How "Mature" Are Your Organization's Talent Management Processes?

Many organizations we engage with view Talent Management like it's some kind of exotic new discipline. The reality is that the functions usually associated with Talent Management (Recruitment, Performance Management, Learning and Development, Career Planning, Workforce Planning, Succession Management, Compensation) have been around for a long time. New technologies are allowing organizations to tie all these processes together and get true visibility into the business impacts of these functions.

We can usually tell how "grown up" our client's are by asking some key questions around the following areas for each of their Talent Management processes:

• What are the business drivers of the process? We're often met with a blank stare here.

• How frequently do you perform the process? Once per year or is it a constant, ongoing process?

• How standardized is the process across your organization?

• What kind of visibility does the process provide into key measures and organizational trends?

• Who owns the process? HR or the business - or both?

• What technologies support the process? Technology is an enabler of increased standardization, visibility, and process integration

• How integrated is the process with other talent management processes?

• What metrics do you use to measure the effectiveness and business impacts of your process? Often, another blank stare here.

Obviously, in depth analysis is required to determine how to improve your organization's processes. But by asking key questions you can learn quite a bit about where your organization is now, and where you want it to be in 1, 3, 5 or 10 years.

So what is your organization? Toddler? Kindergartener? Adolescent? Adult?

Just cast my vote to a poll on Phil Fersht's Horses for Sources outsourcing blog in which he asks the question, 'Will an economic downturn spark a new wave of outsourcing?' According to the results, I'm a contrarian in that I don't believe there will be a sudden uptick in the number of organizations outsourcing business processes. I say this looking through a narrow scope of the HR function. The bottom line is that I don't feel any looming slowdown will be severe enough for organizations to suddenly accelerate their offloading processes and personnel any more than they already are. In addition, a U.S. dollar that continues to get weaker and weaker will also render such deals less compelling from a pure economic standpoint.

In other words, I believe the thesis that the trend already in place for steady growth in outsourcing HR processes - primarily those that are high-volume, non-core, and standardized (e.g., benefits administration, compliance training, payroll, managed servicing and support of HR applications) - is the correct one. Check out the latest predictions and examination of the HR outsourcing supplier landscape from IDC's Lisa Rowan if you're interested in learning more about the numbers and what's behind them.

I think the majority of outsourcing over the next few years will remain limited to IT (e.g., managed services and support of HR software) and high-volume, administrative processes such as payroll and compliance training. Strategic, talent tanagement processes such as performance consulting, compensation planning, and creation of custom training programs will remain in-house for the most part as organizations evolve them to better manage today's, multi-generational and transient workforce.

As I thought about this distinction between non-core, administrative processes and strategic, value-add processes, it resurfaced for me a term that a really savvy (tongue-in-cheek) HR outsourcing marketeer or consultant must have come up with a few years ago when targeting senior HR and CLOs with their value proposition. The term I'm referring to is 'Learning Outsourcing.' I first came across the term at an ASTD conference in 2002. I'm sure it pre-dates that. To this day, some vendors offer a service line under this moniker. If anyone working in marketing for such an outsourcer reads this, I hope they will take the initiative to rebrand.

When I read or hear the term, I cringe. How can an organization outsource its ability to learn? What a false promise. What a slap in the face to all believers in the writings of Peter Senge! What's next? 'Leadership Outsourcing?!' OK. End of rant.

It may seem like semantics to some. After all, the term 'learning outsourcing' may be simple short-hand for more appropriate yet less catchy terms 'learning business process outsourcing' or 'training and development outsourcing.'

To me, simply reinforces how immature the business process outsourcing (BPO) market is. As a consultant, I do see corporate T&D departments looking for ways to re-engineer processes so they are accessible to global employees, partners and customers who can benefit from personalized, self-service learning utilizing the latest technologies. And like other HR functions, they will increase their outsourcing of IT platform management and non-core tasks such as the creation of online learning programs for years to come.

Will any get to the point of outsourcing their organization's learning? Only those that go out of business or sell out to someone else.

I stumbled across an article recently in MacWorld (link below) about an Australian software company that is enabling its Learning Management System to operate on iPhones and iPods. The company - ETech - is focusing its StudyWiz application on the education market for starters. The software will allow students to access media-rich content, take tests, submit assignments, or use social media like blogs.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/education/news/index.cfm?newsid=19758&pagtype=allchand ate

It's only a matter of time before these mobile learning platforms become prevalent in the corporate world as well. These types of mobile technologies are particularly useful to businesses like retail where workforces are scattered across far-flung store locations. Knowledge Infusion has worked with several retail clients in the past year that had been considering offering some type of learning via iPods. The iPhone just adds more potential functionality at the employees fingertips.

The vast majority of retail store employees don't have dedicated desks - let alone PC's - that would alllow them to complete online learning en masse. This technology could solve that dilemma by putting learning directly into the hands of employees where and when they need it. You can imagine a retail employee roaming the store floor, pulling up product specific information on an iPod or iPhone to learn how best to sell the products to customers. This also could link store employees across the organization together by enabling them to network (i.e. blogs, wikis) to share product sales tips and other information.

I've been skeptical of complex business transactions (i.e. not just buying an iTune or sending a text message) moving to a mobile phone platform. I think the challenge is the user interface and creating applications that are easy to use given the miniscule space to present the user interface. But the iPhone and iPod certainly could be used to make valuable information available to employees and allow them to pull from it where and when they need it.

Contributed by David Barron - david.barron@knowledge-infusion.com,

Principal Consultant, Knowledge Infusion

In this installment, we will continue to investigate the six

steps that I believe will lead companies to value in their software selections.

The six steps are:

1. Define Desired Business Outcomes

2. Define the Decision Criteria

3.Assess the Potential Providers

4. Engage the Providers

5. Conduct Software Demonstrations

6. Selection

Third step - Assess the Potential Providers

Now that you know what your desired business outcomes are

and you have defined the criteria that will comprise your final decision, you are

ready to focus on which providers to invite to the party. There are many

sources which can provide a potential list as a starting point; these include:

industry trade publications (IRHIM, SHRM, etc), independent consultants, other

companies you know who have just gone through an evaluation, or even a

potential provider (ask them who their competitors are). The list may start

with as many as 10 potential prospects.

My experience is that there are probably only two to four that

can REALLY meet your needs. Use the outcomes you have painstakingly defined and

the critical decision criteria as your guide. Don't get sucked into the "well I

see their name everywhere" mentality of choosing the providers. Marketing

shouldn't drive you to any one provider. Do your due diligence! I have

suggested that each potential provider do a 1 hour overview of their software

so that the client can get a feel of how the application flows, the navigation,

the reporting capabilities, etc. Sometimes that alone can disqualify a provider.

Once you have your final list, you are ready to formally

engage them in the process.

Next Installment - Engage the Providers

Contributed by David Barron - david.barron@knowledge-infusion.com,

Principal Consultant, Knowledge Infusion

In this installment, we will continue to investigate the six

steps that I believe will lead companies to value in their software selections.

The six steps are:

1. Define

Desired Business Outcomes

*2.

**Define the

Decision Criteria*

3. Assess

the Potential Providers

4. Engage

the Providers

5. Conduct

Software Demonstrations

6. Selection

*Second step - Defining

the Decision Criteria*

The first place to start looking for this information may be

in the Procurement Department. Some companies have specific rules on the

procurement process including whether an RFP is a required element in a

Provider Assessment. If there are previous RFP templates in place, take a look

at the types of things that your company typically views as important. If there

aren't any available or no rules in place, here are some key criteria I have

seen used before (not an exhaustive list, but a start):

Provider's Viability - In a market of consolidation, how

likely is it that this company will be acquired?

Provider's Vision - What long-term product and market

strategy does this provider have to support your long-term goals?

Product Roadmap and Commitment - How well defined is the

plan for future enhancements to the products you are evaluating? Is this a

product they are phasing out in the short or mid-term future?

Functionality Fit - How well does the product deliver value

to the desired business outcome?

Usability - This should be viewed from within and across

applications

Desired Technology Platform - Can you use your existing

technology investment to support the new product?

Customer Experience and References - What kinds of

experiences have other customers had with the product? Make sure you ask

references about their customer service experience.

Total Cost of Ownership over X years - Your company may look

at 3 years, others at 5 years. Make sure you include license or hosting

(depending on the model), maintenance, implementation, data migration and

interfaces, incremental on-going support, hardware and database costs,

training, etc

If you use others, please send them along. I would love to

have them.

Next Installment - Assessing the Potential Providers