What is Hands-on Talent?

Hi - I'm Perry Timms and welcome to the first of my blogs in support of the CIPD’s HRD 2011 conference.  I will be running the Hands-on Talent  (http://tinyurl.com/6f7v724) - focus day on 7 April. If you’ve already signed up to the day, thank you.  If you’re wondering whether to, please give it some consideration – again the CIPD are trying to cater for all practitioner needs with the usual mix of exhibitions, free sessions, masterclasses and this “lock-in” event I’m running.  With the likes of Santander, Cable& Wireless, National Audit Office, University of Lancaster, Tomorrow's Company and Claire McCartney from CIPD, plus a little from my organisation the Big Lottery Fund.  It promises to be a varied, insightful, practical way of spending a day on the hottest people topic around – talent and how we find it, grow it, unleash it and measure the impact of ploying / capitalising on it.  A mixture of inputs from our speakers, peer discussions and exercises will provide you with something where – hopefully – we’ll have “stuffed our pockets” full of useful things to help with us with our talent agendas back at the ranch.

I thought I’d start this blog with my thoughts on what Hands-on Talent actually means to me.  I hope this gives some useful insight, encourages you to come and join in the session and generally sparks some thoughts.

Hands-on – OED Online says this is – Etymology:  < hands, plural of hand n.1+ on prep., on adv.; compare hands off at hand

  a. Involving direct participation in an activity (esp. the use of computers or a computer keyboard), in order to gain practical experience of it; of experience, training, etc.: practical, rather than theoretical or second-hand.

Interestingly, most of this fits with my own definition for hands-on talent which is –

Identified, selected, guided and measured individuals within a workforce, who show high-impact performance and exceptional potential being given the opportunity for structured development; managed actively and practically by HR in partnership with local and corporate management and aligned corporately with current and emerging business priorities.

I think the key words for me are “...managed actively and practically by HR...”  Hands-on for me, is the role HR plays in the process of talent management.  Let’s face it, talent management is not something new per se, but it is an increasingly acknowledged term for structured, focused development to accelerate progression / more quickly exploit people’s skills.  The best managers have been managing their talent in this way for some time now, and of course HR has also been in the mix through L&D interventions, coaching programmes and more.  It’s when HR has a key role in selecting, skilling, nurturing and measuring the impact of talent programmes that the hands-on label is most apt.

Why should HR have their hands on talent?  Surely it’s a business resource and they should have more say, control and utilisation of talented people involved in a programme?  Well it is, but HR has a number of distinguishing elements which supports the view that HR SHOULD manage talent hands-on.  The specialist skills in HR practitioners is one – learning theory and delivery; second is the understanding of people and psychodynamics; and thirdly and most importantly for me – impartiality.  The Business should have lots of input to managing its talent of course.  When we look at corporate bodies though, resource hoarding within divisions is still rife – instead of looking at the best people as a pure corporate resource, many leaders want to retain their best people for their own successes and HR can break down that force field through a corporate approach to skilling and lining up talented people for the greater organisational good and not just for fiefdoms. 

My own experience of hands-on is even more acute than this.  I know – very well – all of our talent programme graduates from 2009 and am getting to know a lot more about the 2010 intake.  Why is that so important to be hands-on in that way?  I not only have developed trust and confidence in the people I develop greater trust in the programme – the stories, examples, general vibe I get from personal interaction with the participants is additional proof the programme is working – or if not, where and how it can be improved iteratively.  I also have access to the talent pool for inclusion in corporate projects and programmes, which effectively means they’re released from any potential hoarding by their local management.  This “special” focus for them also creates a feeling of “first teamers” as opposed to frustrated “back benchers” – they can see that any discretionary effort is rewarded with access to interesting, challenging and high-exposure projects and tasks to further prove themselves and keep their interest in this organisation.  Nothing worse than a coiled spring you never let “boing”...as it’ll spring off to somewhere else..!

I’m now coaching one of the 2009 pool after her “graduation”.  Why is that good for Angela, the organisation and me?  Well, a continuation of the hands-on approach provides further insight for me on how you manage talent once “their” programme is over.  Angela gains through being able to continue to gain from the benefits of coaching.  Let’s face it, even after a talent programme, not everyone can get their dream job within a few months of the programme’s end – so how do we continue to be hands-on even if they’re no longer on the official HR-led programme?  Well I’m finding that out through this mutually beneficial extension.

So that’s my definition of hands-on talent management – HR ACTIVELY managing, being in the driving seat, cutting across organisational boundaries and having 2 interests at heart – (1) the best for the organisation by (2) getting the best from its star people. 

Hope you enjoyed the blog – I’d be interested in any views and look forward to seeing as many people as we can fit into the focus day on 7 April. 

For my next blog I’m looking at the role of formal training (particularly courses) in talent management and predicting the demise of course-based programmes! 

For now, be hands-on,

Perry

Perry Timms is the Head of Talent & OD for the Big Lottery Fund and a regular speaker for, collaborator with and supporter of, the CIPD.  You can follow Perry on twitter at www.twitter.com/PerryTimms and connect with him on LinkedIn of course.