Ivey Business Journal - Succession Planning: Often Requested, Rarely Delivered

One of the elements of a sound workforce plan is, of course, succession planning.  This is an area that's new to me, but intuitively it is a no-brainer - or rather, that it is necessary is a no-brainer.  So I just found this, and I've enjoyed the first page, so I will continue reading.

I got a chuckle out of the inclusion of Herman Kahn's MEGO Factor (My Eyes Glazeth Over) - that's the first I've heard it, but it's so ... apt.

Another interesting tidbit: I found an organization's board-approved and published Succession Plan online, which had stated 'no candidates identified at this time' for every senior position, which leads to: It is better to have gone through the exercise and found no one than to avoid the task in fear of the same outcome.  I think.

Taleo Blog - Talent Retention

I read this a while back, but my last post referenced it again, so I gave it another look.  Interesting that their example - a study of IT workers - found that the majority placed a high priority on career development opportunities.

Taleo also issued a research paper on this topic, Talent Retention: Six Technology-Enabled Best Practices (see blog post for a link to download it), which identifies some key practices in retaining talented individuals, namely:

1. Recruit the right people in the first place.
2. Improve the line manager’s ability to manage.
3. Give employee’s constant feedback about clear, meaningful goals.
4. Empower employees to manage their own careers.
5. Proactively drive talent mobility.
6. Continuously measure and improve retention strategies.

Taleo Blog - Talent Skills Development

Taleo released the results of a training follow-up survey from one of its talent management skills training courses which suggests that the respondents see a link between their skill enhancement their ability to perform their job.

They also reference a recently released report by Bersin & Associates: Building a High-Performance Culture - Seven Performance Management Practices That Work (see Taleo's blog post for the document link). I've just started flipping through it, but it looks very intriguing so far.

Peter Drucker’s Paths to Creating an Engaged Worker

This is an excerpt from William Cohen's new book Drucker on Leadership which outlines Mr. Drucker's four key components of developing an engaged workforce.

Cool stuff; just might have to buy the book.

Taleo Blog - Top 5 Employment Considerations

This is essentially a link to a link, but credit where it is due - besides, Taleo's Blog is a good one to follow.

Their article speaks to the top reasons employees will choose your firm over another, as identified by a recent survey of employment candidates.  Not surprisingly, the number one issue is 'career development prospects' - interesting that this happens to be one of Peter Drucker's Paths to creating an engaged worker (as described by William Cohen).

They also identify another report, validating these results, which includes this interesting bit of information:

Companies in which most employees have high-quality development plans have 27 percent lower turnover than companies in which few or no employees have development plans. In addition, companies with high-quality development plans have twice the revenue per employee.