Yearly archive for 2015

Should succession planning be a priority for your company?

Succession planning is possibly one of the most misunderstood functions of business planning. It can also be one of the most powerful tools at your disposal to attract and retain the best people.

Succession planning provides less visible benefits, such as the retention of valuable institutional memory, which can be lost when your best people leave, looking for greener pastures. The best employers understand the practical benefits of building the best management teams from within their own organizations, using Succession Planning in the process. With such clear benefits, the question needs to be asked ‘why is succession planning overlooked by so many organizations?

What is succession plan?

To answer this question, we need to first clarify what succession planning is. Succession Planning is defined as ‘the identification of job vacancies that can be expected to occur through retirement or attrition, and the strategic consideration of where and how internal candidates might fill those vacancies.’ In other words, it is the process of identifying and developing current employees for future leadership roles.

‘What impact does Succession Planning have on our HR strategy?’

An example of how Succession Planning can work is as follows: The Succession Plan begins with a review of an organizations current talent pool. Once the organization has built a comprehensive understanding of their peoples’ capabilities and aspirations, training plans are implemented to bridge gaps in skill set that are uncovered through these reviews. As employees complete these training programs and accumulate positive annual reviews, they are considered as a part of the talent pool that will be eligible for a managerial position when current managers are promoted or move on.

This example demonstrates how your HR strategy can move from focusing on external talent pools with limited transparency, to internal ‘known’ talent pools.

Exactly how vital is Succession Planning?

Here are a few stats from a recent employee survey that highlight exact how important Succession Planning is in the minds of employee.

62% of employees surveyed say they would be ‘significantly more engaged’ at work if their company had a succession plan. From the same survey, 94% of employers surveyed report that having a succession plan positively impacts their employees’ engagement levels. It was also found that over 90% of younger workers (age 18 to 34) say that working at a company with a clear succession plan would ‘improve’ their level of engagement. Seventy-nine percent of employers surveyed note they have succession plans in place for mid-level manager positions. These figures should give every manager pause for thought.

‘How qualified are we to implement our own Succession Plan?’

Succession planning is far from simple. Companies must track employee performance, training and development, ensuring that potential candidates for leadership roles have the necessary skills and competencies. Many organizations that implement succession plans primarily focus on executive positions, however this approach is short sighted. An effective Succession Plan extends beyond executive level to all roles that have high impact on an organizations success.

As it stands today, you may benefit from assistance identifying the needs of a Succession Plan for your business, which is why you would engage an organization like DST people to guide you through the process. If you would like to know more about the process used by DST people to help you develop and implement Succession Planning, click on the link below to learn more.

5 signs your team lack project management fundamentals

You probably have a team of highly skilled specialists, with years, if not decades of experience of ‘real world’ project experience. So why is it that so much experience counts for so little when managing projects?

It would seem logical if you team have worked on similar projects, to the ones they are currently tasked with that they would be well prepared to manage the scope, budget, timeline and performance expectations …but you would be wrong. Your assumption is that projects that start out with similar scopes end up the same way. They never do. Each project is unique and your project management disciplines should reflect this reality.

This fact alone would seems to imply that it is almost impossible to accurately estimate the time, resources and performance criteria of a project at the time of commencement. That belief in itself demonstrates a lack of understanding of project management fundamentals. Here are 5 other signs that team may lack the practical fundamentals of project management.

Sign #1 ‘Our estimate of resources required to finish the project was naive’

Does this sound familiar? The estimated resources required to finish a project on time and to the performance criteria in the original scopes are now a distant memory. The only way to get the project back on track is to move the timeline further our and throw even more resources at it. Your original launch date is not even your biggest problem, it’s finding the extra funds and resources to get the project finished that is now your biggest headache.

You all thought your initial estimates were accurate but you now understand how optimistic you may have all been. Is it just a case of allowing a much greater resources allocation next time? The simple answer is ‘no.’ You and your team need the project management fundamentals to need the tools that allow you to much more accurately assess the resources you need to manage a project, from inception to completion.

Sign #2 ‘We’ve missed our critical deadline and we’re now having to deal with the knock on effects’

A lack of project management disciplines are usually at the root cause of critical deadlines goes out the window. As they say, “No Battle Plan Survives Contact With the Enemy.” The real world implications of under estimating the scope of a project and the resources needed to complete it eventually lead to continuous shifting of deadlines for completion. This would be comical if it was happening to your competitors, but it’s not, it’s happening to you.

And worse of all, this is having deeper, more costly ramifications throughout your organization. If your team had proper project management fundamentals training, you would be in a much better position to meet critical deadlines.

Sign #3 ‘Our lofty performance expectations were the first casualty’

Quality should never be sacrificed on a project. Not only is it demoralizing to the project management team, it leaves all stakeholders with a bitter taste in their mouths and no appetite for any future projects your team undertakes.

Like ripples in a pond, a project that does not meet performance criteria has far-reaching and long-term impacts. Everybody becomes less enthusiastic and risk averse.

You start looking for the safe options and that only produces increasingly diminishing returns. Training your team on project management fundamentals may have delivered a very different outcome.

Sign #4 ‘Our dependence on 3rd parties have left us high and dry’

How could you have possible known that a 3rd party contractor would let you down so badly? Believe it or not, you should have known this from the outset that this was a factor you needed to allow for. More so, you should have had a way of monitoring that this problem was emerging and been in a position to implement your contingency plan, and as they say in the Western movies, ‘head it off at the pass.’

Identifying the risks that are critical to meeting milestones, budgets and performance expectations is possible if you use the right methodology and tools. No mater the size and complexity of a project, it can be relatively easy to estimate, monitor and control risk, if you have the right training.

Sign #5 ‘Our original project scope was too thin’

Most projects start too early, because organizations believe this is the best way of ensuring deadlines are met. In reality, this is often the reason why critical deadlines are not met.

Learn the lessons of Burke and Wills. Headlining off on a long journey, on a road not travelled, with an incomplete map, minimal resources and no real understanding of the poetical risks you may face alone the way will (more often than not) lead to a catastrophic failure.

Allocating more time and resources to developing a scope for your projects will have a dramatic impact on your success. What’s more, if the scope changes along the way (and it probably will), you will be in a better position to deal with the potential knock on effects.
Assumptions are the enemy to success

You assume that you and your team have strong project management fundamentals, because they have completed projects of a similar scope in the past. You also assume they have learned from previous mistakes, but have your provided them with the fundamental disciplines and training to make sure mistakes are not repeated, or new mistakes made?

Einstein once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” How often have you or your people made the same mistakes on project after project. For many organizations, a fundamental lack of understanding of the skills required to properly manage projects is their biggest barrier to success and growth. Your organization may fit into this category. If any of the above ‘5 signs your team lack project management fundamentals’ reflect your experience, then your organization needs practical project management training.

DST people provide ½ day, intensive project management training, designed to provide your team with the basic skills they need. The fundamentals learned in this training can apply to almost any type or size of project, in any sector and to any skill level. If your team is like the countless large and small organizations who have undergone this training, they will come away equipped with the basic skills and tools that will have an immediate impact on the success of both projects in progress and future projects.

Has Australian recruitment become a ‘beauty contest?

Through no fault of your own, your organisation may appear as the ‘wallflower’ to the very people you want to attract to your business. Contrary to popular belief, there is not a decrease in demand for talent because of rising unemployment. Even amongst young people, with the highest unemployment levels, good people are hard to find and even harder to hold. In the last few years, you may have even appeared to ‘let yourself go’ to the people who are already part of your organisation. Maybe it’s time for a HR ‘makeover.’

The law of attraction

If you are serious about attracting the best people to your organisation, then you need to develop a strategy to make your organisation an ‘appealing’ place to work. The best way to achieve this result is to implement an ‘employer brand strategy.’

Do the best people even know you exist?

Employers who are successfully attracting the best talent understand where they need to be to find that desired talent and how they need to communicate with them. There has been a fundamental change in the way that organisations communicate and attract potential employees of different generations. Considering that newspapers, online job sites and professional recruitment agencies may be on your radar, you may have overlooked the importance of social media to younger generations. Gen Y not only interacts with friends and colleagues on social media, they also use it as a forum to discuss the organisations they wish to work with. Experienced & highly educated Gen X’s have turned to LinkedIn to network and advance their careers. The question you need to ask yourself (if you haven’t already asked it) is ‘what impression does our social media profile create of our organisation?’

Building an employer brand profile in an era of frictionless communication

People talk. If not face-to-face, they use social media. This can work to your advantage if you’re an employer who recognises and rewards effort, as well as an employer who invests in your employee’s careers. You’d be surprised how quickly the word will get out if you’re doing the best by your employees.

Of course, the inverse is also true. If you don’t have the policies and practices in place that motivate your people, then word will get out. If that happens, you can expect aggressive recruiters to use mediums such as social media to lure away your best people.

Don’t ever let yourself be lulled into a false sense of security about how attractive your organisation is to both your existing and potential employees.

You must always be testing and maintaining your profile and (more importantly) reevaluating internal policies and processes to ensure they are in keeping with the latest best practices employed by the best employers.

What are the foundation stones of a modern employer brand strategy?

Do you have a clearly communicated internal Succession & Career Planning process? Is it supported by a Performance Management process? If not, how are you ensuring your people are not looking elsewhere for career advancement? Survey after survey indicates that learning & development opportunities are important ranking factors for employees, as well as those who are looking for career advancement outside their current organisation. Little will change in the way your employees (and potential employees) view your organisation until you start addressing these issues.

How much will this all cost?

If that’s your first question, you’re looking at this the wrong way. The question you need to be asking yourself is ‘what is the cost to my organisation not having an employer brand strategy?’ If you are like most Australian organisations, your employees are both your most valuable assets and costliest overhead, yet many organisations don’t see developing their people as key to retention and recruitment. This is a dangerously, outdated view of the employment environment. The fact is the investment required to develop and retain your people is a fraction of the cost of trying to recruit new people. What’s more losing people often results in a loss of organisational knowledge and skills.

Should I focus on team or individual development?

The answer is both. Even if your organisation doesn’t have the internal resources or experience to develop and implement your training and development solutions, organisations such as DST people do. DST people have a large, highly qualified and experience national network of trainers with an extraordinary range of specialised training packages. These packages are proven to deliver measurable change in business outcomes, as well as employee and management sentiment.

From workplace conflict management to succession planning, and almost everything in between DST people provides possibly Australia’s most comprehensive range of training and development packages delivered by arguably Australia’s largest, most experienced and highly qualified facilitators. DST people provide solutions that cover both team and individual development & training.
What should be my primary focus of my employer brand strategy?

This will change from organisation to organisation, however one option to begin this process is to meet with an organisation such as DST people to begin the review process. Sometimes it takes someone outside your organisation to give an accurate and frank evaluation of how you currently look to your employees and potential employees. If you would like to find out more call DST people now on 03 9555 9050.