Companies can hire talented people to fill management positions, but the best firms prefer to develop the talent of their executives themselves.
If human talent is vital for the good performance of organizations, why don't employers worry about its development ?
When analyzing the human resource training area in any company (that has this area designed), it is surprising to find that the resources allocated to the area are very scarce, perhaps because employers think that talent springs innately from their personnel. Or because they do not understand that the more developed their human resource is, the greater the business benefits will be in terms of a sense of belonging and obviously performance.
The first major mistake made by employers lies in the conception that their staff is satisfied in the conditions in which it finds itself. This is because periodic evaluations are not carried out to measure the levels of motivation of the human resource, much less the sense of belonging by the company. Companies believe that by paying wages at market levels they can demand progress in the organization's performance, without taking into account that outside, in the same market, there are companies that are interested in the development of their human resources. Herein lies one of the main factors why companies go into decline.
The second big mistake is to believe that the best way to have the optimal human resource is recruitment through external sources. Companies that make this mistake prefer to hire executives who have demonstrated their talents at other firms, regardless of whether they operate in a similar sector or are related in any way to their own.
This strategy is more expensive than the training and development of the own plant and what is worse, with it the concepts of organizational culture, sense of belonging and institutional memory are sacrificed, in addition, the executives who are recruited in this way tend to become in "mercenaries" who are not very interested if in two years they change companies more than twice in order to earn more. Likewise, it generates total demotivation to own employees who observe how an external character comes to occupy the position they aspire to.
Bad strategy: Companies that are unable to develop their own human talent are generally also unable to recruit talented people externally
Although organizations develop their personnel in different ways, for example, external training, feedback and coaching, successful companies in developing their human talent agree that experience, performing the right positions, turns out to be the best personnel skills developer..
To advance the human resource development strategy through experience, it is necessary to consider four key factors:
1. The structure of the position
2. Rotation of posts
3. Challenges of the position
4. Accompaniment
The first factor has to do with the structure of the positions to be performed by the trainees. These positions must have a double dimension, on the one hand they must contain higher levels of authority and responsibility and, on the other hand, they must have a greater scope and variety than the one they had been performing regularly. Decentralized organizations in which decisions are linked to performance evaluations (value-based management type) are more appropriate to take advantage of this factor.
The second is to rotate the trainee for different positions, employees with high potential should be moved for two or three years through a series of positions in which their global knowledge of the firm is increased, however, by conducting periodic evaluations that Let us know if the learning curve of the person is increasing and if his ability is allowing him to grow.
Third, these positions for which the trainee rotates must present increasing challenges. Elements such as transfers to larger offices or to areas that require redesigns and improvements can be used, which will stimulate the person to constantly improve, in addition, they will learn to interact with different colleagues, work teams and superiors, thus developing their skills to relate and lead.
Fourth and last, the trainee must be accompanied during the process by more experienced people from whom they can learn the "art" (not to mention the tricks) of their trade. Leadership and strategic thinking can be learned based on observation and interaction with people who possess these skills, they will hardly be learned and developed if you work alongside mediocre people.
Only 3% of the 6,000 executives in the top 200 positions in the 50 largest corporations in the United States recognize that their organizations quickly and effectively developed their human talent.
Sometimes it is difficult to carry out this type of training in companies because it is done "in broad daylight", thus generating resentment among those who are or were partners of the individual with high potential since it tends to think that the trainee is a «Protected from the boss», to counteract these problems, the scope of these programs and the importance that they may have for the performance of the company must be explained to all the personnel. Furthermore, if it is carried out properly, this strategy generates high levels of motivation and that leads individuals to strive to be within the firm's talent development program.
Notes:
Helen Hanfield Jones, How executives grow, The McKinsey Quarterly, 2000 Number 1, pp. 116-123
Elizabeth G. Chambers, Mark Foulon, Helen Hanfield Jones, and Edward G. Michels II, The war for talent, The McKinsey Quarterly, 1998 Number 3, pp. 44 - 57
