Building a resilient workforce: a case study from the LPGA

In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world of work, it’s critical for companies to help their workforce develop the right skills so they can face challenges and uncertainty. It’s equally important to help employees build resilience to help them navigate life in a more balanced and healthy way.

Making better recruitment, promotion, deployment and development decisions is an area that can have a significant impact on business results and employee wellbeing.

The power of insights

While employers are tasked with building an agile and high-performing workforce, many lack the objective, complete picture – the insights – needed to make truly informed decisions about their employees. The cost of making poor decisions can be very costly for corporations, individuals and society.

Our state-of-the-art assessment, reward and performance analytics and tools help leaders make these decisions (combined with their own knowledge of individuals, teams and client needs) by delivering insights and advice that help minimize risk and maximize performance.

“The cost of making poor workforce decisions can be very costly for corporations, individuals and society”

For example, our Adaptive Employee Personality Test (ADEPT-15?) (see link in the comments section for more info) takes a scientific, trait-led approach to measuring the core behaviors required for success across all roles within an organization.

By uncovering the unique aspects of an individual’s personality, it augments data around experience and education. This in turn moves us into the realms of skills, potential and behaviors, which we are finally seeing blossom in the market.

Working with the LPGA

Since 2019 we have collaborated with the LPGA on a season-long competition called the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, which tracks the performance of players on the most strategically challenging holes on each tour.

To further assess player performance and potential, in 2022 we utilized data from ADEPT-15? to create ‘success profiles’ that identified high performers on the Epson Tour (the official feeder tour into the LPGA) and LPGA Tours.

Using these insights we helped identify the players and coaches with the highest potential for improvement. This in turn enabled a more tailored approach to existing athlete development programs and services.

Initial results of the study suggest that the traits of top-performing female golfers include ambition, consistency, self-awareness, and independence, as well as being composed, positive and seeing the big picture. We have seen strong predictive indicators for success – for both individuals and teams.

From golf to the corporate world – the ‘so what?’

Different skill sets and behaviors are obviously required to perform in different contexts. So, while the primary focus of the Aon Risk Reward Challenge was on predicting success and trying to enhance performance on the golf course, we are now also switching our attention – using the same data insights – to help re-skill and re-deploy those athletes (and potential employees) that don’t quite break into the main tour, but have demonstrated other skills and potential that could prove invaluable in a corporate setting.

“Given the small number of people that ever reach elite status, those that don’t represent a significant and highly desirable potential talent pool if we can support their transition”

This helps the world of sport, the corporate world, individuals and society.

Given the small number of people that ever reach elite status, those that don’t make the cut represent a significant and highly desirable potential talent pool if we can support their transition.

More to come on this important body of work!

These insights, when used properly, are essential for making the right decisions for each individual – and ultimately setting them, the sport and / or the company, up for success.

As a keen amateur golfer, I’m personally very proud of all the work that Aon is doing with the Epson and LPGA Tours to help professional golfers be the best they can be. It’s very satisfying to see real-world outcomes of this research and I look forward to sharing more insights as the study continues.

Would you like to know more?

If you’d like to find out more about our work with Epson and the LPGA, or about how we can help you measure and develop the core behaviors for success in your business, please reach out to the team or me.

#BetterDecisions #PerformanceManagement?#WorkforceResilience #LPGA