The Society for Chief Personnel Officers (SOCPO) commissioned Veredus to undertake a survey into talent management practices across the UK public and private sectors.
Setting the scene
SOCPO was concerned to discover the extent to which public sector agencies were supporting and nurturing future generations of management. The private sector was included because many of the issues about ‘managing talent’ were thought to be equally relevant.
The research raised extensive debate amongst senior managers and executives as to definition of talent management. A working definition was decided upon which described talent management as the process by which talent is sought, developed and directed to achieve business goals. The focus of the research was to look at how it might be possible to:
- define the talent that is needed – capacities that make a difference
- spot and attract the talent in the first place
- manage the information and intelligence that we have on talent to harness its energy and potential
- develop the talent and nurture its growth
Input was received from over 1,500 organisations at senior manager, director, chief executive and chair levels. Local government, central government, health, regeneration, the third sector, transport, criminal justice and the private sector were all represented. A quarter of all respondents employed more than 5,000 people, 13% employed between 2,500-5,000 while a further 25% employed less than 100 people. The remainder fell in between. The sample captured information from a wide range of public and private sector services and across a range of different size organisations. Important, given the need to reflect the widest possible views. In depth interviews were also conducted with a select group of organisations to look at best practice in managing talent as a strategic business activity.
The findings
The main finding is that there is no systematic and coordinated approach in the public and private sectors to developing and nurturing the next generation of business leaders. Generally, talent management is not a strategic activity built into business planning cycles and judging talent is still very much an intuitive and ‘gut feeling’ response.
The major findings are presented below:
- the majority of respondents in the private and public sectors reported a lack of leadership at board and director level, at middle management and at team leader level
- the survey revealed a reasonable ability to attract front line staff, but not so in recruiting specialists, middle and senior managers
- the ability of the private sector to recruit to all levels is stronger than in the public sector – possibly reflecting better status, reward and image
- in the public sector local government appears to face the most acute problem in terms of attracting specialists and middle managers – more so than health and central government
- retaining staff at management level appears less of a problem across all sectors, however in local government significant problems were reported in retaining specialist workers
- in response to the question “what talent management strategies do you have in place in preparing for the future?” a staggering 74% of respondents reported that their organisation did not have a well developed plan
- equally, nearly 68% did not have talent retention plan – the picture in the public sector being worse than for the private sector with over 80% of public sector organisations indicating they had no real plans for talent management retention
- only 20% of respondents reported their organisations had active diversity strategies in place – building talent across the whole organisation and ensuring equality of opportunity in the workplace
- a striking 68% of respondents preferred to rely on ‘gut feel’ and personal knowledge than on any developed form of competency rating in assessing leaders of the future – although some assessment tools are used alongside ‘private views’ personal judgement is still the primary driver
- little attempt is made to develop a ‘talent data-base’ where information is systematically collected over time about aspiring future leaders – only 40% of people in the organisations surveyed are one-to- one career discussions held and just over 30% of staff get quarterly/half-yearly appraisals
- one of the most striking features to emerge from the research is the gap between organisations wanting to get it right but feeling they lack the necessary skills to do it in-house – over 70% felt they did not give enough time to developing managerial talent and over 60% felt it was absolutely central to ‘get it right’
The key messages
Perhaps the key message to emerge – and one which belies an initial sense of pessimism – is the divergence between ‘wanting to get it right‘ and not having the necessary skills nor confidence to develop talent management strategies in-house. For example, all senior HR respondents rated their processes as diversity friendly but a minority across all respondents believed they did not actively pursue diversity in practice. Equally, the majority, by far, were highly supportive and passionate about managing talent in a more sophisticated way but felt they didn’t have the time to devote to the subject. Respondents could clearly see the value in developing a more coordinated approach but struggled to put into practice the necessary tools to achieve such an aim.
Below are some of the key messages to emerge from the research:
- both private and public sectors need to take their talent management strategies more seriously – the gap between ‘intention’ and ‘practice’ needs to be narrowed (this is a bigger issue for the public sector, particularly local government) – managing reputations more assertively and putting in place more relevant and dynamic support systems are issues to be addressed
- talent management strategies should become central to the future thinking of an organisation – an integral part of its workforce development plan, not seen as an ‘add on’ but as a major component in an organisation’s strategic aspirations
- any talent management strategy needs to have diversity at its heart – winning hearts and minds is critical as is the need to make transparent and legitimate the processes involved in developing leaders of the future
- although individual perceptions are valid they are only one way of assessing for future leadership – decades of developing ‘competency’ and assessment measures should not be discarded and sidelined, they should seen as pivotal and used selectively as part of an ongoing process of development to inform an organisation of its talent base
- as top teams elevate talent management as a strategic priority they must invest in new skills sets to develop talent capacity in their own organisations – medium to longer term aspirations will not be met if the short term or status quo approach to talent management is maintained
- talent management is no longer an issue only for high-flying executives – organisations need to look across the piece to seek out potential leaders at all levels to ensure that growth and development is a shared and collective effort
- coaching and mentoring are proven methods of supporting talented managers – individual and challenging one-to-one career ‘counselling’ should be part of the offer to future leaders