Bench Strength

CHAPTER 10

K

EEPING

S

CORE

However beautiful the strategy, you should

occasionally look at the results.

—S

IR

W

INSTON

C

HURCHILL

One of the most common reaso ns that talent manageme nt strate-

gies fail is tha t CTOs and th eir executive teams fai l to periodi cally

evaluate the ef fectivenes s of th ese st rateg ies. Even in cases in

which such tracking is attempted , CTOs and ex ecuti ves don’t al-

ways employ metrics a nd measures that are clearly d efine d and

well-aligned with their organizations’ overall talent management

objectives.

Performance Metrics: Your Organizational

Compass

There are several reasons th at th e construction of effec tive metrics

is essent ial for the success of any talent management process.

First, a solid evaluation proces s ser v es as a conceptual compa ss

for focus ing organizational attention. You can’t , for example, deter-

mine whether you are improv ing in the performance area of ‘‘re-

taining top performers’’ unless you are able to clearly define

leaders w ho meet the c riter ion for bein g ‘‘to p performers’’ (your

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204 B

ENCH

S

TRENGTH

metric), and ho w you evalua te leaders in term s of th is dimensio n

(your mea sure) . In ad ditio n, a co mmon set of c learl y defined met-

rics helps to keep the disparate effor t s of differe nt organiza tiona l

members, operating companies, a nd depar tme nts focused on a few

critical measuremen t factors. In the s ame way, having a common

set of met rics allows you to compa re the progr ess be ing made on

bench-buildin g effo rts across d iffer ent or ganiz ation al units.

Finally, keep i n mind that t he eva luati on mea sures you se lect

send stro ng signals to your organizati on about how you define the

‘‘success’’ of bench -buil ding programs. For example, you could de-

fine succ ess in terms of ‘‘pipeli ne yield metrics, ’’ such as th e per-

centage of internal leadership p ositions that are filled internall y

rather than through external hir es. The use of such a measure will

direct your talent management ef forts along a very different path-

way from such alterna tive measur ement appro aches as eva luati ng

the quality of leadership placem ents (e.g., ‘‘the percentage of exter-

nal or internal job ca ndida tes who are p erforming in top apprai sal

categories twe lve months after hire, or afte r promotion into new

positions’’).

If perfor mance metrics are important, the qu estio n then be-

comes how to make them work for you . I rec ommen d that you

concentrate on five talent manag ement actions. As illustrate d in

Figure 10-1, th ese ac tions relat e to fi ve hur dles t hat yo u need to

jump in or der to design and i mplem ent effective lea dersh ip talent

metrics:

Step 1: Ensure Th at Metrics Are Relevant

and Valid

The metrics tha t you select should be very rel evant to you r tale nt

requirements. At first this might seem so self-evident as to seem

unwor thy of discussi on. After al l, wha t exec utive would bothe r

with a performance metric that di dn’t meet this criterio n? How-

ever, it’ s impor tant to realize that whether they intend to or not,

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Figure 10-1. Jumping the five hurdles that accompany the creation of talent metrics.

You need metrics

that are relevant

and valid

A baseline for

comparison

A measurement

system that is

efficient

A means of

reinforcing the

performance that

you are measuring

Does it measure an

aspect of talent

management that is

important?

Does it measure what

it says it measures?

Are we aligned on the

metrics we choose to

use?

Will we be able to

measure it when

needed?

Who owns the

monitoring process?

(HR, the CTO, or

another function?)

What are the best

comparison groups?

Should we limit our

benchmark study to

companies within our

industry?

How much emphasis

should be placed on

internal (historical) or

external

benchmarking?

What are the

consequences for

managers or

organizational units that

fail to perform well

against these metrics?

To what degree should

metrics be used as

advisory guidelines or

mandated policies?

Do we agree on the approach that we intend to employ to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of our talent

management efforts? Do we agree on who will collect this data and how it will be used?

Organizational stakeholders must be aligned on how metrics and measures will be employed.

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