We Have Work to Do

For all our lofty talk about employer branding, employee engagement, communications and change management, and for all the money we’ve been spending on implementing technology, process and workflow, we don’t seem to be tying the two together.

I won’t be commenting heavily on this as I really think you should read the whitepaper of the survey results yourself (here).

• The Review Process Grade: C+ ((SuccessFactors, June 2006. “Wasted Human Capital: The looming Talent Management Crisis in Corporate America.))
  

78% complete company-wide performance reviews annually

72% reported being somewhat satisfied/not very satisfied/extremely dissatisfied

• Setting and Managing Goals and Objectives Grade: D-

35% do not have/do not know if there is a formal method for setting goals and objectives in their organization

58% face challenges tracking employee and department progress against goals

54% face challenges aligning employee goals with corporate strategy

47% face challenges giving employees visibility into management and corporate goals

48% face challenges cascading goals throughout the organization

• Compensation Grade: F

56% reported that less than 50% of their employees are compensated and rewarded based on their performance and goals

• Succession Planning Grade: C+

58% stated that there was no/did not know if their organization has a succession planning strategy in place

48% face challenges with a lack of visibility into employee skills, experience level and career path

46% face challenges with an inability to quickly find a pool of qualified internal candidates for open positions

44% face challenges with a lack of visibility into bench strength for leadership positions.

Obviously SuccessFactors gives their own take on the issues along with some good “solutions.” The bottom line is that either most of these organizations haven’t taken the time to implement good programs (supported by good technology) or they haven’t done an effective job with change management. One way or another, the SuccessFactors solutions are not as easy as they sound. To implement good programs, you’ll need a lot of planning and possibly a lot of help and advice.