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Developing a Talent Management Program Part I

 By Gina Abudi, on April 6th, 2011

In a previous post I talked about a client who felt that the responsibility for developing talent rested solely with HR; HR disagreed. In this follow on post, we’ll look at the client’s initial steps to initiating a project and gathering information about a talent management program for employee development. For purposes of this case study, we’ll call the client the National PR Services Firm.

A project was started for design and development of a talent management program. The stakeholders and team members included, at the leadership level:

  • SVP, Human Resources
  • President
  • SVP, Finance & Operations
  • Chief Operations Officer (COO)
  • SVP, Business Development
  • SVP, Marketing
  • Chief Information Officer (CIO)
  • Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

And a few others from throughout the business will be involved:

  • HR Manager
  • Operations Manager
  • IT Services Manager
  • VP, Learning & Development
  • Customer Relationship Manager
  • Manager of Administrative and Marketing Support

A project was initiated to develop a talent management program to provide development opportunities for all levels of employees – from new hires in more junior roles through to leadership staff.

The following was the charter for the project:

Project Name: Talent Management Program

Project ID:  TMP_001

Project Sponsor

Name: Allen Simmons

Title: President

Business Unit: Administration

Email: asimmons@prservicesfirm.com

Phone: 555-5555

Project Manager

Name: Suzanne Johnston

Title: VP, Learning & Development

Business Unit: Human Resources

Email: sjohnston@prservicesfirm.com

Phone: 555-5555

Project Manager Authority Level: Responsible for managing stakeholders, sourcing vendors/suppliers/contractors as needed

Project Business Case

Company is growing and will be opening 6 new offices within the next 3 years. Talent is not developed and a recent employee engagement survey showed that employees are not happy with the lack of professional development opportunities offered to them and – even when searching on their own for internal professional development opportunities – feel as if there is nothing available to them.  The fear is that good talent will be lost.

Project Description

Develop a comprehensive talent management program that covers onboarding to succession planning for all employees regardless of job level or role within firm.

Project Objectives and Success Criteria

Development of comprehensive talent management program that meets the needs of all employees and helps the firm plan for succession.

Will include:

  • Career paths
  • Onboarding initiatives
  • Succession planning
  • Professional development – critical skills
  • Supervisory development
  • management and leadership development
  • mentoring and coaching
  • opportunities for work in other offices and across departments


 

Expected Risks

Budget is estimated and may increase as program is more fully developed.

Given tremendous current growth and many ongoing strategic initiatives, there needs to be a commitment to this initiative from a large group of people – many at higher levels – for it to be successful.

There will need to be involvement from nearly every member of the organization and there is a risk that this project may distract from other ongoing work efforts.

Functional Organization or Business Unit

Name

Participation Level

All departments

Varied

Stakeholders (executive level)

Determine requirements

Stakeholders (representatives of various groups)

Help socialize and contribute to activities

Project Benefits

Benefit

Project Business Impact Expected

Retention of talent at all levels

Profitability, high level of customer service,

Succession plan

Profitability, plan for continuation of leadership at executive level

Improved onboarding of new hires

Improvement in time to get “up to speed” and acclimated to contribute sooner to bottom line

Opportunities for continuous learning

Retention of employees, profitability, innovation/creativity, high level of customer service

Project Milestones

Milestone

Completion Date

Kick off of project team

April (a schedule will be developed for other phases during this meeting)

Phase 1: Socializing initiative, company-wide survey

TBD

Phase 2: Research and analysis

TBD

Phase 3: Design of comprehensive talent management program

TBD

Phase 4: Development of comprehensive talent management program

TBD

Phase 5: Pilot Test and refinement of program

TBD

Project Budget (Estimated? or Final?) Estimated at $550,000

Project Expenditures

Expenditure Type

Estimated Cost

External research

$150,000

Initial kick off meeting – at headquarters location

 $55,000

Other expenses to be determined at kick off meeting

TBD

A kick off meeting is planned for early April in the headquarters office.  All stakeholders/team members listed above will be attending. I’ll be facilitating. Topics for discussion (in no particular order) will include:

  • Discussion of initiative and goals/objectives, impact on business
  • Initial project plan to map out the 5 phases and expectations for each phase
  • Team roles and responsibilities
  • Discussion on socializing the initiative throughout the organization (part of phase 1)

The meeting will also include a variety of team building activities. The meeting will be held over 1 1/2 days – an afternoon start on a Thursday, dinner Thursday evening (with some additional team building activities) and project discussions all day on Friday.

The kick off meeting will be a great start to the project! Such a large strategic initiative must be well planned with involvement throughout the organization.

Stay tuned! Part II should be up by mid-April.

April 6th, 2011 | Tags: , , , | Category: Leadership