IDEAS from IBM 3 March 2008

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Who’s winning the talent search?

Three traits of an adaptable workforce

How to survive—and thrive—in the changing workplace

When Henry Ford introduced the modern assembly line in 1908, he revolutionised the world of business in a single stroke. It was a bold new concept: a line of workers, arranged in step-by-step sequence, each with a clearly defined task in a predictable and logical order. Every new Model T rolling off the line was an efficient, exact duplicate of the previous one. No changes. No surprises.

In the 100 years since, most of the assumptions underlying this reliable model of production—and human productivity—have evaporated. Today, both process and product are subject to constant change. With breathtakingly short product life cycles, rapid technological advances, and blurry geographic and competitive boundaries, today’s workforce needs to be nimble and infinitely adaptable.

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It’s no surprise, then, that today’s global organisations are finding it challenging to create—and keep—a truly winning team. In an environment where everything’s a moving target, how are effective organisations managing their people?

With everything in flux, what does it take to win?

Most successful organisations can adapt to change to some degree. But only a select group have workforces that are highly adaptable. Interestingly, these are also top financial performers. A recent IBM study found they share three critical capabilities:

Workforce analytics

Taking the guesswork out of workforce planning

Today, few organisations use data effectively to select their workforce. Why? It’s not because they lack the required skills to analyse the issues at hand. Rather, it’s because they don’t have the right data—or, if the data exists, it’s too difficult to get at it. Even the most skilled of analysts cannot make fact-based workforce decisions in a vacuum.

The solution? A whole new field, called workforce analytics, is now emerging.

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Matching people with the challenges ahead IBM used a diagnostic tool to help project the impact of aging on a workforce and to take action to manage it. In one instance, consultants were able to evaluate and distill the workforce aging problem down to less than 200 out of 3,000 workers, greatly reducing the cost and complexity of managing it.

Case study - Healthcare company

Better data = better workforce planning A medium-sized healthcare company needed to reorganise its project-based research and development workforce to meet growing demand. The company wanted a consistent, automated demand forecasting process for faster decision making and scenario modeling. This required a more data-driven approach.

The solution: The firm started by classifying employees by skill type and developing roles based on various skill categories. Employees were then identified by role, and employee allocations were tracked by project. A more structured, data-driven approach enabled the company to forecast needs for permanent, contractor and outsourced work.

The benefits: • Brought more rigour to workforce planning • Equipped resource managers with the data to assign work to individuals

with the appropriate skill sets • Employees are now deployed much more effectively by explicitly

estimating workforce peaks and troughs and assigning new project work that fits with availability and expertise • Reduced costs through a better allocation of work

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Nurturing talent from within

Who has the vision to lead?

Our study shows that 76% of companies state that a leadership gap is one of their top capability challenges. Without strong leadership talent, who will set the organisation’s direction? Who will lead the necessary innovation? Organisations lacking in leadership face significant barriers to growth. Yet this is not an uncommon challenge.

It’s not only a question of finding leaders for today. It’s also about developing leaders for tomorrow. The goal: give people challenging roles to apply their new skills today, along with a clear upwards path for their future. Otherwise, an organisation’s most valuable talent could walk out the door and over to a competitor who offers better opportunities.

Here’s what winning companies are doing:

• Action learning programs bring people together from across the organisation to gain hands-on experience in solving real business problems

• Mentoring pairs people with senior leaders to work collaboratively and provide exposure to leadership issues and skills

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• Training programs provide on-the-job training, classroom experiences and self-managed Web-based training

• Job rotation exposes employees to varied challenges and allows the organisation to measure their effectiveness in meeting them

• Blended learning combines distributed techniques such as e-learning with more traditional classroom training.

Case study - Bank

Leadership excellence through blended learning In the face of deregulation and intense competition, a leading banking group needed to become more responsive to market demands. It identified two management development goals: 1. Give managers the skills they need to help the bank prepare for

deregulation 2. Drive workforce excellence through innovative programs.

The solution: The bank introduced a new corporate development program for first-line managers using a blended learning approach: • Classroom learning • Peer collaboration • On-the-job management coaching • Mentoring with experienced managers.

About 750 managers were trained in core skills such as communication and team leadership.

The benefits: • Introduced a common management and leadership model across the

organisation • Improved the ability of managers to communicate a strategic vision

and to engage the workforce • Changed the culture, as the core group of 750 managers shared their

learning with their own teams, impacting an estimated 3,000 staff • Achieved a substantial return on investment, with significant impact on

business results.

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Attracting talent from the outside Ongoing ‘war for talent’

Over the past several years, business newspapers around the world have talked about the ongoing ‘war for talent.’ Turnover continues to rise. Globalisation, changing workforce demographics and shifting attitudes are all keeping today’s workforce on the move. Today, it’s harder than ever to attract and keep desired employees.

Did you know?

Almost 50 percent of companies worldwide believe that corporate reputation is an important factor in attracting new employees. They also say that a company’s track record in transforming itself is vital. Here’s how those companies surveyed ranked their ability to attract top talent.

Still, many organisations do not focus much energy or resources on fighting for new talent. Does this mean they have already cracked the code for attracting the best new people? Hardly. Our study suggests that executives should be very cautious in overestimating their ability to attract the best and the brightest. In fact, getting and keeping the right talent is likely to become more, rather than less, challenging in coming years. Why? Reasons include:

• The departure of older employees

• The smaller number of younger employees (particularly “generation Y” workers, born between 1981 and 1995) who will be replacing them

• The increasing demand for talent around the globe.

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Case study - Staffing provider

Going virtual: attracting the next-generation employee base How does a 60-year-old company position itself as an employer of choice in today’s rapidly changing world? A global staffing provider did just that by recognising and acting on several key trends: • The increased demand from individuals for virtual work positions • The changing mix of employee pools, as aging employees retire and

younger workers join the workforce • A unique market opportunity to be positioned as the organisation that

understands the future of work

The solution: The organisation launched a site in Second Life, an online virtual community where residents, known as avatars, live and work in a variety of three-dimensional environments. The company’s virtual island is a place where job seekers and employers can come together to learn about the world of virtual work, share ideas, and interact in online meeting spaces The Island also provides helpful resources, learning tools and live guides who can offer advice.

The benefits: • Fosters awareness of the company among a new generation of

technologically savvy candidates • Drives traffic to the company’s traditional business • Through interaction with the online customer base, the company can

stay one step ahead of the market

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The office

Global trends, local differences

Workforce challenges vary widely around the world, based on a host of factors ranging from economic growth rates to technology maturity to business traditions and customs. What’s true in the Asia Pacific region may not at all be the case in Europe or the Americas.

SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK: We’re interested in hearing what you think about this article. Do you have a question, comment, suggestion or story idea to pass along? Please e-mail Ideas from IBM.

IBM Corporation

New Orchard Road, Armonk, New York 10504, USA

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