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 losing top talent, coaching in talent development, eliminating boring training videos, pre-employment assessments, and hiring and retaining valuable workers.
From the Dayton Business Journal: Most companies lose top talent
“Despite the lagging job market, 75 percent of employers reported involuntarily losing their most high-performing employees this year.”
Wally’s Comment: The big news here is the huge jump in companies reporting that top people are leaving voluntarily.
From the Nonprofit Quarterly: Coaching as a Capacity-Building Tool: An Interview with Bill Ryan
“Bill Ryan, well-known coauthor of Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards (Wiley, 2005) turned his attention two years ago to a study of coaching. The study was commissioned by the Haas, Jr. Fund in California, and examined the methods and results of coaching within its Flexible Leadership Awards (FLA) program. Coaching is a short- to mid-term consultation designed to help a leader improve work performance, and was an integral part of the FLA program. In his report Coaching Practices and Prospects: The Flexible Leadership Awards Program in Context, Ryan documents not only the experiences within the FLA but also the fact that coaching is in increasingly widespread use in the corporate sector, to help further develop both emerging and seasoned leaders. Is it just the latest fad or an existing practice renamed . . . or is it an exciting new idea to integrate into our talent development practices? NPQ editor in chief Ruth McCambridge explored these and other questions with Ryan.”
Wally’s Comment: Coaching is a part of talent development at most larger companies these days. This article is about coaching in the not-for-profit sector, but the observations would hold for most businesses as well.
Stop Long and Boring Staff Training. Start Short & Social Learning Modules
“Your staff are used to Facebook, Google + and Twitter and other social media platforms. At home they’re not watching TV with “rabbit†ear antennas but are watching Hulu, Youtube and videos from Netflix. They are using PlayBooks, iPhones and streaming Pandora in their cars (well I do). However, when they get to work you’re training them with old and boring videos from the stone age.”
Wally’s Comment: This is the “Sesame Street Phenomenon.” People used to rich and faster moving media become bored with slower moving materials.
From Charles Handler: Pre-Employment Assessment and Candidate Feedback: Letters From the Black Hole
“I received the e-mail below from a frustrated job applicant who must have found my website when searching for some straight talk about her pre-employment assessment experience.”
Wally’s Comment: Dr. Handler takes a close and knowledgeable look at pre-employment assessments and identifies several ways that they should deliver more value than simple predictive capability.
From Mary Ellen Slayter: Q&A with Mike Matalone: How to hire and retain valuable workers
“Mike Matalone is president of Excelsior, a human capital consulting firm that helps companies and CEOs to recruit, develop, manage and retain effective employees. SmartBrief interviewed Matalone on his leadership philosophy and how to make sure you are hiring the right people. An edited version of his answers follows.”
Wally’s Comment: This is a great interview, but what drew my eye first was the description of the people you want to hire and keep as “valuable” instead of the dreadful “high potential.”
Carnivals, Lists, and Such
From Evan Carmichael: The Top 50 Human Resources Blogs of 2011
