We recently found an interesting discussion on rating scales which is very important when carrying out any form of research in organisations. As Zircon is currently undertaking our own research project into Talent Management, we are very interested to see what is currently being found and discussed. Here are some key pointers from the discussion which are worth noting.

Should the scale be an odd or even one?

Research has shown that an even number of rating points should be used for performance management and assessment. This is to discourage assessors and managers from using the midpoint. Research shows that a five point rating scale tends to have a large cluster around the mean and therefore you cannot differentiate on the basis of performance.

How many rating points should you have?

Research has shown that four or more rating points should be used for assessment and performance management. This is to ensure that the full use of the scale is used. Previous research into the reliability of rating scales, has shown that 2 and 3 points are too few, 4, 5, 6 and 7, are effective and 8 points or more are too many.

Fewer categories limit the ability for the manager or supervisor to make accurate distinctions between employees. With more categories presented to the manager or supervisor, he or she can more accurately categorize the employee’s true performance.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a 5, 4 and 3 point scale

A note on language:

We need to make sure that the language used on the rating scale is even, otherwise we could end up with data that is positively or negatively skewed, i.e. a scale that is not being fully used.

Final Point:

The rating scale chosen by an organisation, can therefore have a great deal of impact on the results that are retrieved.

If you have any questions about research in organisations or Zircon’s Talent Management project, please contact amanda.potter@zircon-mc.co.uk

What does Talent Management mean to organisations, now and in the future?

At Zircon we are currently conducting research (to be completed by March 2012) into how Talent Management is perceived by employees of public, private and non-profit organisations. Zircon are working to learn more about how companies approach Talent Management. The aim of the research is to fully understand how organisations perceive their talent management strategy, its importance and applicability, and the level of return on investment.

We are in the process of inviting and interviewing HR Managers responsible for Talent Management practices, and also Line Managers and Directors who are recipients of these practices from multinational corporations.

We are covering the following topics:

• How do you define Talent Management?
• How important is Talent Management?
• How strategic and planned are your efforts?
• How sustainable are your Talent Management practices?
• How do you measure success?
• How do your Talent Management initiatives create competitive advantage?

Both qualitative and quantitative data is being collected and we are preparing a talent report summarizing the key findings which will be disseminated through conferences and events to share the results found.

We would love your help

We would be very grateful if you would contribute and complete the survey. If this is something that you would be interested in taking part in, please click on the following link to access the online questionnaire 

Click here to take survey

It will take 10 minutes to complete.

Alternatively please contact us if you would prefer to arrange a 15 to 30 minute telephone interview with Amanda Potter to take you through the questions.

ruth.sweetman@zircon-mc.co.uk

The Talent Report

In return for your time, you will be entitled to a copy of the research report you have contributed to, valued at £5,000 and an entry into a prize draw for £100 to be donated to a charity of your choice.

Thank you for your time.

Amanda Potter, Sarah Linton, Julie Lee, Melissa Tyson, Ruth Sweetman, and Sarah Green.

At Zircon we are passionate about being ‘green’ and strongly believe that we have a responsibility to operate as a sustainable business. We have therefore implemented a new Green Policy which aims to communicate to our remote working associates the importance of being ‘green’ and demonstrate to our clients how we seek to minimise our impact upon the environment.

Zircon has set the following standards within the new Green Policy:

Travel
Zircon aims to eliminate carbon emissions, due to travelling, by:
• Sourcing Associates Locally to Our Clients
• Encouraging the Use of Public Transport
• Encouraging Remote Working where Possible

Waste Reduction
Zircon aims to reduce waste at source and some of the ways we do this is by:
• Using Green Methods of Advertising (For example, branded re-usable flash drives
• Only Printing Essential Documents
• Not Using Plastic Cups or Take-away Mugs

Recycling and Re-using
Zircon aims to recycle and re-use items wherever possible by:
• Reusing Waste Paper
• Double Sided Printing
• Using Recycling Bins for plastic, paper and card, glass and food
• Returning Used Ink Cartridges
• Visiting the Free Cycle Website to Advertise Items No Longer Needed http://www.freecycle.org/

Energy Usage
Zircon aims to minimise energy usage by encouraging certain behaviours and has reduced energy usage and carbon emissions by:
• Encouraging Employees to be “Green Aware
• Installing Solar Panels
• Insulating Head Office
• Using Energy Saving Light Bulbs

Zircon’s green policy is our promise to ensure that we continually strive to reduce the impact we have on the environment, not only as a business, but on an individual level as well. If you would like to see a full copy of the policy or if you have any further questions, queries or ideas for the policy please do not hesitate to contact either melissa.tyson@zircon-mc.co.uk or sarah.linton@zircon-mc.co.uk on 01737 555 862.

After another successful year at Zircon we would like to send our biggest Christmas wishes out to all. We hope you have all had a fantastic 2011 and that next year will be even better.

This year Zircon took on a variety of challenges and activities from Talent Management to sailing. We have had some excellent work experience students, focused on going green, and one of our Directors helped to raise £190,000 for Marie Curie by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro! What a Year!

We look forward to seeing you all again in 2012!

The Zircon Team
Amanda, Julie, Sarah, Sally, Melissa, Ruth and Sarah

Dr Amanda Potter arranged for some of the Zircon team to join Heidrick and Struggles on Wednesday 23rd November for Strengthscope Accreditation Training. The training took place at Heidrick & Struggles offices where 15 delegates received training from James Brook (Strengths Partnership).

According to the Strengths Partnership, strengths can be defined as our:

“Underlying qualities that energise us, contribute to our personal growth and lead to peak performance” Brewerton and Brook, 2006

Why are strengths important?

As a result of many years of focusing on development needs and conducting gap analyses, people tend to be very clear and understand their weaknesses very well, however when asked they are less able to identify and discuss their core strengths. According to James and colleagues from the Strengths Partnership, strengths are personal sources of energy.

They claim that by identifying both strengths and competencies, we are able to identify people who are competent at a task, and get energy from it. They are therefore more likely to:

• Move from good to great
• Get through challenging times/pressures
• Overcome performance risks
• Feel more natural and authentic

Strengths give us PACE. They increase Performance, Agility, Confidence and drive, and Engagement.

Strengths in overdrive

It is important to recognise our strengths and use them to compensate for our “weaknesses”. Strengths Partnership define weaknesses as those areas that we may be competent in (e.g. detail) but are not energised by. We therefore need to stretch our strengths in order to achieve higher levels of competence.

However we must also control our strengths so that they do not go into overdrive. When our strengths go into overdrive unintended consequences can occur.

For example, when the strength “Collaboration” is operating at its best, people work collaboratively with others to overcome conflict and work towards a common goal. When this strength is over used people may rely on collaboration or discussion when in fact a quick or straight forward decision is needed.

What are the benefits?

By assessing both strengths and competencies, we are able to identify the areas that individuals are both skilled at and energised by. If we hire, develop, motivate and engage our employees by looking at both competencies and strengths we are more likely to achieve confidence, resilience and success of our employees.

For further information about Strengthscope or how Strengthscope can help you, please contact Amanda Potter – amanda.potter@zircon-mc.co.uk

Written by Ruth Sweetman, Trainee Occupational Psychologist November 2011. ruth.sweetman@zircon-mc.co.uk

At Zircon, we strive to help organisations during times when they need to put their best foot forward. With the use of assessment tools and coaching, we develop strategies that enable businesses to work more effectively, run more smoothly and enable employees to be more efficient.

Having worked through the last three years with clients, the word “redundancy” is not unfamiliar. Organisations are still undergoing a massive amount of change such as; reducing headcount, transferring people to different departments or re-shuffling team structures. Employers need to be aware of the skills and capabilities its employees possess to place them in an environment where they will be most effective. This is where the use of assessment tools can come into play.

What to consider?

Many aspects need to be considered by employers when assessing for redeployment and redundancy. These include: legalities, how to share the unfortunate news of redeployment, the aftermath of redundancies and how to decide who stays and who goes.

The Legalities

Employers are legally responsible to guarantee that their assessment processes and choices are fair. This is vitally important and must be obeyed as it avoids possible claims of discrimination or unfair dismissals. The redundancy procedure must be communicated to trade unions ensuring that fair and just treatment has been provided, decreasing the chance of appeals against the employer’s decisions.

What is being achieved?

Employers must be aware of what they are trying to achieve when making redundancies. A thorough end structure of the organisation must be envisaged and fair practical assessment processes must be selected. It is of utmost importance that the criteria to which employees will be assessed is decided prior to the selection process. This allows for the right assessment tools to be selected. Having the right assessment tools can aid selection of employees tremendously as they can identify key strengths, co-worker relationships and the type of personality an employee possesses.

Communicate!

Communication with employees during redeployment and redundancy is essential. Communication must be clear, consistent and well-timed and it should be used to support employees. An employers’ campaign needs to be planned and executed carefully. Announcements must be made promptly and simultaneously through the business hierarchy (starting with the senior managers to middle level managers to team leaders…). Communicating in this fashion will reduce the chance of information leaking through the office grapevine.

Recognising key competencies

Assessment tools are extremely helpful when trying to discover which employees have the key requirements needed for the new or existing roles. Knowledge of the new or existing job requirements is vital to discover what key strengths or behaviours are necessary for effective performance within the role. To obtain a highly informative profile of the jobs, data collection methods must be implemented on a large scale.

What assessment tools to use?

Employers need to design a fair assessment process; this will inevitably incorporate application forms, interviews and psychometric questionnaires. The tools used must be fair, suitable and appropriate for what is trying to be achieved. For example, psychometrics can be used to obtain an objective measure of employees’ effectiveness within the company which can in turn aid the decision making process.

The aftermath

After redundancies have been made, the effectiveness of the organisation depends upon the remaining employee morale and engagement with company procedures. Employees may feel demoralised and anxious and think they may be next to go. To combat this, enormous amounts of attention must be paid to those still within the company and communication within business hierarchies must be continuous.

Assessment data can be used for personal development and coaching to improve performance and effectiveness. Leavers also require support so that the impact of their redundancies is reduced. Leavers’ assessment data can be used to deliver feedback and to discover which areas are strengths, to aid future development.

At Zircon Management Consulting we understand that times such as these can be a stressful burden on employers and organisations as a whole. We have significant experience of supporting our clients through restructure and redundancy programmes. For further information please contact Dr Amanda Potter on 01737 555 862.

Written by Asha Pattni. Trainee Occupational Psychologist and Melissa Tyson Occupational Psychologist.

Source:

Bradley, H. (2011). Using assessment tools in redeployment or redundancy settings. Assessment and development Matters, 3(1), 2-4.

At Zircon we believe that understanding personality is vital to assessing and developing Talent and we use a number of personality questionnaires in order to achieve this. In a recent blog (“Zircon are bringing in a Strengths Tool to complement our Talent Model”) we reviewed how the personality psychometrics we use at Zircon fit with our model of Talent. One tool we considered was the HDS, which focuses primarily upon ‘dark sides’ that occur as a result of overused strengths.

The HDS tool, published by PCL, was developed through many years of research into the derailment of managers. The HDS tool is used globally and over 500,000 individuals have completed the HDS since it was published in 1997.

Due to the globalisation of the tool, PCL realised that there was a need for consistent Scale names in all cultures and nationalities, to provide a consistent message to all users of the tool. The HDS UK scale names have therefore been adapted to become Global scale names.

We thought we would provide a useful summary of these changes:

At Zircon we understand how important it is to continually update and improve the tools we apply within the business world. We therefore welcome any changes which increase the ease of use and consistency across users.

If you have any questions about how you could use the HDS or other personality tools within your organisation, please contact Dr Amanda Potter amanda.potter@zircon-mc.co.uk

On Wednesday 5th October Zircon Consultants Sarah Linton, Melissa Tyson and Ruth Sweetman attended the Saville Talent Development Day at Twickenham Stadium. The day was opened by Gabrielle Parry, Regional Director at Saville Consulting, followed by a morning of workshops.

What we learnt

During the event Saville recommended three key areas to focus on when selecting a personality questionnaire for assessment or development:

1. Make sure that the business competencies or capabilities are clearly mapped to the psychometric tool being used (e.g. Wave) before it is selected.

2. Make sure that the most critical capabilities are measured by the psychometric tool and that there is a clear correlation between the business and role requirements and the psychometric tool. By doing this you will ensure the validity of the assessment process.

3. Make sure the capabilities define the future requirements of the role and that Wave or any other tool is mapped to these future requirements, this will help to ensure the longer term shelf life of the assessment process and decision.

About Wave

Zircon are a strong supporter of the Wave personality questionnaire and use it to support our client talent management practices in particular, assessment for recruitment, development, succession planning and high potential identification.

Wave assesses four clusters or areas of personality. The factors of personality include: to a) thought, b) influence, c) adaptability, d) delivery. Within each cluster there are 3 areas of measurement.

In summary these include:

a) Thought: Evaluative, Investigative and Imaginative.
b) Influence: Sociable, Impactful and Assertive.
c) Adaptability: Resilient, Flexible and Supportive.
d) Delivery: Conscientious, Structured and Driven.

For further information about how we use Wave and other Bright Side personality measures as part of our Talent Management practices please contact amanda.potter@zircon-mc.co.uk.

A survey of 551 senior managers in the life sciences industry by RSA (a strategic partner of Zircon) revealed that over three quarters of the respondents are not managing their talent effectively. The survey revealed that:
• 90% of respondents to the survey said that talent management is crucial to their operations,
• 77% are not managing their talent effectively

According to RSA, companies are neglecting talent management as a result of a squeeze on budgets and the continuing impact of market change.
• 78% of reducing workforce numbers has been cited as one major factor
• 66% of respondents to the survey have seen reviews or restructures at their companies in the last 18 months.

Comparing results from the same survey carried out last year, this year more companies admitted that they use no formal talent assessment exercises to identify which employees will face redundancy
• 62% faced redundancy in 2010
• 79% faced redundancy in 2011

The relationship between HR and the business side of companies seems to be improving. However, RSA’s survey found that:
• In 2010 only 24% of executives felt that their HR departments had a clear understanding of the skills the organisation needs in five years time,
• In 2011 the percentage rose to 40%.
• 69% of managers also believed that HR would play a key role in redefining long-term resourcing needs.

Respondents also said that they were more likely to “buy in” talent, rather than develop existing employees. Senior positions are being filled quicker this year:
• In 2010, it took six months or longer to fill senior vacancies in 71% of cases, and this had plummeted to 11.5% in 2011, with 41% now in place in less than three months.

Nick Stephens, CEO of RSA commented: “The continuing pressures of the recession and major market change are forcing businesses and their HR departments to focus on short-term fixes, rather than long-term strategy.”

He added: “The situation has actually worsened since 2010, with a widening gap between actual and best practice when it comes to managing and developing staff.”

Written by George Archer, The Manufacturer, 28th September 2011.
Adapted to Blog by Sally Castles, 25th October 2011.

Increasingly Zircon Consultants are finding that our clients are asking for us to design Capability models rather than Competency models. So what is the difference? Ruth Sweetman our trainee Psychologist has done some research to understand the difference. We have found that the research is rather contradictory, while some authors use the two terms interchangeably others believe there is a real difference. We have therefore created a definition from our research and experience of working with clients in this area to help clarify the difference.

Competency: – A competency model describes the behaviours and skills required to excel and succeed, in other words how an organisation desires their people to interact and behave. They enable mutual understanding of what effective looks like in order to help people understand their strengths and development gaps.

Capability: – A capability model tends to measure organisational attributes rather than people attributes. Dave Ulrich defines these as “the firm’s ability to manage people to gain competitive advantage”. Capable people demonstrate the skills and behaviours required in the role, whilst at the same time having high levels of self-efficacy. They know how to learn, they work well with others, they are creative and, most importantly, they are able to use their competencies in novel as well as familiar circumstances. They demonstrate the behavioural competencies, whilst being capable in the role.

Indeed Blumberg (2011) and Myszak (2011) suggest that People Competencies should be defined in addition to Organisational Capabilities. Blumberg (2011) also challenges that demonstrating a capability does necessarily mean they have a high level of performance. We also need Key Performance Drivers (KPDs). KPDs to ensure that capable behaviour is valid and therefore has a positive impact on performance. High capability in areas not related to the KPDs do not therefore produce high performance. Blumberg (2011) therefore proposes the following model when defining Competencies or Capabilities.

Competencies -> Organisational Capabilities -> Key Performance Drivers (KPDs) -> Performance

Both competency and capability models therefore describe the factors that differentiate the best from the rest, however capability models go that one step further and describe the behaviour required beyond competence, it is therefore a more stretching and aspirational model than a competency model.

It must be noted however, that the most critical element of both competency and capability models are that they are future focused. Both models need to focus on the future requirements of the business, on change and how employees need to deal with these unfamiliar circumstances.

We at Zircon make sure that both our Capability and Competency models can measure future behaviour by conducting strategic visioning interviews with the business leaders at the start of the project. These interviews are designed to understand the strategy, goals, objectives and future requirements of the business and the way people need to behave; the skills they need to demonstrate and the knowledge they need to display to succeed and exceed in the future.

If you would to talk to our consultants about how to design either a competency or capability model, please contact Dr Amanda Potter.

Written by Ruth Sweetman and Dr Amanda Potter. October 2011.

Sources:
Max Blumberg and Anders Myszak (2011). Linked in discussion, Accessible at:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=77486232&gid=116754&commentID=56357981&trk=view_disc&ut=3OhGkIG4r_F4Y1

Ulrich, D. Cited in Center for Creative Leadership & Vangent (2007). Executing Organizational Strategy: Achieving Success through Talent Management.
The Oxford Dictionary (2011), Accessible at: http://oxforddictionaries.com/