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The
quest
for
TALENTNOMICS
In times of growing competition and talenLmobiliLy. organizations cannol afford togo easyon build
ing efficient talentpipelines or they will continue tograpple with the age old problemof
talenLexits
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JULY 2014
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oor talent alignment and unnecessary
recruitment costs have cost India a
record Rs 22.3 bilIion*. While these are
just
indicative figures, the need to have
a strong taient pipeline
is beine felt
more than ever with organizations witnessing top
level upheavals amid fast-paced business compe-
tition. However, organizations are still playing
catch-up when it comes to having a strong and
reliable succession plan
in place.
Even organiza-
tions that have a talent pipeline
lack focus and
strategy on who will be the next successor for
varied reasons.
The absence of a leader or continuously chan-
ging leadership in an organization could cause
havoc in terms of morale erosion, consequent
attrition or business deviations. Take, for example,
software major Infosys. Last June, founder N. R.
Narayana Murthy returned to the company amidst
clamour for his presence
as the company,s profits
slumped over many quarters.
As soon as he came
on board, many senior and top-level executives
started leaving the companSr The exodus soon
became more pronounced
when S. D. Shibulal, who
is the current CEO, announced in April 2014 that
he would retire in early 2015. Since then, Infosys
has been on the lookout for a CEO. Similarly Jet
Airways has witnessed the exit of five senior exe-
cutives within a year. The CEO post
of Jet Airways
has seen at least three changes since their stake
sale to Gulf carrier Etihad in April 2018. Right
after the announcement of the Jet stake sale, Nikos
Kardassis quit the Naresh Goyal-promoted carrier
over some alleged differences with Goyal. Then,
Gary Kenneth Toomey had quit in January 2014,
barely seven months after taking charge of the
airline. The airline had been without a CEO until
May 2014 when Cramer Ball was appointed.
Both these cases point to one thing: If there is
no clear direction from the top regarding leaders-
hip exits, then it sets the tone for the rest of the
organization. The lack of a clear strategy can lead
to heartburn among the leadership and in turn
prompt
them to leave. A deficient succession plan
not only reflects the uncertainty in an organization
but also points out to its poor talent development
capabilities. Prajakta Kanagleka4 Leader in Lea-
dership Programs, GE India, said, "The presence
of a strong leader is of utmost importance, as the
leader is the custodian of the values and culture.
This in tgrn, impacts the overall shareholder
value, organizational productivity
and growth.,,
A recent Succession Planning and Talent
Development Survey by The Rock Center for
Corporate Governance at Stanford University and
The Institute of Executive Development (IED)
reported that only 25 per cent of their respon-
dents agreed that there was an adequate pool of
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ready successor candidates for the CEO position
at their companies. The situation in India is far
worse as most organizations lack a strong talent
pipeline
to enable smooth leadership transitions
even though senior leaders believe that succes_
sion planning
is vital.
Theblockages
There are a few blockages that significantly
prevent
the free flow of talent in organizations.
Organizations face issues such as mindsets,
attitude, approach, lack of foresight and unders-
tanding of future organizational requirements
etc. on multiple fronts. The abundance of so much
information and the prevalence
of social media is
testing companies' ability of not
just
its knowle-
dge processes,
but also their abilities to adapt it to
their contexts.
Jayesh Pandey Lead, Human, Capital and Orga-
nization Effectiveness-India
at Accenture, says,
"There is abundant information on processes
and
methodologies to build and scale talent pipelines,
but the real problem
that organizations face is in
customizing them to fit into their own context and
business requirements. "
Succession planning,
especially in Indian con-
text, is seen as a measure for mitigating risks whe_
reas this is the first step where organizations can
go wrong. "There is an urgent need for a funda_
mental shift in the organizations'ouUook
towards
succession planning.
Succession planning
is not
about mitigating the risks involved in the loss of a
Ieader-that is a defensive ouUook. The correct way
is to build a talent pipeline
and begin deploying
talent to harvest the growth potential
that the
market offers. The approach should be such that
while we are developing talent and providing
them
opportunities, we are also mitigating the future
risks," said Pande5r
Organizations investing hugely on talent
development may be missing out on aligning and
assessing those efforts with future organizational
requirements. It also indirectly displays the lack
of foresight and proactive planning
for the future
skill requirements. "There is a tendency to pursue
unconnected talent management initiatives. These.
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Ensuring talent liquidity
The ability of an organization to be ready with
a successor when a senior leader quits
suddenly
is the actual determinant of its future success. A
strong and effective succession plan reflects the
quality
of an organization's leadership pipeline
and how it evaluates and aligns its talent with
organizational success. Abdulla said, "Suc-
cession management is as much a part
of the
business planning process
as any other function
in an organization. Ensuring that the talent
pipeline
is well fed at all times means identif-
ying talent continuously even when there is no
immediate need."
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ing to the fact that they
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Chan xn o bu-cJmess roadmap
P=- :s:- ),(.;:;- r. l-Ialagrng Director - India at
Ca::*rts-; :*: s..,:
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ea_s]- for organizations
i; rri::u::m:t-:i
t' z +:.: pipeline if theyhave a
:l:ff::; E+: :i:-.-:-+,S roadmap. This roadmap
s:r:-: :.=::*_1 :.4::i -_::
furure growth path for the
u,j-;-':,:-;-< ;- i *- =r :rgalization. The identi-
fim rcst';::rs =i:r:-: :e nade part
of either task
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developing skills that
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E neouragt Imdnship ac.countabi lity
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: h is f-rnal Slierlock
Hc-::.cs ::i.=-' l1i' -' " ::' of Fear' wrote,,,Medi-
cctrl:-.i i::rii. ::--::,;:i3ler ihaa itself; but talent
hlani,-; iecl_,=::cs
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iooked upc.
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intriguing attribu-
tes of a succe+:i:
-;a::: -\s
Kanaglekar says,
,At
GE. all leade:s 2:i ::s;'- =ille for developing their
successors. \\ e :" t:'i-:. _''er leaders to mentor
team membe:s at:;'-:.--; so rhey are in a position
to take on the:ea::::' :,-ie as and when the need
arises." It a]-:o '*
l-'._s
-:-ail
orgalizations and lea_
ders should be a:-* ::
;:.:irde capability building
oppoffunities :.
-_:i
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=ienr so that they can
develop cross-x1i: ::: :- Fl rspenise making them
ready for furure :r:r=s.
Create a balanced i.nternal and external talent
pool
Talking of harness,::3- b,:rh internal and external
talent for buildi:r; a s-:r3 mlent pipeline,
Abdulla
said, "Successftrl cc,irparies create a process
which enables rhen t:,
-ienlifi-
prospective
talent
that fits their rur,ln organizational requirements.
GE
t
too, happen in fits and starts. It is a rare cr,r:;::,;
that has a wbll thought through talent mana3+
ment system, which survives good times ano l,a:
times and HR and leadership changes." saii D
Rajiv Krishnan, Partner & India Leader Peopie r
Organization Advisory Services, Ernst & \bu:;-
There may be several other reasons for orga-
nlzations not being able to create a strong talen:
pipeline but the impact of not having one can g:
beyond measures. It impacts both externall]'anc
internally Kanaglekar said,'A good leader is lihe
a radar for an organization, giving it direction ar:
ensuring it stays on cowse. The leader sets the
tone in the external community either echoing
confidence or uncertainty Internally, the leader
drives vision, productivity
and employee morale.
The existence of a strong leader percolates donl
the levels, aligning the whole organization to lts
vision. Therefore, the absence of a strong leader
impacts all of this."
In addition to this, there is the tangible and
intangible cost attached to a leadership vacuur.
Sundara Rajan, Director at Thomas Assessmens
India, said, "There are tangible and measurable
costs like slowdown in growth of sales and profiL.
and the htangible ones like drop in morale and a
sense of confusion and loss of confidence among
the ranks. The intangible does a greater damage to
the organization as lower level employees perceite
an unstable envllronment in case a leacler quits and
tend to seek other stable environments."
If we were to evaluate the cost of business lea-
dership crises on the whole economy the amount
would be enormous. "We recently conducted a
joint
study with PwC on talent adaptability which
suggests that poor
talent alignment is costing
Indian companies as much as Rs S0B billion in lost
productivity
said Irfan Abdulla, Director-Talent
Solutions at Linkedln India.
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regardless of whether the company has a
job
requirement for them or not. Companies trying
to attract external'passive talent', need to build
strong relationships with prospective
employees.
Tci accomplish this, companies need to create and
leverage talent communities within key labour seg-
ments. Increasingly organizations are making use
of social media to build this talent pipeline,
espe-
cially for future leaders. This requires engaging
both internal and external talent in knowledge and
capability building conversations."
Engdge talent - both actiae and passiae
Niraj Kaushik, Vice President, Applications,
Oracle India, said as a part of the talent pipeline
building process it is important to keep them enga-
ged. He said, "Define and execute campaigns to
engage candidates. Identify conferences, industry
associations and social networks that match the
critical role profile helping hiringmanagers and
employees in relationship-building."
Agreeing to the point,
Abdulla says,
,,In
your
search for top talent, you are continuously col-
lecting thousands of leads from many different
sources. But staying connected to them may
become a challenge. Our solution -' Linkedln
Talent Pipeline' gives recruiters one place to track
and stay connected with all of their talent leads.
Talent Pipeline powered
by Llnkedln's professi
onal network gives recruiters a way to build and
leverage just-in-time
candidate pools,
keeping
your
entire recruiting team engaged and coordi
nated on a single platform."
Maintain the 1-2-1 score
Smart organizations build their talent pipeline
with a score of two successors below each critical
role followed by one below each of the two succes_
sors. Sundara Rajan says, 'A good
talent pipeline
has a "1-2-l" structure to it. At ieast one person
is clearly identified and groomed
for each apex
position
below which two persons
are groomed
in
the pipeline
for the top teams with each of them
having one person
developed further below them.
Such a structure provides
clarity and direction to
the team on the future and a_lso prepares
the orga-
nization for the same."
GE works with the same strategy Kanaglekar
said, "Once employees reach the executive level
in the company we provide
them larger opportu_
nities for growth.
There are at least a few internal
and external candidates identified for any critical
position:
so that in case there is a movement, we
have a pipeline
to plug in the gap
immediatel5z At
GE, senior leaders often undertake big cross_func_
tional, global
assignments; in such situations, we
are able to develop a strong leadership talent pool
for top positions."
Keep itflowing
A talentpipeline is not
just
about identifying and
developihg successors. Top talent attracts bigger
opportunities which if existing outside the orsa-
nization will sweep the talent away
pandey
said,
"Have
a leadership team comprising the top lb_20
people.
If you have analysed the next in line 30-50
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people
who are ready to replace them, then you
need not wait for a crisis. Such talent can even be
leveraged to expand the growth
and reach of an
organization manifold. It creates a huge opportu_
nity for accelerating organizational and individual
growth
across sectors."
In conclusion, rising competition and the
highly volatile talent market is forcing organizati
ons to focus more on their internal talentnomics to
ensure sustainability and competitive advantage.
As time goes
on. the way markets exist and the
way organizations function will change but it has
always been talent that has been driving growth
and competition and always will be. It is an innate
nature of talent to recogtrize and attract opportuni
ties and hence organizations need to strategize and
build a robust talent pipeline
to ensure they have
a coinpetitive edge. Although numerous global
organizations have already set succession plans
and processes
rolling. a lot of Indian organizations
yet face challenges in scaling effective talent pipeli
nes. It's time to learn from the rest and utilize it to
your
own best!
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