3/31/11: Top Talent Development Posts this Week

March 31, 2011 by Wally Bock

Every week, I review blogs that cover talent development to find the very best talent development posts. This week, you’ll find pointers to pieces about HR metrics, assessing the effectiveness of training, succession planning, and progress (or lack thereof) in talent management.

From Sean Conrad: 6 Common Questions About HR Metrics Answered

“As an HR professional, you collect a wealth of talent data. And no matter how that data is stored – in filing cabinets, spreadsheets or through an automated system – you need to measure and analyze the right data to effectively assess how employees are performing against corporate objectives. To do that, you need to first determine which talent metrics are most important to your business. In February, I had the pleasure of co-hosting an HR.com webinar on making talent management metrics matter with Cathy Martin-Missildine, Principal and Co-Founder of Intellectual Capital Consulting.”

Wally’s Comment: Sean Conrad asks good questions about choosing and using HR metrics that cover a lot of territory and he gets good answers that you’ll want to read.

From Janet Clarey: Are you measuring transfer of learning?

“A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a briefing by the Fort Hill Company. The Fort Hill Company sells a learning transfer support system called ResultsEngine®. If you’re not up to speed on transfer know that historically, transfer of learning has had two extreme perspectives – general transfer and specific transfer. A gazillion papers (dating back to the early 1900s) have been written about transfer.”

Wally’s Comment: This post is a bit single-product-heavy, but it still delivers lots of value. You may want to supplement it with a quick read of the Wikipedia article on “Transfer of learning.”

From Mark Vickers: Success and Succession Planning in the Year 2016

“Most companies are still mediocre or worse when it comes to succession planning. I think this weakness is going to harry and haunt them in the course of the next 5 to 10 years. Let’s look at two recent studies.”

Wally’s Comment: This is an excellent article about using HR metrics in succession planning and about integrating succession planning into overall talent management. Hat tip to the Human Capital League, where I first saw this post.

From Kelly Cartwright: My “What’s taking so long?” Talent Management List

“We read about them every day, and we’ve been talking about them for years. I’m referring to those high-level concepts and ideals that seem to drive business and HR talk, if not action. Workforce planning, integrated talent management, business and talent agility, the comprehensive talent management technology platform, truly global talent processes, and of course, that proverbial HR seat at the table.  They’re all priorities. But we’ve been talking about these things for years, some for decades. Why are companies taking so long to “get around to it?” This question is a good conversation starter, but I think it’s more than that. Your answer to these issues may affect your budget, your talent management organization’s effectiveness, your company’s bottom line, and, very simply, your future.”

Wally’s Comment: Here’s a great article about the state of talent management that you may want to read more than once. Ms Cartwright covers several aspects of talent management, describing why it’s important, why change is easier said than done, areas of progress and opportunity, and what remains to be done.

Carnivals, Lists, and Such

Carnival of HR – Safe at Home
Warning. There are probably some excellent posts here by knowledgeable HR practitioners, but there are two reasons that you may not want to click through to this particular edition of the Carnival. First, this is a themed edition, which means that overall the post quality is likely to be lower than usual. Second, the presentation does not include any description of the posts, not even the title, which means you will have to click through to each post to determine what it’s about and whether you want to read it.

Wally Bock is a coach, a writer and President of Three Star Leadership.

Posted in Talent Management

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  1. Dwane Lay says:

    Wally –

    Thanks to linking to the Carnival, but I think you may have missed the point, based on your description.

    There are no titles because all of the posts used the same title, “Safe at Home.” This was the theme you mentioned, and was chosen as a demonstration of the incredible writing skills of our community. There are some wonderfully personal and diverse entries for this edition.

    I think your comment about lower quality posts based on that element alone is a pretty clear indicator you didn’t actually read them yet. I hope you’ll find time to enjoy the great work by our peers.

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