies.
The strategy map identifies the few internal processes that are critical to the strategy. These critical processes
determine the focused set of strategic job families that provide organization its strategic differentiation. By developing competency profiles for the strategic job families, HR executives can then apply standard assessment
approaches to measure human capital readiness and strategic competency gaps. The gaps, in turn, set the agenda
for human capital development programs that will increase the organization’s strategic human capital readiness.

Creating a Culture of Employee Engagement (By Katharine Esty and Mindy Gewirtz)

Have you ever asked yourself, just how many of the employees in my organization are really engaged? If you believe it is about half, you may actually be overestimating the number.

According to a recent Gallup study on employee engagement, about 54 percent of employees in the United States are not engaged and 17 percent are disengaged. Only 29 percent are engaged. Think about the potential opportunity for human resources to tackle this challenge. In this article we present the business case for engagement you can share with your leaders and a model for creating and implementing a culture of engagement.

Definition of employee engagement

Employee engagement is defined in many ways including, “we know it when we see it.”

We prefer the following definitions:

• Employees are engaged when many different levels of employees are feeling fully involved and enthusiastic about their jobs and their organizations.
•  Engagement is the willingness and ability to contribute to company success � the extent to which employees put discretionary effort into their work, in the form of extra time, brainpower and energy” according to a Towers Perrin study.

 

The Business Case for Engagement

As human resource professionals, we have intuitively known for years that an engaged workforce provides many intangible benefits and can be linked to retention. In the past five years quantitative research studies have provided HR with a compelling business cases regarding the upsides of an engaged workforce and the downsides of an unengaged workforce.

The following are two specific examples of hard data linking an engaged workforce with increased profitability and an unengaged workforce with decreased profitability. Highly engaged employees outperform their disengaged colleagues by 20 to 28 percent according to the Conference Board, 2006. A 2005 study by Serota Consulting of 28 multinational companies found that the share prices of organizations with highly engaged employees rose by an average of 16 percent compared with an industry average of 6 percent.

There are also costs associated with a disengaged workforce. Disengagement has been found to cost between 243 to 270 billion dollars due to low productivity of this group according to a 2003 Gallup poll. In one 2003 study by ISR, companies with low levels of employee engagement found that their net profit fell by 1.38 percent and operating margin fell by 2.01 percent over a three year period. Conversely, companies with high levels of engagement found that their operating margins rose by 3.74 percent over a three year period.

 

The employee engagement model

We have developed a model that lays out the roadmap to increase employee engagement. A major point is our conviction that the best way to increase employee engagement is to focus on creating a culture of engagement. We define culture as including the practices, shared mindset and ethos of an organization. Once the culture is created, engagement becomes ‘the way we do things around here’ and it does not have to be recreated year after year.

On the left side of the model are the five most important drivers of a culture of engagement. We selected these five after reviewing a wide range of research studies. Each driver must be translated into practical systems, practices and structures that are embedded in the organization.

• Two-way feedback
  Most organizations do well in terms of communication down from management to employees. What are often missing are mechanisms for employees to communicate up on a regular basis. Relying on a suggestion box and an annual employee survey just doesn’t do the job. Two helpful ways to ensure the upward flow of feedback are employee town meetings and quarterly, brief, online surveys the capture the changing concerns of employees.
• Trust in leadership
  Trust can be shattered instantly when executives appear to suddenly change directions or seem to break promises. Building trust is a slower process. Executives build trust by developing a clear vision of the organizations’ future and communicating this to all employees.
• Career development
  Engagement levels rise when there is a formal career development system that includes components such as formal career tracks, mobility systems to help employees move about in the organization, and annual career conversations.
• Employees understand their role in success
  Employees need to understand how their job fits into the big picture and what they must do more of and do differently to help the business succeed. HR can help by clarifying what are the competencies, the capacities that this particular organizations needs to grow and helping employees upgrade their skills to match the needs of the future.
• Shared decision making
  When employees participate in making decisions, they take feel more engaged in the organization. Decision-making needs to be pushed down to the lowest possible level.

 

Three tools

There are dozens of tools and programs that can help increase employee engagement. Here are three programs they we have found particularly effective:

• Coaching program for new hires
  Since research has shown that the first day at an organization is a key factor is determining the level of employee commitment and engagement in the years ahead, what happens as a new hire comes on board is critical. “Learning the Ropes” developed at the MITRE Institute provides a new hire with a coach for the first six weeks. The coach, who is someone in the work group of the new employee, spends time (usually lunch) with the new employee on his or her first day and then on a weekly basis over the next several weeks. They become a valued guide through the confusing maze of a new workplace.
• Career conversations
  A formal career conversation program ensures that managers sit down with each of their direct reports on a yearly basis to discuss their career advancement and career plans. These discussions can focus and inspire employees and also managers can spot employees whose job fit is not right before they jump ship.
• Large group meetings
  The level of engagement skyrockets when 60 to 600 employees representing all parts of an organization gather together to give input to the organization, These meeting can be used to review a vision, plan for the future, review progress to date, or introduce a new program such as an employee engagement initiative. This is the best way to reach all employees when there is an important message or a shift in direction.

 

Measuring employee engagement

Most companies (75 percent) try to measure employee engagement at this point in time. In addition to the reported level of engagement, organizations use measures such as retention, organizational performance, increased productivity, and financial success.

Overall, employee engagement is one of today’s most important business issues. It is a place where we as HR are in a position to make a real difference.

Katharine Esty, PH.D., an organizational psychologist by training, is a founder of Ibis Consulting Group, Inc. which specializes in strategic planning, organizational development and diversity. Her expertise is in diversity. group facilitation and the future search methodology.

Mindy Gewirtz, PH.D., is president and founder of Collaborative Networks. In her 18 years of experience, she has partnered with all levels of management-from family-owned businesses to global corporations in high-tech, manufacturing, risk management and professional service firms.