Talent Management in Emerging Markets: 1 Insight to Act on Today (Part 5, Avoid Programme Overload)

This article is written by James Eyring

Increasingly, companies rely on Emerging Markets for revenue growth; this is particularly true given slow economic growth in the US, Europe and Japan. One of the greatest challenges to capturing growth in these markets is having the right leadership capability. Based on our on-going research on Talent Management in Emerging Markets and experience with companies, here is one insight into Emerging Markets that you can act on today.

Avoid Programme Overload!

One of the most commonly cited needs to successfully execute any change or HR programme is to have the commitment of senior management. This is especially true for Talent Management processes that typically require manager involvement.

But too much support may lead to wasted effort.

We have seen companies create programmes at all levels in the organisation and in multiple countries to help grow talent. The philosophy seems to be ‘more is better’. Our initial research in this area shows the opposite.

All MNCs participating in our research reported high management commitment to Talent Management processes. To better understand the role of commitment, we used a technique common in customer and consumer research by differentiating companies in the ‘top box’. We compared companies that reported commitment at the highest level (e.g., a ‘7’ on a 7-point scale) to those with slightly lower commitment (e.g., a ‘6’).

Top box companies on commitment executed 22% of 45 practices at the highest level. Other companies executed 9% of those practices at the highest level. Clearly, companies with the most committed managers executed more practices.

However, both sets of companies had similar impact in terms of talent management system outcomes such as leadership bench. This means that:
• Executing more practices at a high level added little incremental value to the companies
• Manager enthusiasm for new programmes means that the companies invested more in practices, but they invested in both high and low impact practices

Although these are initial results, they imply that instead of implementing more practices, you should make sure you are implementing the right few practices to have impact.

Leaders drive creation of talent management processes out of a desire to grow leadership capability, and this commitment is important. However, too much enthusiasm may lead to programme overload. You may need to reign in enthusiasm to focus on the critical few processes.

To do this, consider the following tips:
1) Create your strategy first! Having an integrated workforce strategy will help you identify where your gaps are and what processes will add most value.
2) Be wary of ‘wow’ factor programmes. If you are implementing a process because it is new, cutting edge and will make a splash, be cautious. Explore the evidence of its impact before investing. Or, pilot test the programme to measure results before investing heavily in resources.
3) Make trade-offs. All companies want to add new processes, but few want to discontinue processes. With limited resources, make sure you have the hard discussions of what to discontinue so that you can devote resources to new talent management processes.

(c) 2011 Organisation Solutions Pte Ltd.

About the Authors: Dr. James Eyring is the chief operating officer of Organisation Solutions, a global consultancy specialising in organisational design, development and change solutions worldwide. James has more than 20 years of experience in the field of Organisational Development and his areas of expertise lie in large-scale organisation design and change, leadership development, and the design and management of distributed organisations.