Do you know the way forward for evaluating your company’s Performance Management processes? In today’s content, we will talk about what we call Talent Science. Read this article and check it out!
Talent Science, what is it?
Talent Science is the process that a company goes through to evaluate the results obtained through Performance Management, along with some observations that are made to evaluate the needs of today’s workforces, looking to unite a compilation of practices that meet the needs linked to decision making within the organization.
Therefore, Talent Science is a set of actions and principles aimed at the people sector that make up the organizational and business system, working within a culture of high meritocracy and performance, with highly qualified professionals who are committed to their positions in the company.
With these sets of practices, it is possible to meet the Performance Management needs of organizations (decision making and employee development) effectively, and can be defined by 6 pillars:
- Ongoing;
- Aligned;
- Social;
- Constructive;
- Efficient;
- Insightful;
- Talent-centered.
Ongoing on Talent Science
Employee development needs to be a constant in the company, so that the feedbacks show efficient results.
Aligned
The Performance Management practices act by unifying the purpose of the employees within the company. The flow of the practices and duties within it takes place as the employees understand the greatness of the principles that rule the organization, thus embracing its cause.
Social
Here, we understand that engagement and alignment make your practices more social. Reinforcing the culture and habit of employees, praising each other, and inspiring each other, increases the feeling of contribution, encouraging employees and getting the desired results.
Constructive
The focus of this stage of Talent Science is Performance Management, in which the company understands that the stimuli need to be totally focused on the development of employees and leaders, feeding a coaching culture, and leading them to high performance.
Improving focus on results while learning to prioritize the week’s focuses, keeping in mind the impacts of these actions on the company, is highly constructive and points to where to go, thus improving increasingly in this aspect.
Efficient
Time is money and nobody wants to lose time nor money. Time-consuming actions no longer fit into the reality of companies. Projects need to be fast, objective, and effective. It is no longer usual to spend a week analyzing ineffective evaluations. Today, what makes sense is to invest 10 minutes a week giving some feedbacks to generate results and stimulate the employee.
Insightful
The people process should help both employees and companies, which need to have a wealth of data if they are to evolve their practices and processes.
Talent-centered
The people practice must be adjusted according to the requirements of the primary customers, scientifically thinking of each persona as being ideal for the company’s tasks. In this case, the customer is the employee, and the entire process must be perfected to meet his needs. In this sense, knowing what they are helps you find the root of their needs and work accordingly.
All other stakeholders (strategic audience or interest group) in the process (company and HR) take a back seat. The same reasoning must apply to the decision-making processes, which have the company as the end user. Still, both groups must be completely fulfilled in their expectations.
To create a high-performance environment, the first step is to ensure that there are two main ingredients that will be supported by the practices:
Accountability
Through Talent Science, Accountability develops with clarity of goals, expectations, and accountability at all levels of the company. This helps in stipulating goals, agile and public accountability.
Constructive Conflict
It is developed through a culture of argument exchange and feedback based on culture values, competencies, goals, responsibilities, and expectations among all members of the organization.
What is the impact of Talent Science for companies?
As professional development in a company is ruled by meritocracy, it generates the following impacts:
- Fixed compensation increases for talent retention;
- Promotions and lateral moves, when there are vacancies to be filled (whether following a career plan or not);
- Profit sharing and other structured bonuses when there is a program (and profit);
- Long-term incentives.
When the employee is under these incentives, growing through meritocracy, the return this employee gives to the company is remarkably high, mainly because he/she is always engaged in reaching the goals, collaborating with the company’s growth ideals, and reviewing their efforts through feedbacks.
Talent Science Practices
As we mentioned before, Talent Science is a segment composed of a compilation of people practices that make up a meritocracy and high-performance culture in the company. These practices have as main results:
Recognition: when the company recognizes outstanding contributions – aligned to the goals of the company, of teams and employees; and how this helps the company grow and stand out in the job market and in customer relations
Development: the moment when the focus is on improving the performance of employees (in terms of business results and behaviors);
Alignment: making clear and defining the priorities of the company, teams, and employees, (in terms of business results and behaviors).
Development
When it comes to development, it is inevitable that people think of training. And the word “training” at once brings up costs, budgets, complex learning management systems, and content production.
But it goes beyond this. Development begins with the manager’s direction, personally and setting up priorities for the employees, giving feedback, and helping them to achieve his results.
When the manager understands that the employee’s development begins first with the interpersonal relationship preceding the courses and lectures offered by the company, he achieves the commitment and the sense of belonging of his employee to the organization. This ends up becoming a powerful weapon, resulting in good returns for the company when courses and promotions are invested in employee development.
Your company can begin to set up some sort of process (whether written or spoken) in which the manager evaluates the employee’s performance (what worked and what didn’t), directing them to improvements (what they must start doing, stop doing, and keep doing).
In this way, every employee in your company must talk to their manager at least 4 times a year about it:
- Feedback: What worked and what didn’t work since the last conversation;
- Feedforward: What should change (what the employee should start doing, stop doing and keep doing);
- Priorities: What are the goals, objectives, and priorities that the employee should pursue until the next conversation.
Check-Ins in Talent Science
Check-in is the standard model of Performance Management at Talent Science and the first practice that should be adopted by a company. This model resembles the traditional Performance Appraisal model, in which the employee’s performance is evaluated.
The difference is that here, check-ins work based on the “spin” between performance management cycles: the times when expectations are set, and managers evaluate the employee’s performance in face of them.
So, the basic structure of the Check-In model looks like this:
- Feedbacks:assessment of the employee’s past performance , i.e., since the last check-in;
- Feedforwards: how the employees can improve in the areas in which they did not meet the expectations set in the past cycle;
- Expectations: a redefinition of the company’s expectations for the employee, in terms of business results – the goals – and development – the Development Plan.
Through the Talent Science Check-In model, the manager and their subordinates should perform 4 check-ins per year.
- Employee reflection form (from manager to employee)
- 1 – What were the results and deliveries achieved in the last X months?
- 2 – In what does the employees think they need to improve (results and behavior)?
3 – What is the employee doing well? (Behavior and results)
4 – What are the priorities for the next cycle?
Employee reflection form
Talent Science Alignment
It is the second pillar of the Talent Science method. The alignment practices can help to make the discussion between leader and manager completer and more precise.
For a company to start moving towards high performance, it is ideal that the entire team knows what the direction is and what their individual and team roles are in this journey.
Have you ever heard of OKRs?
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. This is a business philosophy whose purpose is to walk on meaningful ideals in which, for example, employees know where the company is going, what its market-level power is, along with how important it is to the company.
Thus, one of the strategies for measurable and unfolding high performance is to know exactly where the company is going within the performance and contribution both in individual and group performance.
Corrective ORKs are how it becomes possible to realize strategies and measurable goals, allowing this to flow from the action and agreement of the company’s management team or group, together with its employees.
The goal is to:
Increase the profitability of the company;
Increase the company’s net profit by 10%.
Recognition
Recognition practices are classified into two pillars. The first is the recognition that takes place from day to day in the organization (the one that occurs spontaneously, through relationships and group fluidity within the company); and the one known as structured, or the one achieved through meritocracy, allowing the one who stands out to benefit from his acts and good performance, achieving for himself bonuses, promotions, and a variety of opportunities.
Put Talent Science into practice in your company
Relying on technology is very important to organize processes and execute methodologies, and this is no different for Talent Science.
Actio Software has software for Performance Management developed based on all the expertise of Falconi, the largest business consultancy in Brazil.
Access the website right now and take a Performance Management assessment to find out what your company's needs are on the subject and speak to our expert consultants.
