The Rise of Talent Reviews
We are all familiar with the dreaded annual performance appraisal process. A process many companies found so unhelpful that they did away with them. (See HBR's The Performance Management Revolution for a good take on this. Yet, despite the decline of annual performance appraisals, there is a related process that is very needed and important for organizations to continue. That is the talent review. In this article, I’ll introduce talent reviews offer recommendations for running a good talent review program.
Unlike performance reviews, which focus on past performance, the talent review helps identify an employee's potential, key competencies and long-term capabilities. It is often used to inform promotion decisions, high-potential designation, succession planning, and career development opportunities. Talent reviews also help leaders assess bench strength and improve workforce planning.
While talent reviews solicit inputs from managers, they are not intended to document individual past performance in order to provide a report back to the employee. They are designed to provide an composite view of talent in a group including strengths and opportunity areas, and enable employee-to-employee comparisons.
Here are some basic steps to run effective talent reviews:
1. Define Objectives and Facilitators
For example, are you creating a hiring plan for next year? Identifying potential successors for critical roles or creating a plan for training investments? Be sure to establish the criteria and competencies that will be used to review employees. These should align with the group’s strategic goals and leadership requirements.
2. Identify Facilitators
Identify and train qualified facilitators. Running a talent review process often requires challenging assumptions and challenging managers and leaders in your organization. It also requires a facilitator who knows how to reach consensus. If your organization struggles with running talent review sessions, consider hiring a trained facilitator.
3. Definite the employee groups you will review
I recommend running reviews for groups of 10-40 employees at a time. Reviewing more than 40 in one session will be challenging. You can break up groups by job and level.
4. Assemble a Diverse Review Team
Include a diverse group of HR professionals, senior leaders, and managers. To ensure diversity, you may have some representatives from other departments.
5. Provide Training
Provide training and guidelines to the review team members to ensure they understand the purpose, process, and evaluation criteria. Training can help reduce bias, ensure consistency, and promote fairness.
6. Analyze Data and Prepare Talent Grids
Gather relevant data on each employee being reviewed. Analyze the data to create a profile of each employee and summarize the employees data visually.
7. Conduct Talent Review Meetings
Schedule talent review meetings, allowing ample time for thorough discussions. These meetings should be conducted in a structured manner and viewed as a key strategic activity. Encourage honest dialogue and critical thinking.
8. Create Coaching and Development Plans
Instead of just sorting and ranking, take the time to identify development plans for each employee. When appropriate, plan promotions, lateral moves, demotions, and exits as options.
9. Iterate and Improve
After each talent review cycle, gather feedback from participants and stakeholders to identify areas for improvement. Use this feedback to refine and enhance the talent review process for the future.
Conclusion
Run well, talent reviews will help leaders become better leaders by honing their ability to assess talent and support effective talent development, A good talent review program will support the organization's strategic goals and contribute to long-term success.
