Waves of changes, is the most graphic description of the first twenty years of the century, and it explains perfectly the dizzying evolution - if not a revolution - of people management and talent development in top organizations in the world.
By opening our eyes by labeling our present world as VUCA - volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous - a providential "eureka" has been provoked in many organizations, which, instead of being perplexed by the changes, assume that survival necessarily happens by having deployed antennas and detecting the first signs of changes as soon as possible, in order to act quickly. They have given us a starring role, we've passed from spectators to actors in the change.
The worn out and unattractive metrics from the last century -year after year measuring the same overused parameters available-, are a comforting deception (“we're better than last year so, everything must be fine”) but very dangerous: it slides us down the slope of complacency and the organizational blindness. It applies what Proust stated, “If you don't measure what you want, you end up wanting what you measure”. Not long ago we measured that of which we had data, now we are in the opposite extreme, technology allows us to spit data and more data, and "noise" can bewilder us. The key question now is what do we want to know and for what? As indicated by Leon Battitsta Alberti, “you cannot tense the bow if there's not a target to aim at”¹ . The “click” is simple and fast, but it doesn’t replace the question.
About their metrics, we distinguish four major stages of maturity in organizations, such as a relay race, they are consecutive steps, in which each runner hands the baton to the next:
The start, stage 1, the stage of “better something than nothing”. In this phase, we are under the tyranny of the data shortage, due to a poor technological support of the processes of talent management, the available data constrain us and they are the ones that determine what we measure. It basically measures the evolution of the staff, the retribution, the satisfaction and the data about the formative actions carried out. Better than nothing, but it usually doesn’t satisfy.
Stage 2, Metrics of efficiency, the ME: We measure the efficiency of talent management processes. Helped by technology, which provides us with the data, we set the KPIs which indicate if we are accomplishing objectives and their inter-annual evolution. All the Top Employers companies in Spain² are at least in this stage in the metrics in most of their talent management processes. More than 75% of them are analyzed by its Executive Directorate evaluating the effectiveness of practices and policies in different areas of the talent management: on boarding, performance, learning and development, development of leadership, career and succession, compensation and benefits, etc. And the vast majority of them also measure the impact and effectiveness of their wellness programs, CSR, diversity, as well as company brand policies, practices, ethics and values.
Stage 3: Metrics of strategic efficiency, the “ems squared”, the M2. Now we’re talking about something big. The different areas of talent management are analyzed in relation to the performance of the business and the results. Increasingly, among the certified companies as Top Employers in Spain, the executive management evaluates the effectiveness of the talent strategy regarding the organizational strategy, and 65% of the Top Employers from Spain analyze the results of learning and development and the development of leadership in relation to the business performance.
Stage 4: the HR Analytics, the emerging stars, are a revolution because they make it possible to analyze and predict the effects of talent management on key aspects of the organization, it means, going from reactive to predictive in order to make a decision. For example, 49% of Top Employers in Spain already analyze the results of performance management to improve the business practices. And, in a pioneering way, some companies are establishing concrete predictive models that give answers to their concerns. As a particularly striking example, to identify who is likely to leave the company, but also others, less flashy but effective: what data in the selection predict better performance evaluations, what social benefits will generate more loyalty, what formative content will have a greater impact on performance … Analytics opens up a fascinating range of possibilities for us.
The HR Metrics give us a clear reference to the past effectiveness and help us to raise the future, but HR Analytics, undoubtedly are the penultimate wave of change³ in talent management. It’s a real adventure in terra ignota, it challenges us to predict, and, in a way, to invent the future -or more like a possible future – and to work from now on from different scenarios. If you remember the movie Minority Report, we can picture the revolution that’s coming.
¹Leon Battista Alberti, humanistic gleam of the Renaissance.
²Data of the 81 companies certified in Spain as Top Employers in 2017. Top Employers Institute analyzes and certifies in 116countries, the excellent conditions offered by 1.240 companies to over 5 million of their employees. (data from 2017).
³Dare to say “the last” in our VUCA world is a risk too big.
