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NIGEL PAINE

Attracting and Retaining Talent –

Best-Practice Strategies

IN ASSOCIATION WITHPUBLISHED BY



Attracting and Retaining Talent – Best-Practice Strategiesis published by Ark Group

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ISBN: 978-1-907787-55-3 (hard copy) 978-1-907787-56-0 (PDF)

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NIGEL PAINE

Attracting and Retaining Talent –

Best-Practice Strategies

IN ASSOCIATION WITHPUBLISHED BY



Contents

III

Contents

Executive summary ............................................................................................................. V

About the author...............................................................................................................VII

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................IX

Part One: Talent and Performance Management in the Organisation – Best Practice

Chapter 1: Introduction and context ................................................................................... 3Where are we now? .............................................................................................................. 3The talent context.................................................................................................................. 6The broader picture – Not just business .................................................................................. 7Towards a theory of talent...................................................................................................... 8What are the components of a talent management strategy? ................................................... 9

Chapter 2: Expert views ................................................................................................... 13Expert view one (UK) – The direct impact of a talent strategy on the bottom line ...................... 13

Expert view two (Australia) – What can elite sport teach us? ................................................... 15The six talents that give elite sports performers the edge ........................................................ 16Lessons from head coaches .................................................................................................20Expert view three (Brazil) – Fitting talent into the wider economic context ................................. 24

Chapter 3: The evolution of talent management .............................................................. 29The changing face of HR ..................................................................................................... 29Staff as heroes .................................................................................................................... 30The Cappelli analysis ..........................................................................................................31Meaning at work ................................................................................................................ 35No model wins ................................................................................................................... 37

Chapter 4: The dimensions of bench strength ................................................................... 41The case of the British Army .................................................................................................41The traditional means of retaining staff .................................................................................43

Chapter 5: Towards a learning organisation ..................................................................... 47Great workplaces and great talent management ................................................................... 47The link with learning .......................................................................................................... 48



IV

Contents

Chapter 6: Building a talent management strategy ........................................................... 53

Part Two: Case Studies

Case study 1: Carey Olsen – HR as a business driver ....................................................... 59

Case study 2: Pegasystems – A growth engine for talent ................................................... 63

Case study 3: Large US government agency – Embedding talent ...................................... 67

Case study 4: Royal Mail Group Ltd – Change driven by a strong talent agenda ............... 71

Case study 5: Thomson Reuters – One size does not fit all ................................................ 73

Case study 6: XL Group plc – Ensuring the talent strategy is at the core of thefuture business strategy .................................................................................................... 79

Case study 7: A European service company – Attention to the fundamentals .................... 83

Case study 8: The BNY Mellon Asset Management – Performance consulting as a wayof working with the business ............................................................................................ 87

Index ............................................................................................................................... 91



V

THIS REPORT examines best-practicestrategies in attracting and retaining talentand shows how successful organisations areapproaching the task of recruiting, retainingand developing their staff. It does not matter ifyou are a government agency in the US or a

construction conglomerate in Brazil, how youget the best out of the people you employ is akey and common issue to all organisations.

This report highlights the wayemployment has been organised and staffhave been managed for decades, whichis simply not effective in an increasinglyglobalised and fast-moving economy. Abrilliant recruit let loose in a controllingculture, where no one really cares about thisperson’s comfort – let alone development – is

likely to be totally ineffective two years downthe track (assuming they are still around).Chris Hoyt, the talent engagement and

marketing leader at PepsiCo summarises howfar successful companies have moved in theirattitude to staff acquisition and retention at arecent SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas:

“There is a challenge to find top talentespecially for larger companies. Now it ismuch less about ‘here's a job so give meyour resume’. As the work space is evolving,so is the approach to recruiting.

“It is much more about engagement, notjust who has the skill sets. It is about whohas the passion to drive through and achieveall the things that are possible in that space.Who is really excited and savvy and wholives and breaths it?

“It really is about how we can engageand follow up with potential staff. It is aboutasking top talent what they expect from atop employer and how we can better engageand follow up with them.”

Lack of attention to the whole talent processleads, inevitably, to rapid staff turnover. Thatkind of attrition is hugely expensive both interms of the cost of recruiting and the lossof knowledge. High rates of attrition bringabout inefficiency in an organisation, as wellas discontinuity and poor customer relations.Some companies respond by speeding upthe process of onboarding and minimisingthe investment in their new recruits as theyassume that they will leave in a relatively

short period. But the best companies makehuge efforts to get the talent equation rightby building motivated and respected cadresof staff who care because they believe thattheir employer cares; and they go out oftheir way to do great things for the company,because their employer recognises andrewards their contribution.

Unfortunately, there is no magic formulathat you can apply to instantly create thistype of high-performance environment. It isa long-term commitment, not a quick fix.

This report illustrates through a rangeof case studies from the UK, Brazil, theUS, Europe and Australia that change ispossible, and substantial benefits willaccrue to those organisations prepared tograsp the nettle. This report contains ideasand different approaches which may or may

Executive summary



VI

not work in your circumstances. Thisreport clearly demonstrates that there isno one model approach, but it does showthat an effective talent strategy is powerfuland transformational.

Chapter 1 provides an overview ofthe history of talent management and itsevolution over the last ten years or more.It looks at the basic components which arecommon to many talent strategy approaches.

Chapter 2 examines, in detail, theviews of three experts – a career counsellorprovides his view on what it takes for anorganisation to nurture talent; a knowledge

management expert discusses applyingthe logic of elite sports development totalent development inside businesses;and the CEO of a company that deliverstalent services to Brazil’s fastest-growingcompanies reveals how he is assisting theseorganisations in managing the growingtalent issues.

Chapter 3 discusses how talentmanagement and HR have evolved to copewith changes in the nature of work and

the structure of companies. It shows thatdifferent companies have employed differenttechniques to recognise the contribution oftheir employees, and it sets all this in thecontext of a number of key publications onwork and talent by Peter Cappelli, StephenOverell and Larry Israelite.

Chapter 4 looks at a particular casestudy – the British Army and how it hasadopted a particular performance andtalent framework to manage the performanceof its fighting force. It shows that onlyfocusing on ‘stars’ in an organisationwill not necessarily build top performanceand that buying top talent is not aconsistent guarantee for sustained higherlevels of performance.

Chapter 5 looks at what makesworkplaces great and the critical role

that continuous learning plays as a corecomponent in effective talent management.

Chapter 6 summarises the key lessonsthat emerge from the case studies in thisreport and sets out the questions you mustanswer to build your own strategy andaction plan. The aim of this chapter is tohelp readers work out their own priorities formoving forward.

Part Two features case studies fromsuccessful global organisations whichshare the talent strategies they have usedto attract and retain key talent, andmanage performance.

Executive summary



VII

NIGEL PAINE is a change-focused leader with a worldwide reputation and a unique grasp of media,learning and development in the public, private and academic sectors. He has extensive experiencein leadership and consultancy with public service broadcasters, SMEs, global industry players,government and education institutions. His consultancy focuses on the use of learning technologies,organisational development, leadership and creativity with a spotlight on maximising humanpotential, innovation and performance in the workplace. Nigel is a strategic thinker, able to motivate,

lead and drive organisations forward to deliver business and training objectives.Nigel was appointed in April 2002 to head up the BBC’s training and development operation,

where he built one of the most successful learning and development operations in the UK. Thisincluded an award-winning leadership programme, state-of-the-art informal learning, e-learning andknowledge sharing, and one of the most outstanding and well-used intranets in the corporate sector.

Nigel left the BBC in September 2006 to start his own company, which focuses on leadership,creativity, innovation and e-learning. He works with companies in Europe, Brazil, Australia and theUS in this capacity. At Elliott Masie’s ‘Learning 2006’ conference in Florida, he was awarded the titleof ‘2006 Learning Thought Leader’. He is now a Masie Learning fellow.

He is an academic director and member of the international advisory board at the University ofPennsylvania in Philadelphia on a learning leaders doctoral programme. Nigel is a board member of

Management Issues which is an international outline expert forum. He was part-time chief executiveof the Broadcast, Training and Skills Regulator during 2006/2007, where he introduced media sectortraining awards and produced a definitive state of training report in that industry.

Nigel has written articles and white papers published on subjects as diverse as ‘Creativity in theWorkplace’, ‘Building Corporate Heroes’ and ‘The Future of E-Learning’.

Nigel can be contacted at: [email protected] more information on his work, visit: http://www.nigelpaine.com

About the author



IX

Acknowledgements

MY GRATEFUL thanks go to a large number of people who talked to me about talent, and sharedtheir insights and their strategies: Simon Nash from Carey Olsen; Amy Provost from Pegasystems;John Duncan from Royal Mail Group Ltd; Keith Dunbar, a great learning leader; Stephen Dando andDimitra Manis from Thomson Reuters; Jean Larkin from XL Group plc; Karen Partridge senior ODconsultant; Dave DeFilippo from BNY Mellon Asset Management; Mauricio Wendling Lopes fromMindQuest Educação S.A.; Dr. Bryan Watters from the Defence Academy at Cranfield University;

Milana Hogan from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Douglas Clayton from SES Engineering; John D. Lakefrom JD Lake Communications LLC; Duncan Bolam from Career Dovetail Ltd; and Richard Crossfrom Second Wave Solutions Ltd. Without them, this would have been a much thinner report in everysense of the word.

Additionally, two people inspired my interest in this whole subject and confirmed my belief that itis very important. They are Professor Peter Cappelli of the Wharton Business School, who is a worldexpert on the subject, and Larry Israelite, who lives a talent philosophy every working day at LibertyMutual Insurance Company.

Finally, I would like to thank Evie Serventi for her assiduous advice, great support and never-ending patience and Stephanie Ramasamy for her judicious editing, both at Ark Conferences Ltd.

And finally, Erina Rayner who tackled my grammar and logic with fortitude and serenity.

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