Every week, I review blogs that cover talent development to find you the pick of the lot for the week. In this post, you’ll find pointers to pieces about why you should worry about your second tier of performers, keeping those rising stars on track, pay for performance, using data to guide decision-making, and the 2009 Emerging Workforce Study.
From Globoforce: Forget Your Top Performers. Worry about Your Second Tier Instead.
“All the buzz seems to be around “what to do about retaining your top performers.†Have you been concerned about these second-tier employees? They have just as much knowledge about your workplace and competitive differentiators, just as much desire to work hard, and have likely been a powerful force behind the success of your top performers. “
Wally’s Comment: Derek Irvine uses research from BlessingWhite and Deloitte to argue that the “almost engaged” really need your attention.
Fm Open Forum: 6 Ways to Keep Your Rising Stars on Track
“So, what can you do to combat negativity in your rising stars? Here are six ways to keep your company’s best assets—its future leaders—on track.”
Wally’s Comment: Lynn Truong reviews the research of Jason Martin and Conrad Schmidt and outlines six ways to hang on to those rising stars. The research was published in the May 2010 Harvard Business Review in an article titled “How to Keep Your Top Talent.” The article is available to subscribers. Others will need to pay.
From the Talent Management Blog: Looking at Pay for Performance
“Here are a few great posts I came across in the last couple weeks that were worth sharing with you.”
Wally’s Comment: Sean Conrad describes and links to three excellent posts on various aspect of pay for performance. It’s a good overview.
From the Productivity Blog: Most Companies Don’t Use Data When Making Decisions About People
“Most business decisions are based on data, whether it be sales forecasts, financial results or manufacturing efficiency. Yet, most companies aren’t looking at data to help make informed decisions about the workforce – or if they are, the focus is more often on lagging indicators (what’s happened in the past) as opposed to leading indicators (what may happen in the future).”
Wally’s Comment: This is a great post on using data to a better job of talent management. My impression is that most companies fall off the horse on this. Some fall off the side that uses no data at all. Others fall off the side that uses the data as a decision maker instead of a guide.
The 2009 Emerging Workforce Study
“A New Study, New Realities”
Wally’s Comment: The Spherion “Emerging Workforce Study 2009” identifies two cultural shifts you should understand and suggests six “workplace strategies” for future success. This post outlines them briefly. You can also download a PDF of the full Executive Summary.
